Personal Log 10.19.22

So we had our first virtual men's group meeting, called MG+ = Men's Group Plus & it went fairly well, 'not the turnout I'd hoped for but it was still good.

A little backstory on how this came about:

A couple 3 weeks (or so) ago my pastor was preaching on Romans 12 & came to verse 2, “do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Now, I had read this verse at least 100 – 200 times in my life & agreed with it, but this time was different. As I sat there listening, I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to look up the Greek word for renewing, so I went to Strong's & checked it out, it means “to renovate”; then it hit me:

Renovation brings transformation.

When you renovate a room or a house, you pull all the old furniture out, sometimes rip out the walls, completely rewire everything & put new furniture back in. The room or the house then becomes transformed, new life being breathed into it.

This is all I've thought about since that Sunday, it's consumed me night & day. You renovate your mind by both consuming His Word & constantly being in His presence. I've rarely watched or listened to anything since then unless it was the audio Bible or worship music & my own personal worship time has been great; I can feel something has changed…

As I've been meditating on this verse, I've been thinking about how renovation is not only personally transforming me but also the possibilities of it transforming the various ministries at my fellowship: we're not going to see transformation of these ministries unless we do something different = renovate them. The old & comfortable ways of doing church, of doing kid's ministry, youth ministry, ushers & greeters ministry, men's & women's ministry, worship ministry, senior's & widow's ministry, tech ministry, etc; you name it, may be at it's end.

If there's no growth, something is wrong...

I was ready to give up on our men's ministry, to be honest I was just weary & tired: tired of inviting men, tired of reminding the men every Sunday about whether we are meeting or not (for some reason they couldn't remember it was the first & third Wednesday of the month), tired of the same thing & tired of seeing fewer & fewer men coming. I was ready to go & ready to let it go.

After talking with my pastor, I fasted & prayed about it again but couldn't get this verse out of my spirit. I just felt like we should meet on Sunday mornings, since the men are there anyway, just have them come early & meet with them. It also hit me to meet virtually with the ones who couldn't make the midweek gathering because of kids, their sports events, etc; this way we're meeting twice a week, one onsite, one online.

I decided to kick off the virtual meetings first & start the onsite meetings at the end of the month. There seems to be some interest, some kind of buzz happening. The guys online are excited about meeting, well see how the Sunday mornings go, it may take a little while to take off but there is a time change coming in a couple of weeks & that might help, who knows? I did get some blowback from some older guys who prefer to meet during the week as that's what they “need” so I'm tossing around another idea that might just work...

I've noticed a change, but I also know that something needed renovating & I took the chance. If the men are transformed, then the fellowship will be transformed, then the community will be transformed… it all begins with taking a hard, honest look at your life & your ministry & asking the Holy Spirit, “what can we do differently, what can we renovate that will transform & breathe new life into [fill in the blank]?”.

So now I'm back to what I opened with & how encouraged I was with MG+ to see the men show up online, interested… sharing their hearts… praying with them... there's still a little tweaking to do tech – wise but it's minor compared to the major step we're taking.

Romans 12:2a

“And be not conformed (syschēmatizō = to conform one's self [i.e. one's mind and character] to another's pattern, [fashion one's self according to] to this world: but be ye transformed (metamorphoō = to change into another form) by the renewing (anakainōsis = a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better) of your mind (nous = a particular mode of thinking and judging, i.e thoughts, feelings, purposes, desires)... ”