One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to read. I told you about the book It, by Craig Groeschel, which was inspiring and instructional. The second book I read was Calling, by Frank Tillapaugh. Tom Bassford recommended it to me and loaned me his copy. I'm so glad he did. I wish I had read this book twenty years ago. I don't know why it didn't become a best seller like one of his other books, Unleashing the Church.
I love the focus of the book which was an Ephesians 4 calling to the church to empower the laity of the church to lead in serving. You would have thought we took our "live out" idea and our developing people ideas from Frank. However he says what he says in memorable ways and he was definitely ahead of his time. I will definitely use the words and the ideas as we center our target on loving God, loving people and living out.
Here is one quote, Managerial guru, Peter Drucker tells us that the lesson of the last 50 years is that 'the mission must come first' before the sermon, before pastoral counseling, before board meetings, before adult socials, before pastoral care, before the whims and the wills of the congregation. In the words of our Lord in Luke 14:25-33, it must come before family, before creature comforts, before self-actualization, before self-esteem, before self-help and before self-realization. The mission must be pre-eminent.
When we love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as our self then mission is the natural result. So I got all inspired about mission even while on the beach.
Gary Kendall
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