Besides a title that almost, but not quite, completely fails there has also been an interesting turn of events.

Last Sunday we voted to change our service times to Noon, with Sunday School at 5pm and Evening Service at 6.  No one really liked it but given the situation and times available, this seemed the best we could do.

Pastor Dean felt he was in a bind. Yet three times different men in the church came to him and offered advice:

"Have we looked at a store front somewhere?"

"Finances shouldn't be an issue."

"We need to keep our services times consistent."


The first and third are fairly straight forward. Since we're renting the schools and the times are no longer consistent with "standard" service times, then shouldn't we look at some place else? But that second one makes me nervous.

Certainly we trust God to provide. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, after all, and can meet all our needs. But that doesn't mean we should go into dept and expect God to bail us out.  Hmmm.... Sounds like our current sub prime loan problems....

Anyway, Pastor said, "How many more times will it take for me to hear God's voice?" He started looking.

What he found is an 18,000 square foot building that has been vacant for nearly a year. This is about 8 times bigger than we really need and about 10 times more expensive than we can afford. But the owner is willing to rent to us for about $1,000 a month. Whoa! (In my best Keanu Reeves voice.)

So we are now finalizing an agreement to rent for about 6 months after which we will attempt to purchase. We are not willing to go into dept for this so if God wants us to have this building then He will have to provide the funds. Can God provide? Absolutely. Will He? Well, we're stepping out in faith.

One church member said to me, "I wish I never made that motion [in our business meeting] to move our services and times."

I said we can't second guess ourselves like that. We prayed as a church and we acted on faith. We all voted as a body. The fact that we were all willing to do what we obviously didn't see as a perfect solution can only be interpreted as a sign of unity within the church and as a vote of confidence in the church leaders. If we hadn't votes thus then perhaps those men wouldn't have spoken to Pastor and prompted him to search for other buildings.  If we pray and act as we think we should and God closes that door, we can't blame ourselves. How would we know the door was closed unless we tried to go through? God answered us by closing a door. How can that be bad?

"Yeah," says the older gentleman with whom I'm having this conversation. "It's like that World War II general - I forget his name - that said that when you're in a deadlocked situation you just have to act. Even if it's the wrong thing to do you will change the dynamics of the situation so that things start happening."

"Actually," I said. "I was thinking more about the Absent-Minded Professor who said 'I want my students to fall on their faces. At least that way they are moving forward."

The net result is that I still don't know where (or when) services will be next week. Maybe we'll be in a building all our own. Maybe we'll be flat on our faces.

Stay tuned....