Oct
01
Summer Reflections
Summer Reflections
The rains have returned and fall is here. Before I move forward towards Christmas I want to take one last look back at what I learned this summer.
God has not given up on the local church.
Summer began early for me with a two week trip to the Philippines at the beginning of June to help train pastors and look for opportunities to bring back a team in the future. Most people in the States were interested in the social ministries I saw and how we could help with them. But what I saw was this. Behind each social ministry there was a church that enabled that social ministry to function. Although training pastors was not as “sexy” as hanging out in city dump with those ministering to the children living there, it was the most substantial thing I did. By investment in the leadership of those churches, there is greater chance of those churches accomplishing more for the Kingdom of God. Some think that church is an obsolete concept in a post modern world. But Jesus calls the church his bride and he isn’t done with it yet. The church around the world is doing amazing work and anything we can do to encourage or support churches and leaders will pay eternal dividends.
It is all about relationships.
With many of our programs taking a break for the summer I was freed up to spend more time one-on-one with people. I was reminded how power such conversations can be. I learned a lot and I think God helped others grow as a result. Sunday morning service is great, but it is also important to just sit down over coffee and talk about life.
Our job is to build the kingdom of God not to build the church.
This summer I wrestled again with two different and opposing desires that often tug on my soul. I want to have all the outward measures of success but I also want to be true to God and to the mission of reaching people for Jesus Christ. The desire to be successful often leads me to spending my time focused on building the church. This means trying to make everyone happy (so nobody leaves), trying to do church better than the church down the street so that church shopper choose us, and only doing those things that might benefit the church. Building the Kingdom of God is different in that it is about building God’s influence in individual’s lives indiscriminate of their church affiliation or the opportunity for a personal return on my investment. I really want to be about building the Kingdom of God and let God worry about the success of the church.