TopekaStew

Some of the leaders at church are wrestling with the question of how we are to measure our efforts as a group. How do we know if we are doing what God wants us to be doing? How do we define success? Most churches measure the ABC's ( a ttendance, b uildings, and c ash). We've decided that the ABC's do not get at the heart of the matter. So, then, how do we know we're doing what we're supposed to do? I saw the following quote on the wall of a classroom at Robinson Middle School this week and it made me smile and nod. Though I'm not yet sure how something like this translates into organizational terms, and despite the fact that he leaves God completely out of the picture, Emerson paints an interesting picture of success for an individual. "To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intellingent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the b...

Yesterday I suggested to the church that we need to recapture a bit of the maverick spirit we once had as a congregation. Mark Batterson says something similar in an article I read this morning. He says that one of the dangers of ministry for church leaders is when we stop looking forward: "One of the great dangers of leadership is this: we stop doing ministry out of imagination and we start doing ministry out of memory. We learn how and forget why. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. And that is the beginning of the end...." May God stir our imaginations, remind us why, and lead us into the future of what he's doing in Topeka.

Why do I so desperately want to set limits on what God can ask of me? I'm just like the lawyer in the parable of the "Good Samaritan." On Wednesday a small group of us discussed the parable of "The Good Samaritan." We wrestled with what the lawyer was saying when he attempted to "justify himself" (Lk. 10:29). The word "justify" comes from the Greek word dikaioo , which appears 40 times in the New Testament. It is usually translated as "justified" or "justify." A couple times it's translated as "freed," "vindicated," and "acquitted." And it is closely related to the group of words which deal with our word "righteousness" ( dikaiosune , dikaios , etc.). So, to sum up, the lawyer wanted to prove himself to be "right" with God on his own terms. Jesus, however, blew him out of the water by setting impossible terms for the fulfillment of the command to love our neighbor. In...