What Matters

I've spent the last two weeks serving churches. I've been in Sunnyvale, Monterey, Half Moon Bay and Los Banos. I also took a side trip to Tuolumne to be with 40 pastors for the Next Generation Churches Pastors Retreat.

The theme of my adventures boils down to Mission. What are we trying to do here? In Sunnyvale we tried to diagnosis dysfunction. But the Mission was our target.

In Monterey we celebrated 100 years in the ministry life of a healthy church. They asked me to speak on the Mission.

In Half Moon Bay we discussed structural changes that a church might need to make to move the ball down the field. It is a Mission field.

See, the question for all of us comes to this: What matters? What really matters? Our Pastors Retreat sought to reconnect pastors with the One who restores their soul. Why? Because the Mission won't get done through a bunch of worn-out, beat-up pastors with wounded souls. We need healthy pastors with restored souls so they can lead the charge of the church. But where is the charging church headed? On a Mission.

Yesterday in Half Moon Bay, I joined some other church leaders to prepare a pastor for his ordination council. Ordination focuses on the pastor's understanding of ministry, the Scriptures and theology. We talked about a lot of theological technicalities in that meeting. But those technicalities are never intended to divert our time and energy from the Mission. The technicalities matter because people matter. And people come with questions, and pastors and theologians and "ordinary" Christians need to be prepared to address those questions. Anything else feels like a lack of love. That's because the Mission is about people...and faith to love those people well.

Paul told the Galatians, "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Gal.5:6).

In all the stuff you're doing today, where is your faith being expressed through love? How are you living out the Mission?

Comments

[Elchupacabracr]

I have been thinking on this so much lately. The blogs are FULL of people offering programs and resources to increase church attendance. I read a blog the other day, it was an interview with a pastor at a megachurch about their spike in attendance based on bringing in christian athletes and giving away prizes, but they are missing the Mission. The Mission IS people.

I am not saying that would should not want to bring people in, on the contrary lets bring them in and make it something meaningful.

Jesus invested in people. He walked with them, talked with them, He lived His life with them. It was not an occasional thing. He poured His life into them.

What would our world look like if all of us, all the followers of Christ lived that out?

Personally I would like to thank you Brad, one for brining this topic up, and two for demonstrating this in your own life and the life of Lakeside Church.

I can remember the campaign at Lakeside, Who is your neighbor?, or being encouraged to build up real relationships with real people to share Christ with them. These really help me to see the impact we can have on the community by impacting the individual.