Not only have I spent time looking at my personal relationship with God, I've been challenged through a book I've read to examine the priorities and commitments I've made as a pastor. There are as many different opinions about how a pastor should do his job as there are people in any given church. That's nothing new. What is new for me is the realization that I've done a slow slide toward people-pleasing and have not been sold out to pleasing God.
"You have to position yourself to
receive from God.
If you don't step out on faith, God won't bless what
you're doing." - Bill Easum
Here are a few of the reminders/lessons the Lord has brought to my mind through a book titled, "Go Big" by Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius:
- Dreams should be really Big, because we serve a really Big God.
- God wants His churches to grow, because as they grow, His Kingdom grows.
- The pastor is either the bottle-neck or the catalyst for growth in a church.
- Ephesians 3:20-21 -- We need to pray BIG!
- [Protection - Pastor - Accountability] I need to stand between protection and accountability. I need leaders/members help in protecting me personally, spiritually, socially, emotionally, so that I can lead. At the same time, I need to voluntarily submit myself to the Lord and to our Elders for accountability.
- Don't pray for rain without first getting an umbrella. If we are asking God to help us reach people for Jesus, what are we doing to prepare for them?
- There are natural growth barriers for churches. After 17 years, Crossroads has just passed through one of them - the 200 Barrier. The leadership I gave to help get us to 200 will not work to get us to 400. I must re-tool, learn new things, sharpen skills, and depend on God more than I have in the past.
That's enough for now. I'll pick this up with a part 2 posting in a few days. Tell me what you think.
1 comment:
God never ceases to amaze me. He is constantly challenging us to take a look at where we are and where we are going. Our God is a BIG God. He wants us to grab as many lost people as we can get our hands on, but we often don't--because we are afraid. I challenge our church body and all other Christians out there who may happen to stumble upon this to ask God for direction and boldness. We are not here merely to feed ourselves but to bring others to His awesome name!
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