God's Calling All of Us!

I wrote this to a pastor friend of mine, whom I adore, but as you can tell, I am feeling a bit frustrated with the way things are going...

Being a pastor of a small established church is draining, plus school on top of that, AND being a wife and mom is sometimes a bit much. But God has laid on my heart a desire to get people to work together for our community, especially pastors, and I really feel that this is important to God and to this community. The church used to be the place that peopled turned to in times of trouble and the place where people wanted to raise their children. THe church was involved in the community because it WAS the community. Now, it's secondary. The cities and townships have forgotten the church, because the church has let them forget. How are we, as a church, going to change those mindsets? By sitting idoly by and watching and praying? NO! We must put ourselves back out in the community and build the trust of the folks in it. It's not going to happen over night or even in a week or month. It's going to take probably years to regain that trust. We are fortunate enough to have a township of trustees who want God in the midst of it. You won't find that everywhere. That's why I feel it's important to connect arms with as many pastors as possible in our community so we can be that place that the township can go to. I don't want to do it by myself, because it's bigger than me. It's bigger than you and I. It's all of us as the body of Christ united that can change mindsets.

SO...with all that said, as you can tell this is close to my heart. Sorry to spill that, but I think it's important that we all understand that. I do understand how busy we all are, but that's why I think it's important that we come together. I don't have time, and you don't have time, and lots of other pastors don't have time. But when will it be time to make time to change our community?? Please know this is from my heart to yours...

Your sister in Christ,
Pastor Heather