In Season and Out \\

Scripture reminds us there are only two seasons - in season and out of season. Even at that the call to be on the ready spans both seasons.

We might contend the real issue is adaptability. Circumstances change but our desire and intent to participate in the activity of God remains the constant. At least it should. Local churches face different seasons. Sometimes it is "in season" and sometimes it is "out of season." But, it is always time. That is, "When" is really not the first question. In fact, "When?" has an easy answer - always.

Our internal dissonance comes when what we desire needs to take a different form. We tend to become locked in our own developed patterns as if these patterns are themselves the end. They are not. What is the telos, or end game, remains the mission of God and that does not always take the same pattern for a given local church.

Unless, of course, we have so narrowly defined what that mission is in relationship to our local church.

At Snow Hill we have participated in planting churches in Colorado and Arizona. We have supported missionaries directly in Georgia and Guatemala. Snow Hill has adopted missionaries in France, soon to be Senegal, and Portland, Oregon. We maintain a growing local "mission of God" movement in the form of "Community Ministries." All while handling significant indebtedness for the past six years. We did not build an elaborate "Ya'll Come" building. Instead, we built a facility to house opportunities to embody the servant ministry of Jesus in our local context.

Our desire to live out the life of Jesus did not change as our seasons changed. Instead, we understood that patterns change as certain seasons come and go in the local expression of the Body of Christ. So, for Snow Hill, the question is not when. Always is the answer. The real battle is in breaking free of patters that become the strictures of our work rather than the facilitation of the Mission of God in the world.