As a kind of liturgy, I stand before our five-year-old church every September and ask a question: "Should we continue to exist as a church for another year?" You can hear pins drop every time.

The entire community—new comers, old comers, elders, parents—are always caught off guard by my question. Surveying the faces, I can see their intuitive responses. I enjoy the awkwardness. They think that something tragic has happened. Is he quitting? Is he rejecting the Trinity? Is there some glaring moral failure we're about to hear?

Of course the answers are always no. But it's that immediate, guttural reaction of uncertainty that I'm after; even if for a moment everyone imagines worst-case scenarios. For me, there's intention and rationale behind simply asking the "should we?" question about our future.

As the pastor, I never want to assume that we should keep our ministry going just to keep it going. I desire Jesus to breathe freshly into us each year. Now, I certainly hope that our folks affirm ...