Drifting

I can't remember when anything like this has happened before. The dream I described yesterday (about drifting into the Exit lane on the highway and unintentionally changing direction) set me up as a willing target for the pastor's message about "missional drift." He was talking about church, specifically why huge majorities of 20s and 30s see church as irrelevant or negative. "When the church," he said, "is living out its calling to embody the life and way of Jesus, it's in missional health, and there's nothing more powerful on earth." The anchors for missional health that he talked about are, I think, equally applicable to individual Christ-followers.
1. Relationships ("Friendship," said CS Lewis, "has no survival value. Rather, it is one of those things that give value to survival.")
2. Serving (I'm signing on to the Justice Project, to serve the poor and marginalized in one of Charlotte's fragile neighborhoods--nothing heroic, but it's a calling!)
3. Replication (ours should be a viral Gospel, but I think the many times I've drifted missionally in my long life I've hurt people and caused my faith to look highly unattractive)
4. Spiritual conversations (we need to verbally process our struggles and "mess")

Okay, I get the message. Don't drift. Pray for me.

Yesterday was a fairly full day, yet I feel well this morning. A good friend, one whose life is always literally poured out to help others, is at this moment undergoing a procedure hoping to find a blockage to explain her almost total kidney failure. That would be the "easy" solution. If no blockage, her other options are daunting. We're certainly praying for her.

Blessings,
Carol