2 Weeks to Go!

Two weeks from now, I will deliver a sermon for the first time as pastor of Proviso Community Church. I don't think I've really been able to wrap my mind fully around the implications of this, nevertheless I'm excited. I think my excitement is mostly centered around finally getting started. The planting process has not been a long one, relatively speaking, but it has been a bit difficult lingering in the middle.

My entire team has been going through what I would call "life" over the past few weeks, and amazingly God has begun giving me insight and discernment to see what I wouldn't ordinarily see. I guess this is part of the pastoral transformation that God is taking me through. My wife and I have begun intereceeding on behalf of so many, and our hope is that many are interceeding for us.

What transformations have you been experiencing in life lately? What new season has God been preparing you for? Are you ready? You may only have weeks to go!

One is Worth it!

One of the challenges of being what I call "Second Generation Mega Church" is the ability to easily get caught up in numbers. For the last 11 years I've consistently attended services where seating capacity was a major issue, and where thousands of worshipers gathered week after week for fellowship, worship, and to hear a Word from the LORD. However, as I get ever closer to the launch date of the new local church plant, the question that looms over me is, "what if no one shows up?" The space that we're renting has a seating capacity of close to 1,500. It takes a lot of bodies to make that space not look empty! But in reality it's not about the numbers. But then again there's a wonderful feeling that I get when I'm preaching to a crowd of 1,000 high energy worshippers.

I think the sum of the truth is this, if the whole church plant is for one soul to be saved, it's all worth it. If one individual walks through those doors as a sinner with a gaping hole in his/her life that only God's love and redemptive power can fill, and he/her leaves that place with an authentic relationship with God, it's worth it!

Indeed, my prayer is that God would send masses of people, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to preach to just one. In fact, to preach at all! Paul said that we have these treasures in earthen vessels. I count it as a privilege for God to entrust me to carry this treasure despite the simplicity and frailness of my vessel.