An apology

a Jesus thought...
So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

a Godly thought...
Leaders who aspire to project a something-other-than-human image need to lighten up and realize that they are still clothed in flesh. And the rest of us need to recognise that those we look to for leadership and sometimes revere are ordinary folk who get tired, fed up, bored, upset and atheistic once in a while. (p28 Lucas)

a leading thought...
Encouragement is one of the premier functions of leadership. I have come to believe strongly that people can never be encouraged too much. (p55 Finzel)
a Dave thought...
Speaking at the recent Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels (founder of Willow Creek) honestly assessed his own church:
Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.
Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research “the wake up call” of his adult life.
Hybels confesses:
We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.
In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.

I’m an admirer of Bill for his honesty and willingness to admitting the past mistakes they have made investing in a program –driven church. We as the Salvos also need to look into where we are investing our time and energy and remember the definition of insanity – is doing the same things and expecting different results. So lets put our dollars and officers into the things that count – saving & discipling people so we too have no regrets when we one day look back and assess our church.

Just a thought.