When I was a child, my parents had a percolator to make their coffee. What I liked about the percolator was that it made a distinctive sound. Those of you who have used a percolator know what sound I am talking about. Put the coffee in and turn it on. After a minute or so there would be a satisfying a little sound of water making a 'blurp' sound as it reached the boiling point. Then the sound would come again. And again. Soon it was a steady perking sound and then it would stop. The coffee was ready. Because I was quite young and because my brain works in a weird way, much as Mary Earle's, I connected that sound with the thought process that takes place when we gradually come to a thought that starts out small and grows. I even say that I have a thought percolating. This is not an original idea. I have heard others say the same thing, but it is a concept that started to go away with the Mr. Coffees and now the Keurigs. The sound is not the same and the coffee tastes different.

I say all of that so that the younger reader can understand. I have had a thought percolating. I am not sure it gives off that pleasant aroma (more like burning wires) but the process is now complete. The sounds in my brain have ceased.

In the state of Ohio, football reigns supreme, much like basketball in Indiana or soccer in the rest of the world. All other sports just fill the time void until football begins again. Baseball is the secondary sport in Ohio, then basketball and hockey are tied and then the track and field sports. Fishing is not really a sport here so much as it is a grocery run. But football is the big sport. I grew up in Ohio and I now live in Ohio, so I am back in the land of football. Highschool football is probably the most watched sport in the land, and it really does draw communities together.

From the 1930s through 1970, my old high school had one winning season. A winning season is defined as winning more games than you lose. A very poor farming community, we lacked the tax base for good equipment or even a nice playing field. Would-be players often had to hurry home from school to get the chores done. In a farm community, the farm comes first. The urban sprawl of Cleveland stopped just short of our little town, so we were small and everyone we played were much larger communities and had a much larger pool of players to select from. On other teams you had to try out to make the team. On our team you were good if you had seventeen players on the entire team.

In 1970 we had a new, young coach come in who was looking for a challenge. I was a freshman that year and this no-nonsense coach kind of scared me. He made us work and work really hard. He was kind of nuts. That first year we had four wins and six loses. Another losing season but better than most years. We were happy, but coach was not. During the off season that followed, if you had two study halls, one had to be spent lifting weights and running wind sprints. Four wins was not acceptable! 1971 was going to be different, or we would die trying!

And it was different. In 1971 we won seven and lost three. The next year we had a winning season again. And then, in 1973, my senior year, we again had a winning season. In fact, in every year since, that high school has had a winning season. Imagine, forty years of losing seasons followed by fifty two years of winning seasons until, finally, a state championship. What happened?

The coach who came in for my freshman year created a tradition of winning. He was there for seven years and then left to pursue another field. (Actually, he went into the ministry, which is another story.) The next coach was there well over a decade. He had been an assistant under the first coach. He was there until he passed away from cancer. The next coach, an assistant to the coach who had died, was there for an extended time. And the present coach, an assistant to the last coach, has led the team to the state championship this year. That winning attitude has spread to the other sports, as well, and Perry High School (Lake County) is one of the winningest programs in the state for all sports. When other schools now look at their schedules, they dread those games against Perry. 

What has been percolating in my mind is this; Other schools see only the winning tradition now. They don't see what preceded that winning tradition. You have to be an old goat like me to know. In the same way, when people see a large church, they see only the current programs and successes. But at some point, there was struggle. There was a time when the successful church had to put aside what the people wanted and embraced what God wanted. There was a time when that small, struggling church had to make some hard decisions to move forward in the Lord's path. There was a time when that small church realized they were not in charge. Most churches have personalities in them who see their ideas as being God's ideas because these personalities are arrogant. But, to be a growing, vibrant church, these arrogant personalities have to either let go of their arrogance or fall by the wayside. Victory is just in Jesus!

I have seen churches come to that crossroads. It is hard to look at what you think is right and realize it is your idea rather than the Lord's. It may not work out the way you envision, but it must work out the way the Lord has planned.

Some years ago I was working with a church that was in crisis. Good people and a good plan. Someone had gifted them ten prime acres of land. On one of our first meetings, I asked them what their goal was for the church. To a person in that room, they all agreed that the goal was to have a large church on that ten acres. Then I asked them what God's goal was for the church. There was confusion. Of course it was God's goal, as well! But was it? After three years of intense prayer, those people gifted the property to another Bible group and they dispersed to several different churches in the area. What those other churches received were Godly men and women who gave themselves up to follow the Lord and the whole area was stronger for it.

The winning tradition is always built on the foundation of those giving themselves up. BE THOSE PEOPLE WHO GIVE IT ALL TO THE LORD!

And be blessed.