by Pastor Terri Cummins
“Faith and Fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose!”
I recently attended an online training titled “Dare to Dream.” The facilitator asked us to really look at our church with honest eyes and then do some visioning. Where do you see strengths in your church, where do you see cracks and failures? Then she asked us to do some visioning….. Where/how can we build on our strengths and repair the cracks? And then, she asked us to do something unique. She said, “Imagine that you do this whole vision thing, and it takes off and it’s a raging success. And then, imagine that you’re standing in the future looking back – Look at how you partnered with God before your dream. Describe the growth in your partnership with God. What amplified your partnership? What will you see?
This made me realize something. As I did my visioning…as I looked at where we are (as much as I know at this early stage of my re-ministry with Claybanks), I realized that I was seeing where I wanted us to be….and where YOU have been telling me you would like to be. Most of you have indicated that you are content where we are, except you would like to have a few more folks who are willing and able to do some of the work of the church. Some of you have indicated that you miss the children and would like to see a few families with children worshiping here. But the majority of you are content and happy with the status quo.
So, when I attended this training and worked along with the others, and especially during the time of visioning….I struggled. How can we fulfill Jesus’s instruction and call if we just continue our status quo? Shouldn’t we be doing more to reach up and out? And then, when I tried to answer her question of how we partnered with God….I realized that my dream for Claybanks and your dreams for Claybanks may not necessarily be where God would like us to be. He has blessed us with lots of gifts and strengths that we aren’t fully using. We have dreams….but they’re not big enough…..they’re not Jesus sized dreams!
Does that scare you? It does me! Jesus seized dreams!!!! I love our little family church. I love how we interact with and care for each other. I even love the status quo. But I believe that Jesus wants us to do more! I believe that He wants us to open up to “possibilities” and He wants us to reach out to others with purpose and vision! He wants us to share ourselves and our love of Him!
I promise you, I don’t plan to try to change everything tomorrow, and I won’t try to run away with our church. Lol. But, I will continue my prayers over this. I will, in the coming months, share with you all some of the instructions I received at this training. I hope you will hear it and pray about it too. We need to figure this out together. But we also need to….together….think, pray, vision, work…toward a Jesus sized commitment and path forward. I’m excited! I’m terrified! I’m committed. We can DO this!
Claybanks United Methodist Church 