I was talking with G this morning over coffee and he was telling about some pastors that came in to the store this week and were so bummed because they weren’t feeling effective in leading their congregations to the new “missional” way of being church everybody’s talking about these days.

Ok. “Everybody” is an overstatement. How about: “The latest church-geek buzz word.” Just think of it like the “paradigm shift” corporate buzz word of a few years ago. Moving on.

So we were talking about this need we have to feel like we’re being successful and I know I fall in to that same trap – a lot – and the following popped out of my mouth: “It’s like we all think we own the garden or are in charge of making the wine when really, we’ve only been hired to trim dead branches, pull weeds and spread manure.”

In other words: We’re not in charge of the design or the success of the garden or what is grown there. Just plant and prune and till and mulch and maybe carry a little water.

I think that might be a good one.

(For those that have no idea what the heck I’m talking about, I was referring to all the garden stories Jesus told, but especially the one about the landowner who hires people throughout the day and then pays them all the same at the end of the day – whether they worked for an hour for all day long. We use that “workers in the vineyard” image a lot in church. I’m not always sure we completely understand it on even a superficial level anymore, but there you have it.)