Thursday, April 21, 2005

Remodeling at home and church

I see it ahead! The light at the end of the kitchen remodeling project...

Today the drawers have been returned and all the painting is completed. Applicances have been released from their plastic protective coverings and the whole thing is starting to look pretty good. By the middle of next week the kitchen should be usable again. Now I'm getting impatient for the final result.

Construction is always a messy process. El Jefe can hardly bear to look while it is underway. This weekend we are escaping the kitchen chaos with a little spring road trip.

The progress I saw when I got home cheered me up as I returned from another "remodeling" project that promises to take much more time, stress and prayer. Today I was in a very long meeting where the subject was a discussion of growth in the church. Growth and change can be as messy and difficult in the church or any other organization as it is in your home. It may be easy to draw up a blueprint for growth or change but it's hard to live through it. That's why people prefer to remodel BEFORE they occupy a home if they can. It would be so much easier to try to make changes that will grow the church if we didn't have to continue to BE the church while we did it, wouldn't it?

But there's the rub. We don't get that option if we're faithful: we have to try to live with the chaos the Holy Spirit may lead us through and pray that we are following where the Spirit leads.

So I'm feeling less stressed about my kitchen remodeling than I am about the prospect of "remodeling" the church. The kitchen project is finite, but the church is eternal. I can see the result of my plans at home, but may never be sure that the plans we are trying to develop for the church will be completed.

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