A new thing

Let me share with you what I sensed the Lord saying to us as a congregation (I talked about this last Sunday in our corporate prayer time).

God is in the midst of doing a new thing.

Obviously, one of the new things that God is going to do is to help us to move our church campus to another town, Orland Park.

That is huge in and of itself.

New campus
New town

And now we are challenged to bring on new staff.

But the "newness" that God is going to bring will be deeper than that.

God is going to give us a new sense of His Spirit, His Presence in our lives.

And....God is going to give us new direction.

I'm not quite sure how to articulate it yet with words, but there is within my spirit and distinct rumbling of the fact that God is going to lead us to new heights, a new ministry capability.

Isaiah 43:18, 19, tell us, "Forget the former tings; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

In a sermon John Ortberg once reflected on one of the greatest enemies of the human spirit.

It's a worthy goal for us as a congregation in 2010.

Ortberg writes:

"For many years, Max Depree was the CEO of an innovative Fortune 500 company called Herman Miller. Depree has written classic books on leadership and anchored the board of trustees at Fuller Seminary for 40 years. Max is asked to speak a lot about leadership, and at one session somebody asked him what the most difficult thing was that he personally had to work on. This was Max's response: "It's the interception of entropy."

Entropy is a term from physics that has something to do with the second law of thermodynamics and the availability of energy. It speaks to the fact that the universe is winding down. It's the idea that everything that is left to itself has a tendency to deteriorate.

Entropy. It's not only one of the great enemies of the universe; it's one of the great enemies of the human spirit. A person becomes apathetic or complacent or settles for the path of least resistance in some area of life. Dreams die and hopes fade.

A terrible thing happens: a person learns they can live with mediocrity.

Entropy is a great enemy of the human spirit, so the writers of the Book of Proverbs have a lot to say about it. One thing they say is that the wise person is always on the lookout for early signs that entropy is setting in.

Proverbs 27:23-24 shows us the picture of someone who has livestock and how they need to monitor its condition.

Though the words speak of livestock, they are true in any area of life:

"Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations."

Everyday you have to be on the lookout for entropy. Though things might have been okay yesterday, that doesn't mean they stay okay forever.

Put any important area of your life on autopilot, and risk entropy that is both subtle and destructive."

I'm am thrilled that God is going to take us to places we have never gone before as a church family!