Build a Bridge or Throw Them in the River?

Last week I was blessed to spend about 30 hours with some church planters from SC and my home state of Ohio. God did some incredible things in my own heart during that time, and I wanted to share them. But everytime I would start to do that, God reminded me of the words of the Gospel writer who spoke of Mary's experience at the manger...[But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.] Luke 2:19.

So, though is much in my heart there is little to say...except one very encouraging thing. This was the first time I have met with a group of pastors that large of any sort where the #1 concern was the Kingdom of God, #2 was the health of the pastor and his family, #3 was strategies for advancing the Kingdom of God while maintaining the priority of our families, and #4 was bashing others [just kidding...because I cannot even remember any person bashing anyone.]

It reminded me of the words of one of our great pastors, Adrian Rogers, who described why we have conflict in the church. It is because we are not locked arm in arm, headed the same direction, and fighting the same enemy. We fight when we think the battles are won and we are in the barracks looking at each other.

I learned that lesson yesterday on a more personal note at home. Yesterday, we had some people over at our neighborhood pool. The kids were throwing each other in the pool, wrestling...sometime rough...especially my kids. But when someone suggested a relay race (Olympic Style), they did not fight for almost an hour.

When my kids are working together on something, they don't fight. My problem is that I do not intentionally engage them in common purposes or tasks. That takes thought and effort. I have got to do a better job at putting intentional thought into my home...so we will spend more time building bridges instead of throwing each other into the river.