If the answer is yes then you need to locate the Cheese. Truly the cheese has been moved. People are not as committed as they were in the past. People don’t attend as regular as they did in the past. They don’t give at the level they once did. Your congregation is aging.

Each year you come up with a new vision yet nothing seems to change.

There was a well known book published by author Spencer Johnson. The book is about a simple parable about change. It is about 4 characters in a maze. Two were little people and two were mice. The two mice were Sniff and Scurry. The two little people were Hem and Haw. They lived inside the maze and they enjoyed a life of easy to obtain cheese.

One day the cheese ran out.

The metaphor is whether you have a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind. You can lose it!

And the maze of the cheese is where you look for what you want – the job, family, marriage, church, or friendships.

In the story the characters were faced with unexpected change. The two mice just did what their names implied, the Sniffed and Scurried about until one of them discovered where the cheese had been moved to.

The two little people never could get beyond the past to locate new place where the cheese was located. They used their brains. They reached conclusions based on human knowledge. They after much reason but failed to move on!

The mice Hem and Haw after a time of delay got up and went searching for the cheese.

Have you giving thought to looking at your situation from a different view point. I am now coming up on my second year as a retired pastor. I had discovered that seating in the pew is different from seating in the pulpit.

I see things not as the pastor but as the members. This is difficult to do just like driving your automobile and seeing the scenery along the highway. Sometimes if you want to see the countryside you need to take the bus.

I would love to have a one on one discussion about your 2020 expectations.