First & foremost I want to say thank you for the overwhelming response to my last post. The amount of people who read, prayed, and/or reached out to me was more encouraging than words can express. I want to reiterate that although the last year has been the hardest of our ministry, the last 3+ months have been the most exciting (mixed with scary), encouraging, refreshing, and re-energizing that we have ever experienced! That does not mean the last 3 months have been without struggle, but the struggle has produced a strength that is reflecting God's glory in beautiful & powerful ways.
Now, for a look at the BIG picture. I've blogged about the importance of longevity in ministry before, but I'm being reminded of it again as God is helping me catch glimpses... graceful glimpses... of the BIG picture plans he is working out in and through our church.
Mat & Tig-- On Saturday night Kelli and I were able to sit in our living room with our friends Mat & Antigony as we walked through our third pre-marriage mentorship meeting. Again, I don't want to paint a false picture. True pre-marriage mentoring is hard. It's designed to strengthen the couple and get them talking about difficult issues pre-marriage so they can more effectively navigate and overcome those challenges in marriage. But after Mat & Tig left our house, I couldn't help but remember some of my first encounters with Mat 5+ years ago.
Mat was a neighbor... he was a friend of friends. But to be honest, in my small faith, I never imagined that his life would be changed by the gospel. I never imagined that he and his soon to be wife (who we didn't even know at that point) would be a huge part of The Pathway. I never imagined that Kelli and I would have the opportunity to teach him about what a godly marriage can be and should be. I never thought I would be able to truly call him my friend. But God sees the BIG picture & I stand amazed at what God can do!
Raijoneah-- Many of you know that we held our first monthly worship gathering a couple of weeks ago. I stood up to preach the Word of God, looked out into the congregation, and there sat Raijoneah. Why is that significant? Well, we first met Raijoneah when she was in middle school and our church was still gathering on Friday nights at Tacoma United Methodist Church. Raijoneah was with our church for a while, but she, like so many, drifted away. She drifted from community.
Today, that middle schooler is about to graduate college! On her own initiative she not only sought out our worship gathering, she answered my challenge to every person in the room: "You're next step needs to be Intentional Community!" Almost 7 years ago we met Raijoneah. I don't know what God is doing in her heart. What I do know is she worshiped with us a few weeks ago, she began gathering with an Intentional Community last week, and she reached out for help digging deeper into the Word of God. I don't know what God is doing in Raijoneah's heart. But God sees the BIG picture & I stand amazed at what God can do!
Jerry-- I'm sitting in a coffee shop, as I so often do on Tuesday mornings, getting ready to go pick up Jerry from his final night in a hotel with his 13 month old baby. I don't remember when I first met Jerry but it was about 5 years ago. When I met him he was homeless. He's still homeless. Let that sink in for a moment....................... When I met Jerry, 5 years ago, he was homeless. He's still homeless. Only now, he's homeless with a 13 month old.
Jerry is one of those guys who's story breaks my heart and literally makes me cry out, "God! What are you doing here?" He's not just behind the 8 ball, he's off the table and out the door of the pool hall. He's been homeless since he was a kid, he didn't finish school, he doesn't have a job, a car, and he has a criminal record that makes it difficult to overcome anything. I hadn't seen Jerry in what I think has added up to a couple of years and then I ran into him "randomly" at a restaurant about 6 months ago. Sunday he called me. He said he didn't know what else to do. He's trying to take care of himself and his baby, but he's just not sure what to do. He said The Pathway has always treated him with love and respect, no matter what he looked like or what he did. So he called me. I'm going to spend time with Jerry and see how we can walk with him. I don't know what the future holds for Jerry. But God sees the BIG picture & I stand amazed at what God can do!
Please keep praying for The Pathway. We have lots of exciting things happening, many opportunities on the horizon, lots of decisions to make, and many roles to fill. I'm not sure what the future holds for The Pathway. I don't know what things will look like a year from now. But God sees the BIG picture & I stand amazed at what God can do!
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
If the "more" never comes...
It's been a long time since I posted a blog entry. My last post was February to be exact. While there are multiple reasons (excuses) for that, the truth is it's been too hard. I've shared before that the longer The Pathway has existed, the harder it is to blog. I write the same way I preach, with honesty and with transparency. But when you're planting a church, when you're the pastor of a church, every aspect of your life has to do with other people, their lives, their stories, their struggles, their joys, their pains, and their celebrations. And hear me clearly, I'm not complaining about my calling as a pastor. I'm blessed beyond belief, even on the most difficult days. But sometimes it's hard to find the words.
With that being said, I'm going to give the blog a shot again. No guarantees, but so many of you support my family and The Pathway, so many of you sacrifice a lot financially, so many of you pray faithfully, I want to do my best to keep you in the loop.
So here goes...
The last year has been the hardest of my ministry.
The last 3 months have been the best of my ministry.
The last 2 days have been absolutely miserable.
Cry me a river right? Hey, if you want honest you have to deal with a little bit of whining. But I promise, I'm not looking for sympathy! I know that even my worst days are dripping with hope because I am absolutely certain that my Redeemer Lives! Jesus Christ paid for every pain, every sin, every bit of brokenness and I am confident that he has never lost control. I have hope because Jesus not only died, he rose from the dead!!!
Why has the last year been so hard?
Well, we've seen a lot of brokenness over the past year. A lot. Most of you know that we strive not simply to be a church comprised of one gathering that meets on Sunday mornings, but a church of Intentional Communities that live life together in those smaller communities on a daily basis and are united with each other under the Lordship of Christ and around a common mission: We exist to reflect God's glory by reproducing disciples through Intentional Communities.
That's our goal. But life is messy. Church is messy. People are messy. So it doesn't always work out right. For a variety of reasons (and I truly mean that... there were many reasons, some good, some bad, some hard, some easy, some wrong, and some right), we saw an entire Intentional Community dissolve last year. Not just dissolve as an IC and join other IC's. We saw an entire IC leave The Pathway.
It broke my heart.
It breaks my heart.
While I recognize intellectually that I am not the chief shepherd of The Pathway, that would be Jesus. I am the under shepherd. But I still consider it my responsibility to care for the flock well on a daily basis. No matter what the reason, if a part of the body is broken, hurting, or dysfunctional, I take responsibility for that. And when an entire segment of the church leaves, I take responsibility for that too. I didn't do my job well. I failed the body. And I am so sorry to each person that I failed.
Before you start feeling bad for me, remember what I know to be true... Jesus said clearly to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in weakness! Praise Jesus for that reality because I long for God's power and I have a whole lot of weakness.
I hope, that without sharing all the details, that helps you understand why the last year was miserable. Why I genuinely considered giving up as a pastor, as a church planter. I know that's not what a leader is supposed to say, but it's the truth. There were extended amounts of time where I thought my failures were too great, my weaknesses too glaring, the brokenness too painful to continue. Ahh, but then I remembered the Chief Shepherd, Jesus, and the truth that he had not lost control, and he had not revoked my calling. And by God's grace, we pressed on!
Why have the last 3 months been so good?
The short answer is that over the last 3 months we broke all the "rules" of church for the purpose of cultivating greater clarity of purpose in the body, deeper unity surrounding that clarity of mission, and ultimately pursuing greater strength corporately. And it wasn't just breaking the rules that made the last 3 months fantastic, it was the fact that we were following Jesus every step of the way!
I mean that with all my heart. There is nothing more hopeful, more satisfying, more peaceful, and more joyful than following Jesus! It's not always easy... and the last 3 months have not been easy. Everyone is not always going to think you're doing the right thing... we definitely experienced a lot of questioning and push back over the last 3 months... but we followed Jesus and he never gets off course!
What did that look like?
Well, we felt like we were becoming a church that was simply surviving instead of thriving. That's not good. And we felt like 10% of the people were doing 90% of the ministry. That's not good. So we decided to slam on the breaks, gathering everyone together for an extended family meeting (months not hours), teach non-stop on vision (reflecting God's glory by reproducing disciples through Intentional Community), and then re-launch stronger than ever before! We have called this season re:SET.
What is re:SET?
June-- In the month of June we did not gather on Sundays at all. Our Intentional Communities continued to gather, but we just gave all of our most committed volunteers a break from all the logistics of "portable church." It was a time to re:FRESH and it was so sweet and needed!
July-- In July we had a re:UNION so to speak on Sunday mornings at my home. That's right! My home (God bless my wife!). One Sunday we had over 70 people at my house... 1400 sq. ft. of craziness! Of course we flooded into the back yard as well. But we didn't just reunite, we also re:TRAINED. We spent 4 weeks talking in depth about what it means to be Intentional Community (see Acts... specifically Acts 1-4) and helped people think about and identify the role God has uniquely called them to play in our church. It was messy and it was beautiful!
August-- August was all about mission. Even when you're a portable church you have trouble getting outside the "4 walls" of whatever building you can find... school, house, whatever! So every Sunday morning in August we hit the streets of the Hilltop (our neighborhood) and served the homeless. It was again, very messy, but it was also uniquely incredible! We saw people step up and serve who had never done mission with us before. I witnessed people sharing the gospel who had probably never shared the gospel before. Our church gave money. Our church gave time. Our church gave their lives for the sake of the gospel. It was incredible.
What now?
Now we are waiting. We're trying to be patient and trying not to rush back to our "normal" church routines too quickly. Our IC's are regathering in their smaller forms, coming up with their own unique plan to "be the church" together. We're diving into monthly Sunday gatherings first and as we grow and gain greater commitment from our people, we will follow Jesus where he leads. We think that he will lead us to weekly worship gatherings sooner rather than later, but wherever he leads, we'll go!
Why has it been an absolutely miserable 2 days?
I'm not really sure. I think the best I can say is that I started taking my eyes off Jesus and began to become a slave to fear, feeling discouraged and overwhelmed. I thought I would share with you the un-edited, albeit shortened journal entry I made yesterday to give you some insight into the daily struggle I feel as a pastor... I'm sure it's a struggle your pastor feels too. Maybe it will help you pray for me. Maybe it will help you pray for him.
Father-- To say that yesterday and this morning were a struggle would be a huge understatement. I feel like yesterday I was incredibly mad and today I was incredibly discouraged and overwhelmed. I literally was thinking in my head and coming up with ways to justify in my mind that I want more. Specifically when it comes to ministry and the church. I long for more. Then I logged on to North Point and decided to listen to one song and the chorus smashed me in the heart.
Christ is enough for me.
Christ is enough for me.
Everything I need is in you Lord.
Everything I need.
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back
No turning back.
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, no turning back.
The cross before me
The world behind me
No turning back
No turning back
The cross before me
The world behind me
No turning back, no turning back.
I think Father, and I pray that you would continue to work in me, I think it's not wrong for me to want more for our church and our city as long as Jesus truly is enough. If the more never comes Lord, I declare, Jesus is enough for me!
With that being said, I'm going to give the blog a shot again. No guarantees, but so many of you support my family and The Pathway, so many of you sacrifice a lot financially, so many of you pray faithfully, I want to do my best to keep you in the loop.
So here goes...
The last year has been the hardest of my ministry.
The last 3 months have been the best of my ministry.
The last 2 days have been absolutely miserable.
Cry me a river right? Hey, if you want honest you have to deal with a little bit of whining. But I promise, I'm not looking for sympathy! I know that even my worst days are dripping with hope because I am absolutely certain that my Redeemer Lives! Jesus Christ paid for every pain, every sin, every bit of brokenness and I am confident that he has never lost control. I have hope because Jesus not only died, he rose from the dead!!!
Why has the last year been so hard?
Well, we've seen a lot of brokenness over the past year. A lot. Most of you know that we strive not simply to be a church comprised of one gathering that meets on Sunday mornings, but a church of Intentional Communities that live life together in those smaller communities on a daily basis and are united with each other under the Lordship of Christ and around a common mission: We exist to reflect God's glory by reproducing disciples through Intentional Communities.
That's our goal. But life is messy. Church is messy. People are messy. So it doesn't always work out right. For a variety of reasons (and I truly mean that... there were many reasons, some good, some bad, some hard, some easy, some wrong, and some right), we saw an entire Intentional Community dissolve last year. Not just dissolve as an IC and join other IC's. We saw an entire IC leave The Pathway.
It broke my heart.
It breaks my heart.
While I recognize intellectually that I am not the chief shepherd of The Pathway, that would be Jesus. I am the under shepherd. But I still consider it my responsibility to care for the flock well on a daily basis. No matter what the reason, if a part of the body is broken, hurting, or dysfunctional, I take responsibility for that. And when an entire segment of the church leaves, I take responsibility for that too. I didn't do my job well. I failed the body. And I am so sorry to each person that I failed.
Before you start feeling bad for me, remember what I know to be true... Jesus said clearly to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in weakness! Praise Jesus for that reality because I long for God's power and I have a whole lot of weakness.
I hope, that without sharing all the details, that helps you understand why the last year was miserable. Why I genuinely considered giving up as a pastor, as a church planter. I know that's not what a leader is supposed to say, but it's the truth. There were extended amounts of time where I thought my failures were too great, my weaknesses too glaring, the brokenness too painful to continue. Ahh, but then I remembered the Chief Shepherd, Jesus, and the truth that he had not lost control, and he had not revoked my calling. And by God's grace, we pressed on!
Why have the last 3 months been so good?
The short answer is that over the last 3 months we broke all the "rules" of church for the purpose of cultivating greater clarity of purpose in the body, deeper unity surrounding that clarity of mission, and ultimately pursuing greater strength corporately. And it wasn't just breaking the rules that made the last 3 months fantastic, it was the fact that we were following Jesus every step of the way!
I mean that with all my heart. There is nothing more hopeful, more satisfying, more peaceful, and more joyful than following Jesus! It's not always easy... and the last 3 months have not been easy. Everyone is not always going to think you're doing the right thing... we definitely experienced a lot of questioning and push back over the last 3 months... but we followed Jesus and he never gets off course!
What did that look like?
Well, we felt like we were becoming a church that was simply surviving instead of thriving. That's not good. And we felt like 10% of the people were doing 90% of the ministry. That's not good. So we decided to slam on the breaks, gathering everyone together for an extended family meeting (months not hours), teach non-stop on vision (reflecting God's glory by reproducing disciples through Intentional Community), and then re-launch stronger than ever before! We have called this season re:SET.
What is re:SET?
June-- In the month of June we did not gather on Sundays at all. Our Intentional Communities continued to gather, but we just gave all of our most committed volunteers a break from all the logistics of "portable church." It was a time to re:FRESH and it was so sweet and needed!
July-- In July we had a re:UNION so to speak on Sunday mornings at my home. That's right! My home (God bless my wife!). One Sunday we had over 70 people at my house... 1400 sq. ft. of craziness! Of course we flooded into the back yard as well. But we didn't just reunite, we also re:TRAINED. We spent 4 weeks talking in depth about what it means to be Intentional Community (see Acts... specifically Acts 1-4) and helped people think about and identify the role God has uniquely called them to play in our church. It was messy and it was beautiful!
August-- August was all about mission. Even when you're a portable church you have trouble getting outside the "4 walls" of whatever building you can find... school, house, whatever! So every Sunday morning in August we hit the streets of the Hilltop (our neighborhood) and served the homeless. It was again, very messy, but it was also uniquely incredible! We saw people step up and serve who had never done mission with us before. I witnessed people sharing the gospel who had probably never shared the gospel before. Our church gave money. Our church gave time. Our church gave their lives for the sake of the gospel. It was incredible.
What now?
Now we are waiting. We're trying to be patient and trying not to rush back to our "normal" church routines too quickly. Our IC's are regathering in their smaller forms, coming up with their own unique plan to "be the church" together. We're diving into monthly Sunday gatherings first and as we grow and gain greater commitment from our people, we will follow Jesus where he leads. We think that he will lead us to weekly worship gatherings sooner rather than later, but wherever he leads, we'll go!
Why has it been an absolutely miserable 2 days?
I'm not really sure. I think the best I can say is that I started taking my eyes off Jesus and began to become a slave to fear, feeling discouraged and overwhelmed. I thought I would share with you the un-edited, albeit shortened journal entry I made yesterday to give you some insight into the daily struggle I feel as a pastor... I'm sure it's a struggle your pastor feels too. Maybe it will help you pray for me. Maybe it will help you pray for him.
Father-- To say that yesterday and this morning were a struggle would be a huge understatement. I feel like yesterday I was incredibly mad and today I was incredibly discouraged and overwhelmed. I literally was thinking in my head and coming up with ways to justify in my mind that I want more. Specifically when it comes to ministry and the church. I long for more. Then I logged on to North Point and decided to listen to one song and the chorus smashed me in the heart.
Christ is enough for me.
Christ is enough for me.
Everything I need is in you Lord.
Everything I need.
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back
No turning back.
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, no turning back.
The cross before me
The world behind me
No turning back
No turning back
The cross before me
The world behind me
No turning back, no turning back.
I think Father, and I pray that you would continue to work in me, I think it's not wrong for me to want more for our church and our city as long as Jesus truly is enough. If the more never comes Lord, I declare, Jesus is enough for me!
Monday, February 22, 2016
Thanks for the hug Jesus
We've been going through a pretty challenging time here in Tacoma. We were sad to say good-bye to Adam & Khylee Forgety, our Associate Pastor and his wife, along with their precious son Eli. They were more than staff members though, they are friends to us and literally a part of our Tacoma family. Please pray for them as they are in a time of transition right now. It's exciting but also scary as they step into a new phase of life. We already miss them a ton. The Pathway is not the same without them.
We also experienced what felt like a tsunami of difficult situations in the life of our church. People are people and wherever there are people there are tough situations, emotional pain, relational challenges, new callings, life transitions, and on and on the list could go. For a couple months I felt like I was spending all my time at coffee or on the phone with people who were sincerely wrestling with God's calling on their lives, tough situations at home, family dynamics, struggles with the church and their role in the body, and overall life challenges. This is of course normal in life and in church, but it just felt extreme.
Then came last week. Not to be too cheesy, but sometimes I think God knows his kids just need a hug. And last week God gave me a really big and extended bear hug. This is what it looked like...
We have a family in our church that we connected with this past summer through another family in our church. It's been so fun getting to know them and see God working in their lives through some incredibly challenging situations. One of the things we've been praying for with them is for a member of their family to come to faith in Christ. Well, last Sunday he indicated a desire to get baptized! Of course that begs the question: Do you believe? One of our Intentional Community Leaders was able to sit down and talk with him about it and pray with him as he professed faith in Jesus! Thanks for the hug Jesus!
Then on Thursday evening I invited myself to one of our Intentional Community gatherings because they were having a farewell "sending" party for Erin, the first international missionary to be sent out by The Pathway. It was absolutely incredible to spend time with that Intentional Community. They of course are not perfect and I'm sure do not always function easily, but it was beautiful to not just attend a Bible study (although I do of course love to study the Bible!), but to get to spend the evening with a group of people that felt more like family than church acquaintances. I was with a group of people who very obviously sharing life together. Food was brought and shared, kids were running around like crazy, stories were told and it all culminated in a sweet and powerful time of prayer over Erin. Thanks for the hug Jesus!
Later that evening I got a text from one of our newest Intentional Community Leaders. His Intentional Community was launching a new marriage study that evening and of course we were all nervous and hopeful that it would go well. His text just said, "It went well." Of course I inquired more and found out that they had a total of 4 couples in attendance... which was huge for them because to that point they had really only had 2 committed couples. Over the next couple days I had representatives from 2 of the newer families seek me out and tell me how blessed they were by the study and how excited they were to be a part of this new Intentional Community. Thanks for the hug Jesus!
And then on Saturday we launched our new men's ministry called Together:Men. We tried to start it once before and although the first gathering went well, we had some changes in the leadership and it kind of flopped after that... a seemingly missed opportunity. With that in mind, I didn't know exactly what to expect this time. We planned a work day where we travelled to our sending church in Snoqualmie and helped them work on their new (old) church building. We ended up with 12 guys in attendance! Some long-time Pathway men and some brand new! We crammed into the old church van, made the hour-long trek to Snoqualmie, and had an absolute blast serving side-by-side. I definitely think it was the start of something significant! Thanks for the hug Jesus.
And thank you all for praying for us through this time of transition. As I mentioned above, please continue to pray for the Forgety family. Please pray for God to provide us with a permanent worship leader. By God's grace alone we found a humble and passionate man of God, Jordan Brokaw, who is serving us in an interim capacity. He's been with us for 2 Sundays now and it has been an absolute joy. Please pray for Jordan as he continues to serve our church and pray for the Spirit to lead us to the man God has in mind to take us into the future!
We also experienced what felt like a tsunami of difficult situations in the life of our church. People are people and wherever there are people there are tough situations, emotional pain, relational challenges, new callings, life transitions, and on and on the list could go. For a couple months I felt like I was spending all my time at coffee or on the phone with people who were sincerely wrestling with God's calling on their lives, tough situations at home, family dynamics, struggles with the church and their role in the body, and overall life challenges. This is of course normal in life and in church, but it just felt extreme.
Then came last week. Not to be too cheesy, but sometimes I think God knows his kids just need a hug. And last week God gave me a really big and extended bear hug. This is what it looked like...
We have a family in our church that we connected with this past summer through another family in our church. It's been so fun getting to know them and see God working in their lives through some incredibly challenging situations. One of the things we've been praying for with them is for a member of their family to come to faith in Christ. Well, last Sunday he indicated a desire to get baptized! Of course that begs the question: Do you believe? One of our Intentional Community Leaders was able to sit down and talk with him about it and pray with him as he professed faith in Jesus! Thanks for the hug Jesus!
Then on Thursday evening I invited myself to one of our Intentional Community gatherings because they were having a farewell "sending" party for Erin, the first international missionary to be sent out by The Pathway. It was absolutely incredible to spend time with that Intentional Community. They of course are not perfect and I'm sure do not always function easily, but it was beautiful to not just attend a Bible study (although I do of course love to study the Bible!), but to get to spend the evening with a group of people that felt more like family than church acquaintances. I was with a group of people who very obviously sharing life together. Food was brought and shared, kids were running around like crazy, stories were told and it all culminated in a sweet and powerful time of prayer over Erin. Thanks for the hug Jesus!
Later that evening I got a text from one of our newest Intentional Community Leaders. His Intentional Community was launching a new marriage study that evening and of course we were all nervous and hopeful that it would go well. His text just said, "It went well." Of course I inquired more and found out that they had a total of 4 couples in attendance... which was huge for them because to that point they had really only had 2 committed couples. Over the next couple days I had representatives from 2 of the newer families seek me out and tell me how blessed they were by the study and how excited they were to be a part of this new Intentional Community. Thanks for the hug Jesus!
And then on Saturday we launched our new men's ministry called Together:Men. We tried to start it once before and although the first gathering went well, we had some changes in the leadership and it kind of flopped after that... a seemingly missed opportunity. With that in mind, I didn't know exactly what to expect this time. We planned a work day where we travelled to our sending church in Snoqualmie and helped them work on their new (old) church building. We ended up with 12 guys in attendance! Some long-time Pathway men and some brand new! We crammed into the old church van, made the hour-long trek to Snoqualmie, and had an absolute blast serving side-by-side. I definitely think it was the start of something significant! Thanks for the hug Jesus.
And thank you all for praying for us through this time of transition. As I mentioned above, please continue to pray for the Forgety family. Please pray for God to provide us with a permanent worship leader. By God's grace alone we found a humble and passionate man of God, Jordan Brokaw, who is serving us in an interim capacity. He's been with us for 2 Sundays now and it has been an absolute joy. Please pray for Jordan as he continues to serve our church and pray for the Spirit to lead us to the man God has in mind to take us into the future!
Monday, January 18, 2016
Hard.
Everything about life and ministry is hard. I think about my brothers and sisters in Christ being persecuted around the world and I realize how insignificant and petty my "hard" things really are. At the same time, "hard" is relative, and I think it's ok to admit things feel hard even if they might seem small when comparing them to larger global issues.
Change. Change is so hard. When you first plant a church, or at least when we planted The Pathway, change isn't a big deal at all. There's no history. There are no committees. There are no agendas. There aren't even any "churched" people. But now that we've been in Tacoma 6 years, we're starting to feel the difficulty of change. You grow to love so many different things... but you grow to love people in particular. Whether it's due to a move, a change in life stage, something simpler or something more difficult, change is hard.
Autonomy. Standing on our own two feet is hard. In every aspect of the church, we see a biblical model of dependence. We are to lean on each other, we are to lean on Jesus, we are to lean on the Holy Spirit. But in church planting, the goal is autonomy and ultimately reproduction... hopefully even multiplication. But autonomy is hard. Autonomy is scary. Autonomy demands faith.
Generosity. Generosity is really, really hard. Not at first mind you. But once you live generously, I mean extremely generously, either individually or corporately, and then you get burned... it's really hard to keep being generous. But Jesus was generous. We are called to be generous. We can't stop no matter how hard it is.
Leadership. Leadership is hard. There are more days than I care to admit when I would like to throw all my responsibility out the window. Leadership means pain. When others struggle, you struggle. When others hurt, you hurt. It also means joy. But somehow the pain seems to come in larger doses than the joy... at times. Leadership is also hard in the realm of raising up and empowering biblical leaders. Specifically elders. We have desired to be an elder-led church since our inception, but I believe with all my heart you don't just pick elders. I believe elders are called by God and it's simply (or not so simply) our job to identify them. They have to want it. They have to be called. They have to be qualified. And they don't grow on trees. Leadership is hard.
Reproduction. Reproduction is our vision. We want to be a reproducing church. But it's so stinking' hard. Every time you feel like you've got something good going... BAM!... brick wall. And you don't want to reproduce the wrong things. That would be like passing around a disease. You can infect so many different people and negatively impact the Kingdom of God by reproducing the wrong things. Reproduction is hard.
All these things are hard, but they are absolutely no match for the power of God's Word! We've been studying Genesis as a church and it's rocking my world! God is so big and he cares so much. He cares about the big things, but he also cares about the little things. I have hope because of his bigness. I have hope because of his personal nature. I have hope because of his omnipotence. I have hope because of his love and grace through Jesus. I have hope even in the midst of the hard.
I'll close with words from the Apostle Paul that have brought me great hope in the midst of recent hard.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV)
Keep praying! God is working in the midst of the "hard" and I'm excited to see all that he has in store for The Pathway and for the city of Tacoma in 2016 and beyond!
Change. Change is so hard. When you first plant a church, or at least when we planted The Pathway, change isn't a big deal at all. There's no history. There are no committees. There are no agendas. There aren't even any "churched" people. But now that we've been in Tacoma 6 years, we're starting to feel the difficulty of change. You grow to love so many different things... but you grow to love people in particular. Whether it's due to a move, a change in life stage, something simpler or something more difficult, change is hard.
Autonomy. Standing on our own two feet is hard. In every aspect of the church, we see a biblical model of dependence. We are to lean on each other, we are to lean on Jesus, we are to lean on the Holy Spirit. But in church planting, the goal is autonomy and ultimately reproduction... hopefully even multiplication. But autonomy is hard. Autonomy is scary. Autonomy demands faith.
Generosity. Generosity is really, really hard. Not at first mind you. But once you live generously, I mean extremely generously, either individually or corporately, and then you get burned... it's really hard to keep being generous. But Jesus was generous. We are called to be generous. We can't stop no matter how hard it is.
Leadership. Leadership is hard. There are more days than I care to admit when I would like to throw all my responsibility out the window. Leadership means pain. When others struggle, you struggle. When others hurt, you hurt. It also means joy. But somehow the pain seems to come in larger doses than the joy... at times. Leadership is also hard in the realm of raising up and empowering biblical leaders. Specifically elders. We have desired to be an elder-led church since our inception, but I believe with all my heart you don't just pick elders. I believe elders are called by God and it's simply (or not so simply) our job to identify them. They have to want it. They have to be called. They have to be qualified. And they don't grow on trees. Leadership is hard.
Reproduction. Reproduction is our vision. We want to be a reproducing church. But it's so stinking' hard. Every time you feel like you've got something good going... BAM!... brick wall. And you don't want to reproduce the wrong things. That would be like passing around a disease. You can infect so many different people and negatively impact the Kingdom of God by reproducing the wrong things. Reproduction is hard.
All these things are hard, but they are absolutely no match for the power of God's Word! We've been studying Genesis as a church and it's rocking my world! God is so big and he cares so much. He cares about the big things, but he also cares about the little things. I have hope because of his bigness. I have hope because of his personal nature. I have hope because of his omnipotence. I have hope because of his love and grace through Jesus. I have hope even in the midst of the hard.
I'll close with words from the Apostle Paul that have brought me great hope in the midst of recent hard.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV)
Keep praying! God is working in the midst of the "hard" and I'm excited to see all that he has in store for The Pathway and for the city of Tacoma in 2016 and beyond!
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