One preacher's confession ...

The leaves of some trees can really be beautiful this time of year with various colors like orange, red, yellow, or gold. Some of the leaves are falling. We have two types of Maple trees in our yard, one type has their roots all below ground and the other has roots partially going along the surface. The ones with roots below hang on to somewhere around 20% of their leaves until the spring, the other two are in a process of soon losing all of their leaves.

I see in the two Maple trees that are 'stubborn' about losing their leaves not just hope but also determination for the spring. In a real sense every individual and group go through a seasonal process, and I believe that such can happen each day. A process where the new behavior (even if such is a small change) pushes out the old (that which used to work well). Sometimes the new creative leaves, or behavior, must be repeatedly done so that the new healthy actions push out the old habits that are no longer effective.

What got my mind on this was a mixture of sitting where I can look out the window at the trees and reading some of Jesus' words from Matthew,

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest"

Matthew 9:37b-38

Today, every local church including the one I serve, and me, is in need of constantly changing the way we reach people for Jesus. The old leaves/methods are for now trying to hang on when they are no longer producing. Such calls for the courage to experiment with new leaves that will revitalize the tree.