Pat and I recently saw the movie Hope Springs which starred Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. They portrayed a couple in their 60s who had been married 31 years. Their marriage had been stale for some time and the wife finally took the initiative for them to enter into intensive couple’s therapy. At one point in their sessions together, the therapist said that married couples come to him for help to either save their marriage or to end their marriage.
I thought this was a powerful and telling statement and wondered if perhaps we should apply it to the church and our faith. It raises some questions: Are we saving relationships or ending them? Are we saving specific ministries and events at Green Tree or are we ending them? Are there ministry programs here that need to be saved or that need to end?
We could debate whether or not this or that program needs to be saved or ended but in its recent history Green Tree has been quite productive at having such discussions. So I am confident that discussions of this nature will occur when they need to.
So perhaps the question isn’t what program or event at the church needs to be saved or ended. Maybe the question that needs to be considered is whether or not our faith is in a state of flux to the point that we need to consider if it needs to be saved or ended. How is your faith? Is it vibrant and energetic or is it stale and not going anywhere? Do you have an active and close relationship with God or is God some remote thought that carries little meaning? Like a marriage, the state of our faith is something that ebbs and flows. It is something that may be vibrant at one point in our lives and in another instance it may be quite dull and lifeless. So it is up to us to decide whether or not our faith needs a life preserver or whether it is sailing along just fine. Whatever your conclusion, please know that your faith family exists to support and sustain you as we continue the work of Jesus, together.

Pastor Dave