Reading the Signs

Last week my secretary said something that I had been thinking but had been almost afraid to say myself. She said that ever since our day of prayer and fasting, things have been happening around here, and there is a different kind of energy in the air.

Several weeks ago we called our little congregation to a day of prayer and fasting. We had plenty of people who agreed to participate, and it has been very exciting to me to see what has happened since then. We've had a steady stream of visitors. We've added a couple new families to our fellowship. Several people are considering or have already started new missional efforts in their neighborhoods.

Not everything has been good, of course. Our new website was hacked last week, just a short time after the new changes went live. Our main web guy, my friend Dan, is still trying to get the site back up. But even that event is kind of interesting. I mean, we've been on the web for years without incident. We launch a revision of the site designed to reflect our missional goals and nature, and within weeks we are attacked. This happens even as focus group of some of our newest members were affirming how important an effective webiste is to their finding and choosing a church of which to be a part. It makes me think the enemy is unhappy with what we are doing, and that can only be good.

Here's the thing, though... what we are doing is simply leaving our path open so we can be led where God wants us to go. This, as opposed to setting up our program and asking God to bless what we are doing. Some of the things that are developing will, no doubt, eventually be represented in "program" form, but hopefully their development will be more spirit centered and organic.

I find that genuine ministry seems to be happening in some unexpected places, and that we, as an organization, have less direct control over these things. I think this is healthy, and I'm watching with anticipation to see where some of these things go.

Yesterday, I received a particularly encouraging affirmation. My wife and I got to have lunch with a couple of our newest members. After sharing with me how some things I had been speaking about interacted rather profoundly with things the Spirit had been leading them in, she shared with me an observation that I agree with, but would not have put half as well. "For some reason," she said, "God's attention is focused on this church."