Today the Lord stretched me like never before. Jason Moorhead and I flew to Los Angeles on Sunday in order to be in a planning meeting with Rick Warren and several other leaders. I honestly felt like the mule that got invited to the Kentucky Derby…it was an honor to just be in the room and I learned a ton.
There is really no way to sum up the entire day—but here are some things things I walked away with…
#1 - A vision has to be primarily about passion and not programming. I feel like a problem with many churches is that they have created such a programming mentality that there isn’t any room for a move of God anymore. This is a danger that must be constantly guarded against.
#2 - People get passionate about something that changes their life. In order for people to become passionate about church—life change MUST be taking place there.
#3 - It is awesome to be a part of something that is so big that it will fail unless God shows up. I want this for our church continually. We can never get comfortable, safe or civilized. We didn’t get to where we are by playing it safe—risks MUST be continually taken.
#4 - The church was AND IS God’s idea for reaching the world.
#5 - We MUST believe that God wants to do a great thing in our church! We can’t think that we’ve arrived OR that our best days are behind us—God wants to do even greater things than these.
#6 - It does not take “professionals” to do ministry; in fact, every revival/reformation that has ever happened took place FIRST among the peasants and “common folk” and NOT the religious elite!
#7 - Big vision must always be accompanied by small strategy—step by step is how a long journey happens.
#8 - The church has been called to shake the world.
#9 - The church doesn’t need to move ahead—we need to go back 2000 years to the first 300 years of our existence and focus on being a movement and NOT a monument!
#10 - Rick said that Billy Graham once told him in regards to responding to critics, “Rick, when you wrestle with a pig both of you get dirty but only one of you will enjoy it!”
I had an absolute blast out here just being stretched and asking TONS of questions. I wish I could blog more…but I am very tired. LA is nice…but it isn’t Anderson. I miss home…AND I miss my girls like CRAZY. Pray for me as I will be flying home today!