Reflect. Love.

This is a link of a blog that I’ve been keeping up with lately.  They have a great post on something that God has been challenging me about as a pastor.  I’ll let you read it first:

http://churchrelevance.com/a-toolbox-with-all-hammers/

I don’t know if it’s ego or what that focuses so much on the number of people that are coming, but God has led me to several places in scripture recently that reminds me that he’s about life change.  I want the most people possible to experience life change through Jesus, not the most people possible just to fill the seats.  The ego trip has to go away.  John 3:30 has got to become my mantra as a pastor: “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Craig Groschel really nailed it with his quote.  He said, In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you will have to do things that no one is doing. But in order to do things that no one is doing, you can’t do what everyone else is doing.”

I’m learning that by being in a community in which I didn’t grow up in, there are areas that I’m going to have to grow as a leader.  Things are completely different in the Fulton community than they were in the Halls community.  We will have to do things differently as a church than other churches do in their communities.  That means we’re going to have to be constantly asking God how he wants us to reach his people.  How can we tell them the story in a way that they will listen and hear?  How can we connect with them and create community with them?

God is not going to grow NorthBrook like he’s grown other churches.  His plans for us are unique.  We serve different people so we have to learn how to serve them as a church body.

So read that article, and if you’re a part of NorthBrook, pray about how God wants us to reach his city.  When God’s called us to be the church that serves our community, we don’t want to become something else because we think we’ll be successful.  We want to follow him in reaching his people, in growing our church, in teaching and making disciples, and in creating community with those around us.

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think: how can we do this???  So what are your thoughts??  How can we do it?