NEVER GIVE UP. LEARN TO ADJUST.

My target this morning is those of you who have about had it with some one, some thing, or some...something regarding church.  During my earlier years of ministry I wasn't aware of this which I am about to share.  I had to learn it through repeated conflict and failure.

As a brash young minister equipped with Bible answers galore, I took my family off to Kahoka, MO. to a congregation of eight adults.  It was a disappointing year of ineffectivity on my part.  Next, I moved to Quincy, IL. where I lasted two years.  But eventually a conflict on a larger scale awaited.

In the midst of that struggle I was invited to move to Tulsa to preach for the Memorial Drive Church of Christ.  Totally afraid because I didn't know how to manage the previous congregational struggles, against my better judgment, I accepted the Tulsa invitation.  Immediately, I found I had linked up with a hornets nest of bickering and division that made my former congregations look like Country Clubs.

I was, at that point, 0-3.  Failure was my resume.  Foolish innadequacy appeared to be my trademark.  No wonder (as I learned years later) so many in the Dallas area where I attended a small school didn't believe that I could make it as a minister.

What's very strange is that, simultaneously, during my rough introductory years at MD, I was receiving an exaggerated amount of invitations to move to preach for other congregations.  For these, I was grateful.  But, I decided that there was something seriously wrong with me.  To move, if I didn't make adjustments, would only create failure number 4.  So, I stayed where I was to learn about myself; my flaws, my inhibitions, my extreme immaturity.  Honestly, I was afraid.

I learned, though, to never give up.  Rather, I learned to adjust within myself before one can expect others to take similar action.  I stayed to learn what was lacking in me.  I stayed to learn what it meant to endure.  I learned.

I learned that we were operating under much Church of Christ law; rather than the Bible that we promoted.  I learned that change doesn't come easily; but with patience, it gets here.  I learned that people want to move forward in God; but are not sure if or how.  I learned that leadership that matters can be very lonely.  I learned that building up others boomerangs into a new kind of joy.

So, I say to preacher or member who is about to believe that you obviously have nothing to offer for you've gotten the clear message that you can't cut it...stop.  Stop and ask yourself the following:
       (1)  Is there anything at the moment where you are believing that if others would wake-up, church would be better?
       (2)Do you have names in mind of some who are holding the church back?
       (3)And who has the greater faith...your regarded enemies that things must stay the same or you as you believe the entire landscape can change?

Who has the greater faith.  Them or you?  I was faced with this very question and concluded that I had developed an attitude of "I can't...it won't work".  I was the problem; not my opponents. 

It was me who didn't have this wild faith I assumed I possessed.  It was me who needed to change first.  Others steadily made their own adjustments.  God breathed life into us! The Spirit of God received an invitation to join us.  I continue to celebrate!

Never give up young leader or old member.  Never give up.  The empty grave is His calling card...and it is now ours.  Believe.  Really.  Big.  Possibility changes the world!