I'm OK with Digging a Hole for Ourselves

Over the past few months, as I have visited with so many of you, been in meetings and conversation with our leadership, and continuing last night at our charge conference session, I have been awed and inspired by the passion so many of you have for the future of our congregation.  We are, as you have heard me and others say, moving the conversation into where we God is taking us, and I have no doubt of our potential.

It's because of my conviction of the potential of our future that I have no problem with telling you that one of the ways in which we will be moving forward is to literally dig a hole for ourselves.

Yes, the people who will be digging our new well will be on the premises for a few days over the next week to ten days.

Walking around our property this morning looking at where this well will be dug (not too far from the existing one), I couldn't help but think about the fact that the current well was dug long, long ago.  I began to think about who all has benefited from the water of that well over the decades that it has been there, and I started to think about what a powerful image that is for us as we move forward.

This new well will be dug less than 25' from our existing well, and will draw from the same source that we are now.  With the improved technologies and all that has been learned from the art of well-digging and servicing, there's no doubt that the result will be the same - water.

The church has taken on many forms and many expressions in the 2,000 years since it was founded on Pentecost.  However, our source remains the same - a loving, gracious, extravagant God who generously gave us salvation through Christ our Lord and enables us to carry forward through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Every now and then, a church may have to dig a new well to access the same water.  It's ok.  The important thing is that we will drink.  

Whether through old wells or new, may your thirst be quenched - your physical, spiritual, and emotional thirst - by Christ our Lord.  What wells of God are you drawing from today so that you don't die of thirst?  What wells do you need to replace because your current one has so much sand in it that you aren't sure how long it will last?

Grace and Peace, Lamar