Super grateful for all of the people in Chicagoland who fill my life with evidences of God’s grace!
One of the biggest boosts to one’s faith is to look to others who can serve as models. For professional religious folks like myself, we sometimes think we need to read famous authors (living or dead) or listen to the podcasts of megachurch pastors. But these models can also be in our own churches. Caleb is one of our key lay leaders at my church’s Wicker Park site and has done a lot in helping relaunch our presence in that neighborhood.
Two things he says here move me. First, his gratitude is infectious and helps get me out of my tendency to only look at what’s going wrong or what can be improved. Second, he points to other churches that are doing new things in the city. Again, I don’t know if I can speak for other pastors, but there is a tendency to feel competitive with other churches. Caleb shows me, though, that celebration of the new ways that the Good News is being communicated is the way to go.