Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog. My other blog, dradaker.blogspot.com is still up but is outdated. Like my writing, I’ve changed since starting that blog. Time for a new beginning.

Today we didn’t attend our church because my daughter’s Aroma of Praise group sang at another local church during their worship services this morning. It went well. They sound good – you can hear some harmony in certain parts of the songs. I’m always amazed at how they come into a new place and can get up there and sing without being nervous. It’s good training for the future I guess.

The state of churches across the country has been on my mind today. Like other churches in this area, our church has gone through a lot. People have come and gone, though right now I wouldn’t say that’s happening now. But we’ve had our ups and downs – and that is really a reflection of us. I mean, we’re being sanctified and that involves change; naturally, this is reflected in the operations, ministries, etc of the church.

There is no perfect church, since churches themselves are made up of fallen, sin-laden people – and so it bothers me somewhat when I hear criticisms of local ones. I mean, it isn’t a business or a corporation. It’s a church and it’s only as good as its people.

If your church doesn’t have the greatest outreach program, don’t complain – get involved! Although I’ve been in different church ministries and thus know the frustrations of trying to draw people in and get them involved, I also know that ministries and church programs have to begin somewhere.

If your efforts in ministry before seemed ineffective, then take a step back, learn from what happened, and commit to not giving up but persevering with God. Lately I’ve thought how what we’re up against in this day and age, is not persecution by burning at the stake – rather, we’re up against the the unseen persecution by the tantalizing of the flesh (and all of its pleasure-seeking ways).

(And okay, the word persecute primarily means to cause to suffer because of belief – maybe you can see where I’m coming from. It is evil out there surrounding us in a manner that earlier Christians couldn’t have dreamed of. (Well, they had to dream it. They certainly couldn’t accidently pull it up on the internet or flip by it on tv.))

Our ministries are in competition with much these days. Used to be churches were the places where people gathered in community. Our best bet is not in going all out, spending extra money on flyers, campaigns, PowerPoint presentations – our best bet is to do something we can always do regardless of weather, regardless of our financial situation, regardless of what’s going on around us.

Our best bet is simple really.

Our best bet is to pray.

DD (Doubly Destitute)