"Tethered......."

”And the Word became flesh, and moved into the neighborhood”…..sign on the secretary’s desk at Englewood Christian church in Indianapolis”

I stumbled upon the above quote early this morning and borrowed it from a Chaplain Mike post over at Internet Monk. Interesting to me, in reading about that particular congregation, their registered membership comes to only about 180 people who regularly attend services. My own bunch here in northern Kentucky numbers close to 800 almost any Sunday evening, filling the sanctuary twice in the morning and claiming perhaps as many as 3000 or more who have signed the attendance sheet at one time or another. How we compare to these Hoosiers in accomplishing outreach is debatable; but, then, competition isn’t what it’s all about, at least not in my book. We are not called to imitate each other, but to be vessels used by Him, each of us individual in our divine assignment, all of us made one by His Spirit directing our efforts. It is that “umbilical cord anchor-line” that we need to know in where we go and what we do, our knowledge of Him more than just some totem pole we’ve put together out of chapter and verse. Admittedly, it’s always a stumble down the path, our humanity yet part of any progress. Ignorance may buy us grace (I am reminded of our pastor’s story concerning his grandparents flight to visit Israel, both already three or four hours into it, over the Atlantic, and grandma informing her spouse several times of her need to visit the restroom. The old man gets agitated by so many announcements, repeatedly telling her to just “go!” She finally asks where it is and, when he replies that it is in the rear of the plane, she inquires as to which end is the rear); but if it’s grounded in a lack of thirst to know His voice, a contentment with our own state of righteousness, we have no excuse. The two young fish borrowed from Whiskey River to introduce my last post were clueless to the very water that was vital to their existence. How many in our world likewise consume the oxygen around them as if eternity was guaranteed, life nothing more than whatever contentment they possess with the present moment? How many, weekly, occupy a pew?......