Searching for Bright Spots
Our natural tendency is to focus on the negative in life. This is seen in marriages, churches, and jobs. It is a powerful force of negativity in life. It can start to take hold of a person and cause some serious problems. In the church, this is especially true. People general look at the negative or the problems in a congregation. From my experience, no congregation is problemless and no congregation is perfect. In most cases, you have to make the mental choice to focus on the positive or the negative.
For an example, the congregation at Castle Rock has shifted evening services to 1:30pm. This was done to help those who travel some distance as well as free up time for families in the evening. It was done on a trial bases to make sure if there was problems we could address them and we could improve it. We saw this time shift as somewhat as a inconvenience because of the cutting into nap time for the kids, but once again God provided the reason for the shift. Yesterday, our nighbors had a huge block party for the street. Typically we would have missed this time together, but because of the time shift, we were able to attend. This was a huge event to show our love to our community. It was a great missional opportunity and Charity and I saw the work of the Lord in this.
In a congregation, I really believe we do not give enough credit to God in change. It might be a small change, and we can debate about it, and resist it, but we must allow room for God to world. The more that I see God working, the more I realize that God is always up to something, and in most cases He can bring a positive in some of the worst cases. People, look for the bright spots in your churches. You can start to see them if you look, they are all around us. I believe that God always blessings us when we are seeking to move for Him. We can choice what we focus on, look for the bright spots, if we do, we will see the Lord.
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Very good observations, Matthew. One of the men in our congregation begins his men’s Bible study with the question, “What good thing has God been doing in your life this week?” Everyone takes a turn in answering the question before moving on to the lesson. It might be a good idea to start my day with a prayer like, “Lord, help me to see the good that you are doing around me today.”
I like the talk about seeing God at work…we’re just too often like that blind man in Mark who couldn’t see clearly even though the Son of God was right in front of him.
Grace and peace,
Rex