Words from WW Blog

 “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” (Acts 2:1-2)

I’ve been slowly weeding out my personal library. It covers most of two walls in my study. Some of the books are hand-me-downs from Dr. Floyd Norton, a pastor who departed from the world to stroll the streets of paradise a good four decades ago. I can’t bring myself to give away Floyd’s books that were so lovingly gifted to me. Others, however, have been put on literary waivers and picked up by our local library.

I noticed a trend in several of my books. I purchased them at different times over the years and recognize that they seem to offer different “formulas” for doing church. Some of the books focused on the latest worship trends, others on innovative outreach ideas, and others on growing your church through small groups. Many of the books were based…Or, I should say, came out of a certain church’s success story. Growth had caused people to notice, and the book was an offshoot of the story.

Like a new offensive scheme in football…the shotgun, the spread, the wishbone, the Wildcat…I recognized, from looking at my library, that I had too often been sucked into the latest-and-greatest idea. It wasn’t that they were bad ideas. Most were very creative and ingenious. My gullibility had convinced me that the church I pastored could do the same thing, use the same idea, and produce the same mega-growth result.

Quite frankly, a couple of the ministries/programs of the churches I pastored were picked up by some other churches close by. And just as my attempts at copying success had mixed results, so did the ministries of our church have less-than-noticeable impacts in other locations.

There’s something about us that causes us to chase success. It’s like a narcotic that we have tried to spiritualize. Our belief in the breath of God that brings new life is treated as an acknowledgment at the end of the story, rather than as part of the story itself. The moving of the Spirit is hidden in the shadow of the book display.

Honestly, I’m more disappointed in my tendency not to trust in God’s providence and to be swayed by the “Success-in-Seven-Steps” manuals. In hindsight, I can see how my faith in the Almighty wavered back and forth like the flag attached to my front porch. I can’t speak for the other pastors, but I assume that, among the masses of us ministerial types who showed up at seminars and workshops, notebooks and pencils ready to copy down every word, I’m not the only spiritual success seeker.

Back to my library, although I shed a tear for each book I lay to rest (in the local library donate box), I’m whittling down the numbers to those books that cause me to ponder, wonder, and discover the grace, peace, hope, and joy of the Lord. I’m embracing the story of God and the journeys of His saints.

And I’m sort of symbolically reserving some space on a shelf for the things that God still desires to reveal to me.

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This entry was posted on August 31, 2026 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Christianity, Faith, Bible, God, Jesus

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