Advent.

Signs of Emergence...

...But before the church can change, before I can change, before anything changes, comes waiting. A pause. A rest.

I have felt for sometime that I am having to learn, what I refer to as "Slowness". It's not laziness. Not unproductive. Not aimless. But slow. Gradual. Incremental. Subtle. And in this slowness I am finding patience, energy, focus, discipline, growth, change. The more I "slow" down, the more I accomplish. Weeks feel like months.

This is nature's way, decreeing as she does that movement from one direction to another cannot happen instantaneously.

The ship is turning just as surely as the earth is rotating. You don't necessarily feel it but you sense it, know it, experience it.

So against our hasty judgement, before we can experience the transformation that is vital to our survival, we will be required to wait. To be acted on gently, gracefully, and peacefully. Shaped, not crushed; guided, not dragged.

Matthew 16:18 tells us that Christ is building his church. Not you. Not me. Christ. We are caught up in his movement, his story, his work. We are joining him rather than asking him to join us. I really resonate with the author's words, "Acted on gently, gracefully, and peacefully. Shaped, not crushed; guided, not dragged."

It is vital to note that the task is urgent, but if our response is to be anything more than another flash in the pan or botched attempt to become culturally aware, then we must avoid haste.

Good things come to those that wait...strength will rise...we run and don't get weary...walk and not faint...do you not know...have you not heard...our father does not get weary...he brings passion to a willing heart...even when youth get tired and faint...strength will come to those who wait.

We must realize that if we are to see real, long lasting change, then it is going to take time; it is going to be a lifelong quest.

Are you committed to a lifelong mission with Christ in community with people?

Violent change tend to shear, to break the whole as one surface part moves and leaves the rest of the body behind unaltered.

In his seminal work "Future Shock", Alvin Toffler describes the psychological damage that occurs to people when they are overwhelmed by intense change. He talks about future shock being a disease of change, a sickness that people suffer that is not so much about the direction of change as the rate of it.

For our own health, we need change to occur not at revolutionary speeds demanded by power-wielding dictators or company boardrooms but at the evolutionary speeds of the empowered human body.

So, here we are again at the importance of the empowered individual, you. Consider yourself empowered to lead the way, to initiate the changes needed.

Before the church can change, before I can change, before things change - before change, we must wait. Caught "between the now and the not yet".

We wait for the one who whispers, "Behold, I am doing a new thing...Do you not perceive it?" (Isa. 43:19)