Summer. Got to love it. Lawn mowing, sun tanning, baseball, cookouts and family. Just a great time of year. I don't know that I fully was ready for summer to begin but it is here none the less. Since this is the first summer of our new church and the first one I have gone through as a lead pastor, I really don't know what to expect except the faithfulness of God.
This past week was our lowest attendance ever at Fellowship. Honestly, it was tough. Through the 2 years of training that I went through everyone tried to tell us that this would happen. They don't call it the Summer Slump for nothing, you know! I am becoming more and more aware that at key points in the process I think I checked out mentally or thought that my giftings would be enough to get us through and we would never drop below 100. Therefore, I didn't take the information that successful church planters were trying to give me. I now understand that they were hoping to spare me the reality shock to the system that I have now experienced.
48 hours removed from Sunday, a few phone calls to key people in my life and a good afternoon alone with God and the "little white ball" I have come to some conclusions and thought I would write them down here. Hope they help someone else because the are helping me. So here goes some real transparency. Can you dig it?
1. GET OVER YOURSELF - There is perhaps no greater thrill in my life than leading Fellowship Church. I have dreamed of this for years and to see it coming to pass, to hear the stories of those who are attending and seeing life change happen is amazing. Within that comment though is a grain of pride. I had heard the following statement made by church planters before me who said, "Church planting will break you like nothing else." Well, I though I had already been broken but I am finding that a big part of the breaking process is responding to the bit in my mouth.
Breaking a horse is not only about getting on it, it's about controlling it. 1 John 2:3 says, "We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands." To live by the spirit is to follow the leading of His presence within us. We will know we are broken when we not only give place to Him in our lives but when we respond to the bit of his leading, guiding and direction.
What happens when we don't? Well this is not a complete list but here are a few of my thoughts right now:
- Giving into temptation. The closer we move toward brokenness the more sensing of the spirit we need because the temptation scale will increase as well. We are not sure if Jesus was ever tempted prior to the wilderness experience that followed his baptism. The one thing we are certain of is after Jesus made a step out and up the temptations hit him hard and in the face. The Bible says he was "driven by the spirit." That's control - he submitted himself to the control of the spirit. If we want to move to true brokenness, we have to embrace the bit of control.
- Depression. Someone once told me, "you are your own worst enemy." That has stuck with me the last few days. In fact, it's becoming a rally cry inside of myself. Though it is true, I am going to change it. If I don't, I am going to battle depression. But the deeper reality is, that I should be my biggest fan. Let me unpack my thought here for a moment. There came a point in David's life where he believed in himself and his God when no one else did. He was confident in his ability and his God in the face of the giant that sent even a king into hiding. It's so easy to spiritualize this and say that he was confident in God. True, but he picked out the stones. He loaded them into the slingshot. He swong it and released the rock. KEY: He did what he could do and then let God take care of the rest. If we can get a hold of this I believe we can decapitate depression before it decapitates us, our vision and our faith.
2. DON'T MAKE REACTIONARY DECISIONS. In a phone call yesterday, one of the major voices in my life cautioned me against making a reactionary decision. I think to be a church planter you have to be driven. That drive is what causes us to organize a group of people and birth something out of nothing. That drive, if not bridled can cause us to react to situations instead of responding to them. The difference between the two is small but huge. If we react we are prone to make things worse in an effort to make them better. To respond to a situation is to get all the information together and make a decisions based on facts and not feelings. Those decisionis will make the organzation better in the long run even if there is a little pain in the beginning. Sometimes we forget that God spent thousands of years planning his response to the sin problem of humanity. I am so glad he didn't react - we would not be here if he had!
3. DON'T FORGET IT'S NOT A SPRINT. I have spent the last two years of my life getting ready for Fellowship. That's a long time of prep work. We all want to be the next great success story. We want to see people coming to Christ by the hundrends. But those kind of things don't happen over night - they take consistent, long standing effort. Matt Keller, in his awesome book, The Up The Middle Church talks about the marathon of church planting. Sounds great. Easy to make metal assent to the concept. But when you hit your first summer, I think it takes on new meaning. Paul said it this way, "I have run this race..." Determine to pace yourself, build stamina and run your race - don't try to run someone elses.
4. STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS ALONG THE WAY. Don't forget to celebrate the small victories and life change that is happening in the early stages of the church - they will be the center pieces of your stories in the future. In God's perfect timing, I just received some emails and text messages from people who have come to Fellowship since we started. Life change is happening. Couples are growing together. Wives are seeing husbands get involved. Kids are getting baptized. I just realized my wife had fresh cut flowers on the table the other day. They are dead now. I wonder what they smelled like? If I would have taken the time to look, I would have be able to enjoy their aroma. God, help us all stop our pace long enough to smell the scent of fresh cut flowers you have put on display in our minitries. The flowers of life change. Someone once said, "Don't despise the day of small beginnings." I think this is what they meant.
So come on summer. Bring it on. We will focus on building relationships with the first crop of Fellowship members. We are going to get them plugged in and trained up. Then when fall comes, we are going to hit new highs, reach new people, grow bigger but God's name is going to get top billing. This is about making His fame great - not mine or even ours. The sunset is coming into focus. The paint is ready and the brushes are at work.
So to my fellow church planters, be encouraged. I am praying for any of you who are expreiencing what I have this week. It's normal. Believe it. Accept it and make it work to your advantage!
Going for the prize - one life at a time!
