Alexander Clark once said, "Let us watch well our beginnings and results will manage themselves." Someone else once said, "More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin." These quotes are particularly poignant to me and my church as we celebrated our first church and pastoral anniversary this weekend. It was a weekend to remember for many reasons particularly as we took the time to look back on our beginning and we we've learned in one year and I'd like to share some with you now...

1. We thought we needed "outer resources" but realized we need more "inner revival". One of the things we talked about alot this weekend was how we had many connections and resources that would have made church planting in NYC easier. Yet we believe God brought us out here because we would HAVE TO solely depend on him and get aligned 'again' with God for inner revival because we lead from the essence of who we are becoming.

2. We thought we needed to be finished but we learned we will perpetually be in a state of "being made". We always ran from the call not just because we lacked courage (though we did) but because we kept waiting for the timer to go off and say we were "done". That is not going to happen. We are and will be in a perpetual state of "being made" more into His image and that means that there will always be parts of us that we believe need to be worked on. Our humanity doesn't go away with the call.

3. We thought that vision was the most important but we realized foundation was just as important. There are tons and tons of books that tell you to work on your vision and that is great and it is needed but there are just as many leaders of churches and organizations that do not take the time to think about how they will establish culture or lay the foundation, and what they get is just a mini-me version of what they've seen/experienced in the past.

I don't know what our church is going to look like in a couple of years but our intention is to always work on being emotionally healthy disciples. As my friend Marcy shares "the opposite of dysfunction is dysfunction" and I surely want to put all that on the table as we lead and help mold leaders. I am tired of the church of status quo or the church that just doesn't know their reason for existence and where there are more emotional midgets than spiritual giants. We celebrated one year this weekend and it was one year we were through God's help hopefully help make a connection between God and people and people to other people, were being deep meant getting down and dirty with God and not necessarily being the first to throw down theological terms.

Wounded Healer is expecting a wonderful 2006...a year of growth and more connection to our God and Lord. God is moving and we know the best is yet to come. We are just doing what St. Francis of Assisi once said, "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

This weekend was also one to remember because I got to spend it with some good friends..Marcy, Betsy, Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera...family Pastors Marc & Enid Rivera and my church family. While most of them got stuck here due to the snowstorm in NYC, it was a pleasure to have this group together in one house! What great fun and discussions we had...all courtesy of the blizzard! Betsy, Pastors Marc and Enid left today and Rev. Ray and Marcy got a flight out tomorrow (Weds). I don't know when this group will ever be together like this again and I was blessed to have them here.

Liz Rios is a church birther in the North Miami/South Broward area of South Florida who is taking risks for God everyday and enjoying God blow her socks off when he shows up and shows off. She's a perpetual student finishing up her dissertation for her Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Most importantly, she is wife to Hiram and mom to Sam and DJ and her three dogs, Taino, Lady and Coco. Visit her blog at www.latinaliz.typepad.com or CEFL at www.cefl.org.