AUGUST 2018
Welcome to the newly updated newsletter!

PASTORS & WIVES
RETREAT IN BEAUTIFUL
NEW BUFFALO,
MICHIGAN
October 22–24, 2018!


Dear CMA Pastors & Wives,

This special event has been designed for and prayed over just for you!
 
Our speaker is Dr. James Ford, Jr ., affectionately known as the “Love Doctor” because of his pragmatic, do-able advice on relationships and marriage. He has been the senior pastor of Christ Bible Church of Chicago for 36 years. He is an international conference speaker, seminar leader, and author of When a Man Loves a Woman, When a Woman Loves a Man, and 7 Reasons God Created Marriage.
 
There will again be a special break-out session just for pastor's wives.  Jennifer Wiggins will be our speaker. As a PK, Jennifer determined early in life to avoid missionaries and pastors. She currently finds herself grateful to be in ministry with her husband, Kirt, at Pathway Community Church, where he is lead pastor. During their 26 years of marriage, they have worked in Christian higher education, missions and church planting. They have three children and recently gained a daughter-in-law.
 
This retreat is for all Converge MidAmerica pastors, including senior, associate, worship and youth pastors and their wives.  Space is limited and reservations will be done on a first-come, first-served basis! Registration deadline is September 17, 2018.

We look forward to our time together,

Gary & Mary
Our Journey to "Soon"

By Jill Briscoe

“As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered.” ~  James 5:11a

I was in a painful situation concerning someone I loved very dearly . As I scanned my Bible, I kept coming across promises of God that contained the word soon. I did not like being in transit, so to speak. I wanted my “soon” to become “now,” but our times are in God’s hands. He makes everything beautiful by His clock, not ours. Then I read James 5:11, and my heart responded with hope! “God will bring an end to this,” I told myself. “Till then I must settle myself to persevere in that hope and trust Him to grow patience in my heart.”

Nobody knows how quickly soon will be! Except God, that is, and He does not tell us. His knowledge is not withheld to tease, but to test our faith.

Waiting for closure always exposes the caliber of my faith, the intensity of my patience and trust, the shape of my character. And when I am waiting for some particular painful something to be over, there is bound to be some bright, well-meaning saint who ”lovingly,” and often with ill-conceived satisfaction, comes around to tell me how much deeper I will be when it is all finished. I want to scream, “I don’t want to be deeper! I want to stay shallow and have the hurt go away soon.”
 
I have learned, however, that what we do with “The Journey to ‘Soon’” is vitally important. Waiting does not necessarily mean passivity... 

Lord, Deliver Us from Passive-Aggressive Conflicts
Every church has elephants in the narthex. Here are four ways to root them out.

by Pete Scazzero


  • Pastor Rob is a gifted communicator. People love him. Unfortunately he has a habit of misrepresenting the truth. He routinely agrees to do things and then never follows through. He also exaggerates and embellishes facts. Those close to him have learned to tolerate it as part of the “visionary communicator” package.

  • Nora’s ministry is flourishing, but she shows up late to staff meetings and one-on-one meetings—a lot. She apologizes and offers reasonable excuses, but the late arrivals persist. Others complain about her lateness, but no one holds her accountable for it.

Many expect church teams to experience less conflict than teams in secular workplaces. To a casual observer, this may seem to be the case, but that’s because Christians tend to spiritualize, rationalize, cover up, or avoid dealing with the issues that lead to conflict. We sweep potential conflicts under the rug. As a result, we leave those issues unresolved, and they linger in the room, threatening to disturb our carefully protected “peace.” While we may not have as many outright conflicts, we ignore—and sometimes feed—elephants in the room like the ones described above.

When I suggest that part of leadership is to expose and explore these elephants, leaders often look at me in disbelief: “Pete, you have to be kidding. Do you know what would happen if I confronted every elephant in the room? I might lose half my team. And I wouldn’t have time for anything else!”