In the building where I work they have begun to do some remodeling.  I am an avid remodeler.  Every house I have bought needed remodeling done to it.  But something caught my attention about this remodeling.  These men have been working for a week and have yet to rip out one piece of sheet rock, cut one piece of wood, or demolish a single old structure.  It is not their lack of accomplishments that have me intrigued, but rather their preparedness.

     For the last week they have been doing nothing but bringing in scaffolding, piecing it together and then securing it in place.  I am confident, that when these guys begin to work on the actual building, the remodeling process will go very quickly.  These men have realized that sometimes the easiest way to tackle a big project is to make sure you are prepared to work before you begin to work.  The obscure lesson here is that sometimes it takes work to get prepared to work.

     So now you are either totally confused or seriously wondering where I am going with this.  Over the past year we have worked hard.  But from some people’s perspective it may feel like nothing has been done.  I do not mean physical work.  Obviously we have done much physical remodeling.  Less than a year ago we bought a bunch of warehouses and now we are meeting in one of those warehouses so plenty of physical work has been done.  But what about truth, growth and the development of the church body?  The structure of the church, the development of people and more.

     While we clearly have made progress, it would be easy to say not much real progress has been made.  I say to the contrary, much progress has been made.  I feel for the past year we have been preparing; getting our scaffolding set up, and getting our materials in place.  But it’s about time for the real work to begin.  The kind of work that will let this city know and see that something is happening right here.  The kind of work that any casual observer can see and want to be a part of.  The preparation is done.   The scaffolding is set-up.  Let’s get to work.