A Prayer Request

I've got another trip out of town coming up, and as much as I look forward to learning, hanging out with friends and colleagues, and being challenged spiritually and intellectually, I'm not a fan of the travel thing. I'm one of those people who likes getting to be in other places, I just don't always like the getting there part. Here's hoping that they perfect the Star Trek transporter one of these days and can just zap us from here to there without any delay, detours or Deer Lodge.

A few years ago, we went to the Region pastor's retreat in Post Falls, and we drove. There were eight of us in a big, 12 passenger van, and we stopped to get gas and dinner in Deer Lodge, Montana. What began as a pit stop ended up being an extended stay. While we waited for dinner at the local bar and grill, we saw the three quarters of a football game and half of the movie, "The Blues Brothers." I've had slow service before, but this was way beyond anything we could have imagined. On the way out of town, we found there was a whole other part of town that included three fast food places where we could have been in, out and gone. To this day, the folks on that trip will talk about going somewhere and hoping to avoid another Deer Lodge.

I'm also not much on the journey in my life. I like to get places, learn what I need to learn, whatever it is in a big hurry, then be done with it. I'm not one for the slow cruise, the scenic route or anything when it comes to God working in my life. But there's my way, and then there's God's way, and between the two, God's way is better. I want to learn more quickly; God wants it to sink in more deeply. I want it to be over with in a hurry; God wants it to be fastened in tightly. I want instant; God wants constant. More often than not, I lose, but I go down fighting.

This Sunday I'm finishing up the series on God's Game Plan, and the last message is one that God has been simmering in my heart for months. I didn't realize that it was going to come out this week, but the time was right, and it was totally in line with the context of what we've been talking about. The message is going to be about unity in the church. And because of that, I expect that there will be resistance on many levels and many fronts. I'm sure that some folks will be concerned that I'm talking about them. I'm sure Satan, who loves it when we fight with each other, will make sure to stir up trouble ahead of and behind this message. I'm sure that I will feel more than once that I should go a different direction.

But I'm asking for your prayers this weekend, because this might be the most important message I give all year. We're right in front of a campaign to get people reading their Bibles with I Saw the Lord, and then it will be Christmas, one of the most important times of year for people to invite their friends to come here about God's gift of Jesus. But none of that will make the difference that God intends if we don't work to get along as a church. None of it will stick, none of it will grow us, none of it will connect to us of the people we bring to church if we don't work on loving each other, listening to each other, and living out the love of God in our lives in real community. A divided church is not a church; it's an poster for the inability of God to really change lives. We are a bad advertisement when we bicker more than we pray and when we gossip more than we give.

So would you take a minute, even right now, to pray for the services this Sunday? Pray for God to empower the service with His Spirit in a way that short circuits the attempts of the enemy to stop His message of unity and harmony in His church. Pray for me to be brave and say the hard things that need to be said. Pray for people to see themselves in the message and take it to heart, not just take it out on me. Pray for the spirit of unity to fall on our church family, and for us to ratchet up the effort it will take to be together, live together, serve together and love one another in Jesus' name.

We've been through a time of transition, and it's been hard on us as a church family. Some folks have struggled with some of the changes and improvements we've been making to our structure, our administration and other parts of our life together. The temptation in that situation is to pull back, pull apart, or pull out. We've seen people do all three of those, and it hurts whenever it happens. Gossip, stonewalling and avoidance become habits if we let them, and none of them are a reflection of God's love working in our lives. What we need to do is pull together, love each other, pursue peace. In other words, we can get stuck in a Deer Lodge of dysfunction, or we can get back on the Highway to God's plan for our church family. Did I mention I don't want to go back to Dear Lodge?

I know that God's will is that we be one. Jesus prayed for it, so I know it's the plan. Let's all pray according to His will and agree with Jesus' prayer that we might be one.

Pray for me, and I'll see you Sunday.