There Are Bold Pastors and There Are Old Pastors, But...

It's Sunday night.

It's raining outside pretty steadily. Here at the laptop I can chose to listen to the rain hitting the fireplace vent, which sounds like someone hitting a thin pot with a spoon, or I can listen to the steady drips from the window behind be, which sounds for all the world like a hose being sprayed on said window.

It's been a day.

We had a young man come and sing today who really did a good job. We've had him before and I'd highly recommend him if you trend traditional and a little contemporary. Brent Vernon is his name.

I'm working on the new year's small group classes, my wife is getting the women's ministry spooling up again, we are looking at Easter worship and I'm planning some new outreaches and advertising initiatives.

It's pretty much what we've done the last year. It's built a warmer church, a deeper church, and increased our outreach through our networks of friends and neighbors.

But it occurred to me today... nothing we did last year was a risk for us. There was nothing at all that would have failed if God had not intervened. Nothing. Not one event. When I realized that today, it hit me in the gut. What happened to that guy who put his job on the line again and again to get this church turned from death toward life?

I remembered the old saw about pilots.

“There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots.”

Well, I'm not a pilot.

As a follower of Jesus - forget for a minute that I happen to be a pastor - I have to be pressing ahead. And as a pastor, maintenance work isn't what I am called to do. So either I find a way to get the people I love away from the center where it's safe and warm, and out to the edges where it's not either, or I have to find another way.

I watched the Chronicles of Narnia the other night. Was interesting. I'm sure if the boys were still little I'd have enjoyed their reactions immensely. The one part that I really picked up on was when the children first hear of Aslan.

The little girl in the story, Lucy, asks a friend, "Is Aslan safe?" to which the friend replies, "Safe? No, he's not safe…but he is good."

Yeah, that about sums up where I need to be.