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This coming Wednesday, we will have the blessing of hearing a beautiful message from Rev. Carolyn Moore, one of the newly elected interim Bishops in the Global Methodist Church.  I have had the privilege of meeting Bishop Moore, and have enjoyed ministerial interactions with her over the past couple of years.  Rev. More is a real-deal, Spirit-filled, and Jesus-led person.  But she does have one character flaw.  She is relentless and passionate about her vision that the Church (in our case, the Global Methodist Church) needs to hunger and thirst for a God that desires to give the Church more than we have sought in recent years.  Her question is ... "Have we become satisfied with an institutional church, when God's plan and desire is for us to have a transformational Church (note one is capitalized and one is not).  Here are three questions that haunt me, and make me restless for fresh wind and fire.

The first question is ... are we zoo keepers or liberators?  To a God, who has proclaimed that when Jesus comes to town, captives are freed, are we content to make the prisoners content and passive?  A preacher visited a zoo and saw the animal enclosures.  He asked a similar question to the one above.  Do we do to people what zoos do to animals?  Most zoo animals, I believe, would rather be free, even if it means that they would be exposed to the elements, predators, and danger.  I can't answer that question for the zoo animal, but I can answer it for me.  And what would your answer be?  Is your spiritual life one of contentment, or do you hunger for the wild ride God has planned?

The second question is ... is our mission words or wonders?  In Acts 19, God's word says that Paul was so Spirit-filled that "when handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, their illnesses were cured and evil spirits left them."  WOW!!!!  Paul and his team preached Jesus, and spread the Gospel.  They were known for the wonders God did through their ministry.

The last question?  Are WE obstacles, or opportunities?  One of my team members and I have been conversing about this very thing.  What if some of our ministries are hampered because we are only invested in the plan we have made and the picture we have painted?  When I read Acts (go read Acts 19, for example) I see the unbounded and powerful manifestation of God's Spirit.  Do we want that?  Does that scare you?  Are you down for more, or are you fine with the same?

Maybe it comes down to this.  You and I have painted a picture, maybe even a vision, of how we think our church and our ministries should operate.  Our pictures and visions might be just fine, but how is "just fine" working for us?  Rich Mullins writes about this ... "Joy and sorrow are this ocean, in their every ebb and flow.  now the Lord, a door has opened, that all hell can never close, here I'm tested and made worthy, tossed about, and lifted up, in the reckless raging fury, that they call the love of God."  Do you see it? Maybe God's plan, word, and story are filled with wildness, beauty, and a passion that died for us!  That isn't logical, manageable, or confinable.  IT is more of God, bursting into a world that needs a great and holy God.  AMEN?  AMEN!!!