George Bullard is a church consultant and speaker. His main idea is to get churches functioning to their potential. And even when you seem to have achieved that, you are just headed into the next potential area.
What a great reminder. You can check out his website at www.bullardjournal.org.
The first night he talked about churches being either tourists or travellers. This related to the way in which we reach out to others around us. We can merely show up off and on, enjoy the short term project and retreat back to our own turf. Or we can pack as though we are not coming back.
What would that look like? Are we ready to reset our programs so that they look nothing like what we have done before — but they will be accessible to those we want to reach? Are we ready to accept a different group of friends realizing we may not be coming back to see our old friends?
Tough questions, but worth the consideration.