Tweet Recently, I shared with Grace Community Church the purpose of the church. I’m not sure we always get it right. What do you think the purpose of the church…
Read More
Just a quick reminder…
If you only follow the rules others set for you…
If you only do what others call “safe”…
If you never risk it all…
If you never step out of the norm…
There’s a chance….
We have had an incredible journey these last five years as a new church. God continues to amaze us. I am consistently asked the story of starting Grace Community Church. Specifically other planters want to know what we did prior to launch. I’ve been asked enough that I thought it was worth sharing here.
The vision for Grace was placed on my heart 10 years before this process began. There were three of us sharing the vision, but the other two moved, I wasn’t in full-time ministry at the time, so the dream basically died…at least to me.
That’s when our timeline begins in May of 2004:
It’s Monday morning…
I have spoken with many pastors who share a common struggle with each other. If it was a good Sunday…one where God’s Spirit was at work…during the 24-hour period from Sunday noon and Monday noon…they face doubt and frustration.
Yesterday was one of those days for me. I know I was speaking truth. I know God was working, but I was teaching on marriage to many who are undergoing tough times in their marriage. It was hard and I felt as though I was adding insult to injury to many. I left feeling down and allowing the enemy to discourage me.
I am blessed to have several in our church sensitive to this issue…or sensitive to God’s Spirit in their own life. Yesterday afternoon I received this email from someone in our church:
Dear church planter (and others)…
In the growth phase, everything is changing, life moves at rocket pace…
Somedays you don’t know whether you are coming or going…
It’s a bit overwhelming, stressful, even a bit scary at times…
I hear this often from new church plants and fast growing churches…
I feel (and identify with) your pain…
I see part of my calling to help church leaders during this time…
I pray you protect your heart and your family…
But…
Theory: The rate of increase, often determines the rate of decline.
In my early twenties, I was working in retail and this theory developed in my mind as I watched dozens of items gather immediate interest, grow rapidly in popularity, quickly rack up sales, but then as a fad changed, the item sales just as quickly decline. I called it my “fad theory”. Other items grew slower, but styles changed gradually and so they slowly began to decline in sales.
Let me give you two classic examples I observed firsthand:
Thanksgiving should be more than a day.
In the United States, we set aside one day a year to ceremonially show our appreciation for all we have been given. No one would disagree that this practice shouldn’t be limited to just once day. With that in mind, I thought I’d use part of my blog this week to share a little gratitude. Throughout this week I’ll be sharing some things and people I’m thankful for in my life.
Today I want to talk about people who have had a huge impact on me professionally. I’m a pastor now. I haven’t always been one. I was in the business world for many years before God called me into ministry. When I think of the process God used to prepare me for ministry, three men immediately come to mind. There are many people along the way who have helped me, but these three made significant investments in my spiritual maturity and preparation for ministry.
Here are three people who helped me be where I am today professionally:
Part of being a good leader is not taking opportunities even though you can. Sometimes letting your staff do something you could do, maybe even would like to do, is a better for the entire team.
When we launched our church eleven couples took a risk on a dream we felt God was leading us to pursue. We empowered this core team to do things the way they felt best doing them, as long as they were achieving the vision we knew God was calling us to achieve. We encouraged them to explore new ideas, become experts in their field of interest, and then released them to dream and build. It became part of our DNA and we are still allowing people to explore new opportunities.
For example,
I love a good bad idea…don’t you?
The truth is…in a healthy organization…there are no bad ideas…at least not in the organizational sense.
Here’s what I mean…
I was thinking about you this morning. Maybe not you specifically, but I was thinking of someone like you…that is if you are someone who is sitting on the sidelines afraid to pursue your God-given dreams, watching the world pass you by. Was I thinking of you?
Maybe it’s because I encounter many people at their point of desperation…when they are tempted to give up…
It could be because I’m wired to dream big dreams…or because I’ve been sidelined for a time…watching everyone else pursuing their dreams except me…
But, for whatever the reason, I continually sense the need to encourage people to move forward with their dreams and aspirations.
Have you thought lately about the legacy you are leaving? Will you leave a legacy of having followed the dreams you had for your life?
If that’s your desire for a legacy…you may have to: