whew.

all of the distraction and wrestling and frustration yesterday with my sermon... and in the two weeks worth of conversations on membership and discipleship really paid off this morning.

I think my number one goal was to get us to admit as a congregation (and as the church) that our current journey of faith - the one through membership - right now isn't transforming us into disciples of Jesus Christ... we aren't quite there yet. The big problem isn't that it's a bad road to travel, it's that we haven't held one another accountable to prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We haven't fully accepted the path.

When I asked how many people feel equipped and empowered to transform the world as a disciple of Jesus Christ - no one raised their hand. When I asked how many wanted to be equipped and empowered to go out there right now and change the world... everyone looked a little bit uneasy.

Good!!!! We should. Because we aren't there yet!!! But we are always moving on to perfection, and today - we put that out there in the light of Christ, we confessed our shortcomings and failures and over the next five weeks we will be prayerfully discerning how we can begin to live out our vows. Because we don't have to be disciples in order to practice these things.... but we might just become disciples if we do.