Failure to Plan... Matthew 25: 1-13

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

It has been two weeks, well nearly three, since i have posted a blog. Vertigo sidelined me one week, and i drove a young man to Florida so he could serve a year in Brethren Volunteer Service last week. But i am back and in the words of my favorite morning sports talk show, "Mike and Mike in the Morning," and "better than ever." Well as for being better than ever, you all will have to play judge and jury. But i am back.

Two weeks away gave me time to reflect about where we are now and where God might be taking us, and though the path remains a mystery, i do think God gave me some tools to assist in illuminating the road before us. What do we need to be doing? In a word: praying. If there is nothing else we can do, whether economically or socially or otherwise, we, as the body of Christ, can and must pray. We must go to God and request His ear and His wisdom as we discern where we are to go.

If we get lost on a journey, we depend on GPS, maps, or even in the unlikely scenario, stopping and asking for directions. So why do we relegate God, the author of all that is good and holy and just, to the margins when we need to know where we are going as a community of faith? I do not understand why prayer seems so absurd to a church but business models and logic and reason take center stage. I would rather put my faith and trust in the author of reason and logic than some business model or ideology that might have worked a decade ago but has become obsolete.

Prayer will always be a viable option, if we seek His face. And in light of our text for this week, prayer seems to be the answer to that challenge as well. What must we be doing, while we wait on God? Pray. Pray for God's wisdom. Pray for God's assistance. Pray for God to fill our pews. Pray for God to direct and multiply our ministries. Pray for God to fund our ministries. Pray for God to illuminate how we can grow in size, in faith, and in holistic community. And in the end, as the five women who had extra oil knew, failure to plan, is planning to fail.

We do not need an amazing model of success to inspire us and lead us into a new day as a community of faith, we need the oldest model of all: prayer. Our strategic planning must begin with prayer. Our visioning must be immersed in prayer. And our mission and ministries must be saturated in prayer. Our planning starts with us getting on our knees and seeking, waiting, and listening to the still small voice of God. Only that can ensure we are ready when God comes. Yes we must do work, but we begin with prayer.

I do have one little yeah but to add to the call to prayer. While we wait on God, we must also do what He already has commanded us to do, and if we do not know what that is, i invite us all to read Matthew 5-7 and Matthew 25: 31-46. Everything flows from those core values of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Amen.

Shalom,
jerry