Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
Proverbs 3:5-6
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
Looking over the past week or so, my posts have been drawn from our recent travels through Alabama, Florida and Georgia and our visits with so many people we love along the way.
It is always good to be home, and Tarboro is not only a beautiful landing place it is full with so many amazing people too. Rebekah and I may have only been official residents a short while but we feel the “home” of it deep into our bones.
This morning, walking down by the river with Max, we ventured down to the new concrete steps and it struck me how I had never before seen the view from that particular vantage point. Not just the fact that the river is running so dry but that I literally could not have stood there before now.
It caused me to think about how it is impossible to make meaningful comparisons when everything around us has changed and is changing and will change. We love to say stuff like, “things should be the way they were when I was young,” or “ten years ago,” or “in the 1990’s,” or “when everyone used to go to church,” or “when so-and-so was president,” or “when so-and-so was our preacher,” or “when more people shopped on Main Street….”
But it is not 1955 (thank goodness) and it is not 1995 and today is not even anything remotely like 2015. Today is Thursday May 14, 2026. And the only moment in time available to us is now, and the only questions that mean anything are, “Where do we go from here?” and “What is God calling us into?” and “What can I do to make my church, and my community a better place going forward?”
Asking the wrong questions
I read a revealing post this week on a church leadership site. The writer talked about his congregation’s longterm decline in membership and attendance and he asked for ideas to essentially recreate the past. He is asking the wrong questions. The right questions are more along the lines of:
- “What is our mission going forward?”
- “How obvious it it to the world that this place is deeply saturated in God’s generous love?”
- “How do we serve the community where God has planted us?”
- “What does it mean for us to live as faithful disciples today, in 2026?”
It’s not about getting more members, it’s about living as disciples and following the Way of Jesus. When we live the good news story the numbers take care of themselves.
To the extent that we love our community and serve God then today is a good day and tomorrow will be even better.
“The Future’s so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades…” (Timbuk 3, 1986)
– DEREK