Growing Pains

I have an extraordinarily bad memory.

Actually, let me qualify that.

I can remember all kinds of random trivia. I love to watch Jeopardy. For some reason, I can remember all kinds of stuff I learned in school, from books I read in English to random historical facts to math equations.

What I can't remember are my own life experiences. I can barely remember specific events that happened to me any farther back than high school. You might ask, does this frighten me? I might answer, not as much as snakes do.

All that to say, it is really odd that I can remember growing pains. Not the TV show, the actual, middle-of-the-night aches and pains that come when you are growing up. (Not that I didn't love the Seaver family...)

These were the deep and necessary pains that were the by-product of a growing body. They were kinda sucky to go through sometimes, but I sure didn't want to be three feet tall forever.

Our church is in a sometimes painful, sometimes awkward, and very necessary stretch.

No one wants to talk about money. For most people, church + money = shadiness. It is uncomfortable to hear a church talk about money because there is a core assumption that the money the church gets goes into some pastoral jet-ski fund.

Here is an encouraging thought to me: that Next Level Church has the guts to be open and honest and real about our needs and intentions. As Pastor Todd said on Sunday, we are in a giving season. We want people to give themselves away to Next Level Church, to the vision God has for our area.

Why? a) Because we want our people to experience God's blessing by relinquishing the control money has on their lives. b) We want to continue to connect disconnected people, and to do that, we need more parking.

Sure, it's hard to talk about, it can be uncomfortable and awkward, but this is a growing body, right?