Many parallels exist between establishing a business and establishing a church. The main similarity seems to be that in both ventures it is necessary to employ every resource—physical, emotional, financial—to its fullest potential. We gave every extra penny that we could, and we know that most of the people involved were living on the fine edge of insecurity themselves.
After waiting years to hear me preach regularly, my wife, Karen, found herself committed to children’s church, Sunday school, and nursery responsibilities. In the first nine months she attended very few morning services.
It was strictly a do-or-die effort. Every weekday morning at 7:30, little baby Bruce would arrive at our doorstep. That was often before our own two sleepyheads had arisen. Karen might be expecting people for a pancake breakfast or for a sit-down dinner—we had guests in our home constantly. After the first two months we figured that we had entertained over two hundred people for one meal or another.
Had we been pulling alone, it might have become unendurable, but, we were aware of the combined strength and assistance of the total group. Each one of us was keenly conscious that our very existence was precarious. Yet we wanted so much for this precious dream to succeed, and the bond created by our efforts has left us very close indeed.
I’m walking down “Memory Lane” a bit in this series of blog posts that describe how God used us to give birth to a new work of His grace in downtown Chicago in the turbulent 1960’s. I hope you will join me for the next post as I share with you some of the key lessons we learned.
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For so many of us, the Christmas celebration can be a mile wide and an inch deep. We tire ourselves with an ever-growing list of gifts to buy, activities to complete, and traditions to uphold. And through a maze of cards and calls, outreach and entertainment, we struggle to connect with others in meaningful ways. Our intentions are sincere, but often trivial. When we look back on the season, we’re often left feeling like our holidays somehow lost the Christ in Christmas, and only touched the surface.
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