I've spent some time in reflection this week on how much I pay attention to the "small stuff" that doesn't matter as opposed to the "small stuff" that does. We are working extremely hard at church to really reach out to people in our community and as a result, I've noticed that we can find any number of really small excuses to encourage discouragement and foster a spirit of helplessness.
We had a great idea brought forth to host a Valentines banquet for the needy in our community. Romantic dinner for the adults and pizza and games for their kids, (built in child care). We ( and I'm using a very broad brush here) started out very enthusiastic and then the little things began to take their toll. We didn't organize like we should have. We didn't look at our audience and cater specifically to them as opposed to what was convenient for us. We also allowed our thinking to move towards the old "they will be grateful and flock to us just because it's free" ideal that has consistently hurt many churches in the past.
I say all of that and it sounds like the banquet was a total bust and no one attended and all was doom and gloom. Nay, nay. We had several families show up and all those that attended enjoyed good food and fun and frivolity was had by all. Afterwards, however we slunk back into negativity about why more didn't attend and what were we going to do with all the extra, etc.
I don't know. I just see the small things dragging us down and away from the bigger picture that in order to help people, sometimes you have to be willing to be let down a little.
Enough venting for now. More on this later.
Chris
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