The Death Zone is that last push to the summit of Mount Everest between 25,000 - 29,035 ft. above sea level - The highest place on earth!
Dan Mazur says, "at least 200 climbers have died on Everest since the mountain was first successfully scaled in 1953." Some drop off ledges, their bodies lost forever. Mazur figures that even if oxygen masks limit their vision, most climbers will spot at least 10 corpses en route to the summit. "It's one of the most horrible, humbling experiences I've ever had, walking over those dead bodies. A lot of times you have to step over their limbs." Some bodies have been on the mountain so long that they've become landmarks, preserved by extreme temperature.
I don't want the church I pastor or the churches of Penn-Del AG, or any Christ centered church for that matter, to become mere landmarks frozen in time.
It is an amazing and sad thought that churches and leaders can stop climbing and fail to summit their "God-given Everest". Leith Anderson comments in his book "Effective Leadership", that most churches never see their 100th birthday, which would be similar to most people. He states getting a 75 year old church to grow is like trying to get a 75 year old ready to compete in the Olympics.
As I started writing this afternoon I thought of many of you and prayed for you before sharing this thought. I trust you are still hungry to climb? Still reproducing in your later years. GT turns eighty this year and I feel with God's help we can go for gold! We can reach the summit God has for us!
There is a motto climbers understand and must answer at the base of the Hillary Step, it is this: AT THE DEATH ZONE YOU HAVE TO DECIDE TO GO NO FURTHER OR KEEP MOVING. Deciding to climb our Everest is optional, getting down is mandatory! Guys lets keep climbing!!!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Climbing Through The Death Zone
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2 comments:
Bryan, good post.
We have to find a way to get many of our churches through the death zone and into vitality again. It seems we have to wait until they are near death, ie. Milton, Red Lion and others, before we can do anything.
The transformation process is actually fun if the church wants it. But many churches get to the base and just freeze---to death.
Great post, Bryan. Let me go with it for a bit. Those corpses laying on Mt. Everest all have one thing in common - they are there alone. Pastors who attempt to "go it alone" risk the danger of falling off the mountain or dying along the journey, left strewn to the side as an artifact for the next climbing pastor to step over.
God help us to develop a team to climb with, where each team member helps the others to climb successfully to the top.
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