The reality is that we pastors/leaders are always in danger of losing touch with the lives of the people around us. And so I ask myself the question: How do I stay in touch with the "real world".
The church, despite her flaws, has mostly been a safe place in my life. It has been a haven in a storm, a shelter in a tempest, a shade in the glaring sun. And I pray that the church continue to be a people who provide comfort from the painful realities of a broken world.
But like Elijah in the cave in 1 Kings 19, the church (or maybe our offices) can become an unhealthy escape from the painful realities of life.
We can lose touch.
It is helpful to remember that most of our people, especially our leaders/volunteers normally spend 40-50 hours per week at work in mostly unfulfilling jobs and then volunteer their time with the church.
Perhaps our bi-vocational pastors do not need reminding of this as much, but for most of us, we need reminding that the vast majority of our people's time will be spent outside of church ministries.
So how do we remember this? How do we lead our people from this vantage point? And how do we disciple our people in such a way that the way of Jesus becomes embedded in their every day, work lives?
To put is simply, we need to change the locus of the church from the building (or our ministries) to the everyday lives of our people.
I love the word "locus". Locus is not Locust. Locus means "a particular position, point or place".
Think "bullseye".
