| Mountains are Made for Moving - article by Joel Hempel I love the following devotion by my friend, Dr. Ed: Do you remember the time the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith? Jesus responded by saying, Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.1 Ed then expresses what all of us must think when we read that: Yeah, I don’t think so! But imagine Jesus looking at you and saying, “Think again!”2 I look at our congregation – about 75 in-person worshipping members – and I am tempted to think, “I don’t think so!” What more can a group of aging Christians, and a handful of young people, and children do beyond what we are doing? What more could we be? Do we even want to consider being different or doing ministry differently? I have said what others have said: if nothing more is done to change the status quo, in 10-15 years we will be a much smaller, dying congregation. Is that what God wants? Is that what we want? If it is, if we as a congregation want to live out our future worshipping our Lord, enjoying each other’s company, serving when we are able, providing space to outside and church groups, and if we are convinced what we have is all God wants for us, then let’s own it, embrace it, and let the future be what it will be. Or do we have the faith to say to a mountain of doubt, inertia, fear, and low energy, “Get up and move out of the way!” In general, God’s will for our congregation is clear: Go and make disciples . . . be intimately united with me and one another . . . worship the Lord with gusto . . . love each other as well as strangers near and far like I have loved you . . . don’t be ashamed of me, be my witnesses . . . and above all, as hard as it is to wrap your minds around it, know that I THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, I THE ONE WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOU ON THE CROSS, I THE ONE WHO NOW GUIDES YOU and GIVES YOU LIFE - I am with you always!3 Since God is with us, if we are serving His will, whatever our resistance, we can work through it; whatever our fear, it will be cast out by God’s perfect love. And that mountain? It will become a molehill.
1. Matthew 17:20 2. Rev. Dr. Ed Arle, Fellow, American Assos. of Pastoral Counselors 3. Matthew 28:19-20; John 15:1-9; John 17:22-26; Psalm 150: Mark 12:30-31; Romans 1:16; Matthew 10:32-33; Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 3:15; John 14:15-20. | 
