short staffed
Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:20 pm
I am struck by the critical importance and effort required to attach a (rejected) newborn to a surrogate mother, the staff being used to prod the ewe to accept the unfamiliar lamb.
I think I can remember the face of each newborn child of God over the last 15 years who was either stillborn in the faith or seemed to fade away while still young. Sometimes they were men for whom I could not find a discipler - a particular issue in my last church. And my more impersonal efforts (books, Alpha, etc) didn't connect with them. For those it seems like my staff was too short. With others, maybe they didn't really go full-term, weren't brought to birth properly, refused in a sense to be (re-)born. People who came around for awhile, maybe even prayed to receive Christ and then disappeared and we couldn't reach them or connect them again. I wonder if enough effort was made? I wonder if enough prayer was offered to the Great Shepherd for them? I wonder if they reconnected later with another shepherd . . .
I think I can remember the face of each newborn child of God over the last 15 years who was either stillborn in the faith or seemed to fade away while still young. Sometimes they were men for whom I could not find a discipler - a particular issue in my last church. And my more impersonal efforts (books, Alpha, etc) didn't connect with them. For those it seems like my staff was too short. With others, maybe they didn't really go full-term, weren't brought to birth properly, refused in a sense to be (re-)born. People who came around for awhile, maybe even prayed to receive Christ and then disappeared and we couldn't reach them or connect them again. I wonder if enough effort was made? I wonder if enough prayer was offered to the Great Shepherd for them? I wonder if they reconnected later with another shepherd . . .