I have this problem with my daughters 2000 Pontiac Sunfire. Well, better said, I share a problem with my daughter concerning her 2000 Pontiac Sunfire. It leaks transmission fluid like crazy. I'm constantly refilling it, and watching the effects on the pavement in front of my house and, I suppose...on the environment. This fall she'll be going away to college. It won't be in the leaky 2000 Pontiac Sunfire.
The car itself has held up fairly well. We bought it for a couple grand, a couple of years ago. During that time, we've only had to replace one engine. That's not bad, is it? And the air-conditioning doesn't really work...unless it's cold outside. But the most frustrating thing by far is the continual, uniterrupted leaking.
When the fluid is where it's supposed to be, everything runs fine. Little by little it leaks out, and performance drops way off. I'm not a mechanic, but I'm pretty sure if the leak is allowed to continue, the car will eventually be useless.
Andy Stanley told us all years ago that VISION leaks, too. The amazing thing is that it leaks out constantly and quickly. In fact - unlike repairing a leaky seal on a car's transmission - vision leak in a church is absolutely unavoidable. And just as damaging. When all the vision leaks out, the church becomes useless.
Why does vision leak? You know. People are busy. Life is challenging. And unless we're constantly reminded of the things that are important...they literally leak out. Andy says it way better, but you get the idea.
Leslie and I noticed vision leak that was as real and tangible as the tranny fluid spots on my driveway. We used to put signs out in front of the church every week on Sundays. We were so proud of those modest little signs. We adorned them with balloons. They mattered, because we wanted people to know, um...where the church was.
Fast forward three years. We have a building next to the Cinema where we meet. It has a giant sign on the front of it. We have an awesome website. Billboards. Car magnets. T-shirts. But if you pull up to the shopping center where our building is next to the cinema where we meet on Sunday, you see a mish-mosh of run-down signs, weeds, rusty hunks of metal where big signs once used to be, and a broken down van someone's trying to sell. In fact, the van is the first thing you see when you drive by our building. Ugh!
Clearly, vision leaked...and it spilled out all over the parking lot. We're going to fix that so everyone knows where we are. (Probably a good idea if you want people to, you know...show up.) My mother didn't raise a dummy. Just someone who sometimes fails to notice the obvious. We'll try something like this:
(BTW, none of the businesses on the sign attached to the big one are even in the shopping center anymore. Their signs won't be there, and neither will the old Enterprise Dance Studio sign. Hopefully we can get the van moved too. Just hope I don't have to buy it to accomplish that. Hey wait, maybe my daughter could drive it to college. Yessss! Two problems solved!)
The sign is a great idea. Love it!!!
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