I keep saying this series is about to end…but then I keep thinking of things that I really do wish someone would have told me. So here goes..
#8 - Do Not Be Arrogant
I’ve always said that one of the most dangerous things God could give to someone is success. I’ve seriously seen people abuse God’s favor…and the reason I recognize it so well is because I used to be among that crowd.
When we first began as a church we had 15 people meeting in a living room…and on our first Sunday we had 115 people show up. (January 16, 2000) Over the next several years we began to grow pretty steadily and actually moved locations once because of God blessing us with new people.
Then…it happened! On August 11th, 2002 we had 506 people—the next week we had 970, two weeks after than we had to add a service and then two weeks after that we had 1,600 people there.
People always wanted to do “what did you do?” Uh…we still don’t know! I am being dead serious when I say we didn’t launch a new program. We didn’t do a mass mailer. We didn’t do door to door visits…it just happened.
BUT…as I look back on that time and have very fond memories of what we saw God do…how I began to react still causes me to shake until this day…
I became cocky—arrogant—prideful. I began to think that our way of doing church was the only way—and that if ANYONE was not in line with OUR vision as a church then they were wrong. (I am not talking about core values here…but rather style!)
I didn’t realize that I was where I was because of two reasons—the blessings of God and the favor of God—NEITHER of which I deserved.
It took awhile…but God kicked my butt. He allowed me to see that not everyone has to be a Fellowship, a Northpoint, a Willow Creek OR a NewSpring—the thing that mattered was people meeting Christ and growing up in Him…and as long as that was happening the “how’s” needed to be left up to God and His direction to church leaders.
I almost allowed pride AND insecurity to completely destroy God’s work…and God completely humbled me in 2005 to the point where I realize that every work He does is unique…and that HIS vision for each church will not look exactly the same…and I need to be secure enough to admit that I am not the only leader and NewSpring is not the only church that happens to be doing something right!
Church planter, pastor - PLEASE allow God to be God! If He’s blessing you—rejoice! And if He’s blessing someone else—rejoice and STOP telling all of your buddies, “Yeah, I just don’t like what’s going on over at such and such church.” If God’s in it then I am positive He doesn’t really care what you and I think.
God is SO MUCH BIGGER than our human minds can comprehend…and so is His plan for His church! It takes different types of churches to reach different types of people…and once again, as long as people are meeting Christ and being challenged to take next steps…THAT’S AWESOME!!!