One of the blogs I read regularly is by Perry Noble, pastor of Newspring Church, one of the fastest-growing in the country. The last few days, he's been talking about obesity, and of his own battles with weight. Today he wrote this:
I remember having a conversation with a guy once who asked me, “What is the first step in losing weight” and I told him, “You’ve got to get pissed, REALLY pissed!”That's pretty much how it happened with me. Since November, I've dropped nearly 40 pounds, and am shooting for another 15 by the end of the year. Feels great. But I remember my feelings of desperation a year ago. Yep, I was basically PO'd at myself.He looked at me, sort of stunned, so I continued.
“You’ve got to get pissed at yourself. You literally have to look in the mirror and say, You did this...but I’m coming after you...and this is going to be the end.”
Is that what it takes for some churches to change? They lose people and decline, until the remnant say, "Enough! We've been sticking to our ways long enough, and it ain't working. Unless we do something different, we'll die."
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
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