half-way there

Well folks, thanks for stayin' with me this long. I know that SEVENTEEN POINTS is a lot of stuff--and we're only up to point nine--but it's been good thus far. Some of you have posted comments and it's been very helpful. Even the act of typing all this stuff down makes me think of it, which makes me explain it, which makes me clarify it. Clarity is something I tend to run away from. Let's continue now, shall we?

9. Divinity and Humanity work together toward Divine Purposes
I must make a couple of comments here. First, it's God's purposes that prevail. He has the plan for the local church and its members. We must get in touch with God's Spirit to tell us where to go. Second, when we do the "work" of the Kingdom we do it as best we can. We put our best foot forward. We practice as much as we can so we can be as good as we can be. We learn and grow and continue to improve ourselves and our approach. As a preacher, I keep learning how to preach better. As a leader, I learn all the latest leadership techniques. I never "settle" and I'm never "satisified" with how we're doing--we're always looking to imrpove. All that said, third, we leave the results up to God. A good friend of mine helped clarify this for me. In his words, "We do the things which we can reasonably expect a return for, but we leave the return up to God."
For instance, advertising is an excellent idea for churches. Let's say we wanted to--for instance--see 100 people at a church event, we advertise to the best of our abilities in such a way so that we can reasonably expect 100 people to show up. If that means using a specific color of paper, then we do it. If that means using the best "power words" then we do it. If that means sending out fliers to 10, 000 homes then we do it. See? "To the best of our abilities." After all that advertising, we can only now reasonably expect 100 people to show up. If, however, only 5 people show up, we give God the glory. We do what we can and expect a certain outcome. If, however, we don't receive that certain outcome, we conclude that's still the Divine Purpose. The bottom line is, we do what's right not what will get us results. We advertise because it's right to advertise--to let people know our church is here and our church can help them. To me, this approach brings into harmony God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility.
Does this make sense? Comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, addtions, addendums, revisions, clarifications? Add a comment.