Lift-Off

I have had thriving ministries, and a few times, have covered essentials for lift-off on this blog. But when one asks me: "How did you know you had lift-off?" the answer is very simple. In my first major ministry, I knew it when we introduced larger, custom-made collection plates. We had run into the problem of money piled so high that it slipped off the plates. In my second major ministry, I knew it when communion glasses ran out one Sunday, and everybody knew they had run out (we had the same problem with collection plates). I said to the congregation that day that this was a marker on our way, or something to that effect.