Chili, Papers, and Plans

I’m watching Traci mix up a batch of Cincinnati-style chili.  (It’s her own homemade recipe.)  This is kind of a pattern in our household.  We make a batch of something kind of big and then eat off of it throughout the week.  This week, it’s Cincinnati-style chili.  Mmmmmmmm. I love it.

I consider this batch of chili to be kind of a celebration for me this week.  I had a paper due for my evangelism class and I can’t begin to talk about the number of roadblocks that tried to get in the way of writing this paper.  I’ve never worked so hard to get a paper written, but it is done.  So, we celebrate!

I think this paper was difficult to write for two reasons.  It didn’t have anything to do with the length requirement (25-30 pages).  It had to do with the process.  The first part of the paper was spent analyzing our culture: Porter County, Valparaiso, and Life Bridge Christian Church.  (How would you like to try to put into words what we do at Life Bridge?)  The analysis phase was tough because it took me on the roller coaster ride of the past twelve years.  Every up and down was relived in my mind as I was watching videos, looking at statistics, and remembering relationships.  Some of the things that we did worked great.  Others were an abysmal failure.  Needless to say, I needed my own bad-box class to get through the process.

It was also difficult because of the requirement for the second half of the paper.  I was asked to write my theological and philosophical framework for moving forward.  Then, I was asked to detail our strategy: what is the plan moving forward.  Beside the normal, “If you want God to laugh, tell Him your plans,” the strategic planning phase took a lot of reading Scripture and prayer.  This phase was tough because of the analysis done in the first phase and as well as where God has been leading me for the second.

By the time I completed the first phase, our mistakes…my mistakes…were quite obvious.  I could easily see where I had missed the mark and not followed God’s lead.  I could see other places, though, where we had been faithful to God’s leading even though the storms were intense and the spiritual battles fierce.  The numbers confirmed what God promised in His Word and through His Spirit.  God was faithful.  When the dust settled, I could clearly see God’s faithfulness through it all.  Looking back, I learned one principle loud and clear: Follow God no matter what.
I needed to learn this principle because of the planning portion of my paper.  I could get past the mistakes of the past by thinking of Thomas Edison.  As the story goes, he was fired from his first two jobs for being too stupid and unproductive.  His first 1,000 attempts at creating the light bulb failed.  Yet, he made it through.  I’ve made mistakes in the past, but they were all in an attempt to learn how to create a “light bulb” of sorts.

Looking forward, though, I needed to remind myself of Fredrick W. Smith, founder of Federal Express.  As his story goes, he wrote a paper for Yale University laying out the plans for FedEx, citing the changing times and difficulties faced in the industry.  His professor gave him an average grade.  The rest, as they say, is history.

I know that my approach to church, discipleship, evangelism, and empowering people is unique.  I know that the places I am pointing us do not match the models of other churches, teaching ministries, or evangelists of the recent past.  The vision I am sharing with us, however, is exactly where God wants us to go.  It’s Biblical.  I have peace from His Spirit whenever I pray about it, even in the details.  It matches our experiences from the past twelve years.  I know it will work.

I know that our part of God’s plan will not be for everybody.  It will, however, serve a lot of people.  It will serve them by serving one person at a time.  Who knows?  Maybe it will be like Cincinnati-style chili.  It won’t be for everybody, but the ones who like it will absolutely love it.  However it looks over time, we can be sure of one thing: it will glorify God and empower people.  I’m ready to go make some chili.  How about you?