What Kind of Day is Today?

This is an excerpt from the book, "The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Church For The Community" by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson - Chapter 1 - What Kind of Day Is Today?"
Jesus didn't ask, "Would you like to walk?" He asked the invalid at the pool of Bethesda, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5). . . maybe Jesus was alluding to something more than just walking. When he asks, "Do you want to get well?" Jesus is asking the man if he is ready for the change that is coming. The man's friends will most likely change. He won't be begging anymore; he won't be by the pool anymore. If he gets well, a lot of things will change.
"Do you want to get well?" That's the question Jesus asked the man at the pool and it's a question we (authors) asked at the end of our first book, "Externally Focused Church." We've come to discover that "Do you want to get well?" is one of many great questions Jesus asks. After 30 years in the "people business - most of it with congregations and their leaders - we have found that we don't want to get well. We want the pain or angst to stop, or we want good things to come, but the bottom line is that most of us don't really want change.
Have you ever noticed that the guy at the pool doesn't really answer this great question from Jesus? His response was something like, "Sir, everytime I try to get into the water, someone always gets in ahead of me." In other words, he says, "I would if I could but I can't, so I am not. It's not my fault."
What is true for us as individuals is almost always magnified when we get in a group. We have been with thousands of church leaders, and we often talk about how we want to get better as people, leaders, as congregations. We want to be more effective, reach more people, help people grow in their faith, serve more effectively. We want to get well! While a whole lot of us talk about what we ought to do, could do, might do, or should do, most of us end up sitting around the pool explaining to one another what's holding us back from change. Change is hard but necessary. Which means we need to ask ourselves hard questions that will hopefully spark a change - a lot of change - in our own churches and others.
Sometimes the questions are tough, but we have a responsibility to take the gospel that never changes to a world that will never be the same. Jesus may be the same yesterday, today and forever, but the world we are living in is changing everyday. Are you ready to ask some more tough questions about your church and the community? Are you ready to change the conversation once again? Do you want to get well?