Tenemos hermosos pensamientos sobre lo que es o podría ser la iglesia, pero a través de diferentes experiencias frustrantes, desarrollamos un concepto que se parece más a un club social, que a la asamblea sobrenatural de creyentes llenos del Espíritu Santo. El esfuerzo que tomaba aprender a montar la bicicleta llevó un niño a abandonarla. Lo que él nunca se dio cuenta es que el verdadero problema era que las llantas de la bicicleta perdieron el aire. Igualmente, no podemos ser iglesia sin el Espíritu Santo.

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We have rich expectations of what the church is or could be, but through different frustrating experiences, we develop what looks more like a social club than a supernatural assembly of believers filled with the Holy Spirit. The frustrating amount of effort required may cause us to abandon our attempts. What we fail to realize, though, is that we can not be a church without the Holy Spirit.

“Sweetie,” my husband gently began. “This is an intervention.”

In his most compassionate voice, Craig began describing my life—my job and the amount of travel it required, my responsibilities in raising our teenaged kids, my ministry as a pastor’s wife, my efforts to be a good friend and a good daughter. “This is just not sustainable,” he said. “I’m not upset with you, but something has to change.”

Waves of inadequacy and shame washed over me. I was trying so hard to do it all. People depended on me. How could I stop?

This season of my life has been particularly straining. All good things, but good things still take their emotional toll. Ministry requires pastors who truly love their congregation, feel what they feel, hurt when they hurt, and grow weary when they grow weary.

My point here is not to commiserate. The spiritual oversight of souls is tough work, and those of us in ministry aspire to that work. Instead, I simply want to issue a plea: Pastor, seek respite. Use the resources available to you for the good of your ministry, your family, and your soul.

A hyper-driven leader creates vision-weary people and may be authoritarian, autonomous, and even downright mean.

Why would otherwise great leaders act in such destructive ways?

One of the best parts of getting a PhD in Leadership was being required to read widely on the subject.

If stranded on a desert island and given only one book from which to teach leadership, I would choose a lesser-known book called Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership by Lee Bolman and Terrance Deal.

In one season or another, every one of us has needed to either build or rebuild trust. The issue of trust is a human issue. Building it is crucial to every budding relationship, and rebuilding it is crucial to every damaged one. So, how do we build or rebuild trust? They didn't teach me math in seminary, but over the years, I have used this formula:

TRUST = (Truth + Transparency) * Time

Antimetabole es la transliteración de una palabra griega y consiste en la repetición de palabras en clausulas sucesivas, pero en diferente orden. Por ejemplo: ¿Cómo sería una congregación donde la mitad son creyentes no practicantes y la otra mitad son practicantes no creyentes? Sería una situación que haría llorar a nuestro Señor Jesucristo.

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An antimetabole is a Greek literary device that consists in the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in a different order. For example: Do we have congregations where some are non-practicing believers and others are non-believing practitioners? This would make our Lord Jesus Christ cry.

How many new church plants start to decline after they acquire a permanent building? I recently received this question in an email.  Though I don't have the statistics, I do have stories. These are stories of churches that have slowly started their decline after completing building projects and others that have built and are still thriving today. But what has made the difference?

Every month, we feature people, events, and ministries we want our people to pray for. So, join us as we pray to and praise God for what He's done, because we're always better together.

#UBAPraysTogether

In case you haven't heard, we love churches. We love those who have been partnering with us for many years as well as those who have just joined. To help you better know some of these churches and their leaders, we want to feature them here. Today, we meet L.T. Chuong, pastor of A Seat at the Table Church (ASATT), to hear about his conversion, bi-vocational ministry, and ASATT's vision to be a growing multiethnic and multigenerational church that can reach the unreached of the greater Houston area and beyond.