Re Ignition Sunday

Today was "Re Ignition Sunday" - which some churches over the year called "rally day." It is the Sunday after Labor Day when we come back to church. And for us - Sunday School started today and the choir is back again and we are back.

We called it "Re Ignition" because we are restating our vision - ....that we are "Ignited by God, Changing the world"
We went through a long process the first year I was here. I appointed a "Visioning Team" and we met with small groups to discern our core values, our bedrock beliefs and then later our "Motivating Vision." That whole process took about 2 and a half years.

April 2006 We had "Ignition Sunday" when we revealed the motivating vision. Everyone wore their new T shirts - Red, course, which said "Karl Road Christian Church, Ignited by God, Changing our World." It was an awesome service. My friend Mary came and led the children's sermon, Kerry who had just started coming to church signed "I can only imagine" and it was amazing. The whole thing.

Now we are 18 months later and we are into it. We are still intentionally working at becoming more diverse by implementing our early worship service. Charles preaches that service and he is really inspiring. Deric is the muscian and he is wonderful. And we have some people who are absolutely committed to this worship - but we are not particularly growing. Today, 2 new people came who were literally walking past the church (in the rain) and joined us. Every week we have from 10 - 15. We are also continuing to help the schools out through providing snacks for the teachers. This is our 3rd year to do that and last year it seemed like we had less food brought by our members.

Now, here is what was interesting this morning. I woke up dreaming that I was in a conversation with someone from a church who was doing a visioning process. They were so excited about it. And I said to them - the visioning process is just the beginning. The hard part is implementing the vision. The day by day living it out. I woke myself up saying those words this morning!

And that is the reality. Our vision is that we are called to be an intergenerational, diverse, open and affirming church. And engaged in ministry here in the neighborhood where we are located.
And we are becoming that. Slowly.

I preached on Nehemiah and the people building the wall around Jerusalem today. And I was preaching to myself - as usual. It takes perseverance to live into the vision. And to not get discouraged. It takes Rally days - or re-Ignition days. It takes prayer, and remembering God put us here and encouraging each other. It takes faith.