{"id":2374,"date":"2010-07-12T05:31:59","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T11:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2010-07-12T05:31:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-12T11:31:59","slug":"open-letter-to-pastors-and-leaders-of-the-american-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/open-letter-to-pastors-and-leaders-of-the-american-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to Pastors and Leaders of the American Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Good Morning to all my brothers and sisters in the cause of the Good News of the gospel of Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s Monday morning, right?\u00a0 We all know what kind of reputation Monday has in our world.<\/p>\n

The Monday morning blues and blahs because yesterday didn\u2019t go well, attendance was down, offerings are down, volunteers didn\u2019t show up or they quit.\u00a0 Or you can even have the Monday morning letdowns from a good day<\/strong>, where everything did go well, because now you\u2019re worried about how everything is going to go next week.\u00a0 How do you sustain this growth and experience?\u00a0 You know the story.<\/p>\n

Here is a word of encouragement.\u00a0 Do not, I repeat, do not place all of your self-worth and significance in what happens on Sunday morning at your church<\/strong>, good or bad.<\/p>\n

The truth is, when things go really, really, really well, we\u2019ve had almost nothing to do with it.\u00a0 Come on, be honest.\u00a0 We worked, we tried, but we all know we can put the same amount of effort, prayer, study, and preparation, and the weekend can be flat as it can be; maybe even down.<\/p>\n

I know this isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been there, trust me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve dreaded Monday mornings to see the offering and attendance reports, and see how the staff is all over the place; tired, not reporting, acting as though the weekend is some kind of terrible obligation and burden to be gotten over.<\/p>\n

Hey, it\u2019s Monday.\u00a0 It\u2019s a new week.\u00a0 Breathe in, breathe out, go for a run, go for a walk, ride a bike.\u00a0 Lighten up.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let too much ride on any given weekend, good or bad.\u00a0 God is still alive.\u00a0 His promise to build His church is still in force.<\/strong> It is not your obligation or responsibility.\u00a0 What it is, is a privilege, a joy to be able to join God in the good work He is doing in the world.<\/p>\n

You do no one, especially yourself and your family, any favors by being burdened, mad, upset and resentful.\u00a0 Be filled with joy, be free, let God do His thing.<\/strong> I live by this Monday morning mantra: I get up, I suit up, I show up, I\u2019m only obligated to do the one next right thing, and I trust God for the results<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good Morning to all my brothers and sisters in the cause of the Good News of the gospel of Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s Monday morning, right?\u00a0 We all know what kind of reputation Monday has in our world. The Monday morning blues and blahs because yesterday didn\u2019t go well, attendance was down, offerings are down, volunteers didn\u2019t … Continue reading “Open Letter to Pastors and Leaders of the American Church”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}