"I withheld my tongue even from good"

The Psalmist says that he withheld his tongue even from good. Today I did just that. I had a wonderful church service. Six days ago I asked my good friend, an elder in the church that I wanted to be prayed for by the leaders towards the end of the service. It happened that the church was holding its AGM today and most leaders were present. I saw about 15 people came out to the front and prayed for me. I was asked by the presiding elder to say a few words and I spent perhaps 3 minutes to say thanks and explained how it was exactly a year ago I announced my resignation from the Seminary (I was there for one year) and my application to serve again my church, SIB. It looks like I had waited 11 months before I accepted a call from a local church to be their pastor. After the church service, we went for a refreshment about 30 minutes before the AGM started at 11.30am. The senior pastor who is an old friend I know him in 1997 or 1998 during my time as the Treasurer-General and the pastor has always be friendly with me.

For the first time as a church member I attended the AGM and I sat there for just over an hour before excusing myself to return home to have a short rest for tonight's ministry in a village one and a half hour's drive from here. I will be departing shortly and will meet a fellow pastor at the nearby town and we will drive to the village another 30 minutes away.  

But during the AGM of my church, I refrained from speaking or making any comments. It's 18 months too late. A few church members asked questions about how the church leadership going to fulfil its vision of increasing membership by 250% by next year (a goal set in early 2023). In fact, a year ago I asked the elders about it and hinted strongly that if they wanted to start an evening service I was ready to help or even a second Sunday service. Even after several questions from the floor I did not hear of any strategy or plans to get to the goal of increased membership. 

It sounds very much like the denomination's 2020 vision. I must have heard it repeated 10 times when I was full-time in the College up in Ranau (2016-2018), but four years after 2020, 95% of the targets of the 2020 vision remains unreached or unfulfilled. As for me, whatever vision it might be, it requires strong and anointed leadership to cast the vision, get the members excited about it, lay down the plan or strategy to getting there, get everyone involved and with constant prayers and decisive leadership along the way, a vision can be achieved by God's grace. So today I kept quiet because there is nothing left for me to do, as in less than 4 weeks I shall be pastoring another church elsewhere and I kept my thoughts and plans to myself and some of these will be implemented in the church that I shall lead in a matter of weeks.