I'm just hoping it rains

So I'm watching Rick McKinley (Donald Miller's pastor) give this talk, and he made a very interesting point, he is saying how people come up to him and ask him what's the next step for the church where he is a pastor (Imago Dei) and he says "I have no idea, I just go: 'God please be birthing something in people, so that we can cultivate this'" and then he makes a brilliant remark "It's like going up to a farmer and saying, hey what's the next crop look like bro, and he's like: 'I'm just hoping it rains, 'cause there might not be a next crop'"

When I heard him say this I remembered the passage in John 15:1-2 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." And I remembered another sermon I heard Rick preach a couple of years ago, about the organic connotations of the verse, 'cause you see, trees and nature have very particular rhythms and patterns. Think about a vineyard, it would be easy to say that you can predict how the grapes are going to turn out, but the truth is that you can't. You can take all the necessary steps to make sure it's a good year, don't water the soil too much or too little, try to make the exposure to the sun the better, try to keep the rodents away; but after all that's done, all you can do is sit and wait. Faith communities are exactly like that, all we can do is take certain steps, we try to expose the community to honest teaching of the Word, we try our best to love them, to point in the right direction, we try to do our best in Sunday mornings, good music, childcare, etc. But none of these things guarantees growth, or more important, transformation. These two things are usually dependent on "the rain", the Spirit of God.

I see this played out at the community of faith that I'm a part of. You see I've been part of this church plant for almost a year now, and it's been a rollercoaster ride, we've had our highs and our lows, in attendance, momentum and relationships. And don't get me wrong, it's been great, I wouldn't trade the time I've spent at Centerpoint for anything in the world, but it's so easy to get anxious about the future, and the present as well. And sometimes I find myself asking the question "well what's next? where are we going?" not to say that we don't have dreams and visions of what God could do in our midst, but sometimes I wonder "well, how in the world are we going to get there?" And today while watching Rick give his talk I got my answer "I don't know, I'm just hoping it rains" I don't know what's gonna happen with Centerpoint, all I can do is be faithful, and the same goes for everybody else at every church, from the pastor to the person who sweeps the church, and this thought is extremely liberating, because it is no longer my responsibility to get the attendance to a particular number, or to make sure that everybody feels the presence of the Holy Spirit, that's God's deal. The cool thing is that He does make some promises about that: if we gather in His name, He's going to be there, if we ask the Father anything in the Son's name, the Father is going to listen, if we come to him, he won't throw us out. He is going to build His church... and the gates of hades will not prevail against Her. All I can do is water my part of the vineyard, and take care of it, after that... I'm just hoping it rains.