Crazy Church
The problem is that many people's vision doesn't extend beyond what they can physically see. They rationalize and calculate, plan and prod, but can't see past their own nose because they count on their own intellect to guide them and not faith in an innovative and dynamic God.
Over the years we have done many things that "experts" have advised us against...
- "You shouldn't plant a contemporary church on High Rock Lake. There is not enough population, the culture is old-school, the location is rural. People are too traditional and will not open-up to a contemporary style."
- "You shouldn't buy the land behind the church. The church is too facilities-driven and you really don't need it that badly."
- "Planting a satellite campus in Denton is foolish. There are only 900 people who live in the town limits and their community is even more traditional than the Salisbury Campus."
- "While Pastor Ray is away, you should hire an interim pastor because the current staff won't be able to handle the leadership of the church until he comes back." (My personal favorite)
- "It is unwise to go ahead and start the Kannapolis Campus while Pastor Ray is away. The church should just coast, try to maintain what is going on right now, and not rock the boat. High Rock is too fragile right now."
- I am sure there are more, but my fingers are tired...
God has proven faithful every single time, and now with hindsight we see...
- The High Rock community embraced this church. Hundreds of lives have been changed, hundreds saved, hundreds baptized. The Salisbury East Campus has 600 in weekly attendance which is unheard of in our area.
- If we had not purchased the land when we did, we may not have anywhere to build the proposed worship center at Salisbury East.
- Even though there are only 900 people in the town of Denton, 120 of them attend HRCC at the Denton Campus. That is over 13%!
- I think the leadership has done a good job in Ray's absence (not to be big-headed). The church has grown from 600 in weekend attendance to 800!
- The Kannapolis campus has seen great community outreach, the addition of a great pastor to our team (Brian Duncan), has baptized people, and grown to about 70 in weekly attendance.
- Just the tip of the iceberg...
For now, we will listen to the critics, learn what we can from them, and blaze our own trail with God swinging the machete.
Tribes
I am in the middle of a book that Pastor Ray sent me called “Tribes” by Seth Godin. Check out this excerpt, it is amazing how God can speak to you so many ways…
“What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.
We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a new menu that makes diners take notice, or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.
‘That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!’ ‘What a waste of money.’ ‘Who’s responsible for this?’
Sometimes the criticism doesn’t even have to be that obvious. The fear of hearing ‘I’m surprised you launched this without doing more research’ is enough to get many people to do a lot more research, to study something to death, and then kill it. Hey, at least you didn’t get criticized.”
Angels of Light
We are studying a scripture this weekend in the message that talks about Satan and his angels disguising themselves as “angels of light”, with the intent to deceive believers into temptation. There are people all around us that distort scripture to fit their own evil agenda and will try to convince us that they speak the truth. I love the words I read today from Matthew Henry on this subject. He is particularly discussing Jesus’ temptation in the desert.
“Let not any abuse of Scripture by Satan or by men abate our esteem, or cause us to abandon its use; but let us study it still, seek to know it, and seek our defence from it in all kinds of assaults. Let this word dwell richly in us, for it is our life. Our victorious Redeemer conquered, not for himself only, but for us also. The devil ended all the temptation. Christ let him try all his force, and defeated him. Satan saw it was to no purpose to attack Christ, who had nothing in him for his fiery darts to fasten upon. And if we resist the devil, he will flee from us.” —Matthew Henry Concise
Perfection
I have had some song lyrics rolling around my head and they just won’t seem to leave. It is from a new song and the line is, “Perfection is my enemy”. Interesting. Don’t know exactly what they mean by it, but it got me thinking about that idea… perfection.
I would call myself a perfectionist, I like for things to be just right. That is true for me in so many areas, but maybe sometimes I lack that perspective in my walk with Christ. Am I trying to be perfect? I’ll ask you the same question (since you are reading this), are you trying to be perfect? Often we use the excuse, “I won’t ever be perfect, there was only one person who did that”, to justify our desire to sin. We may not ever be perfect on earth, but we still have to try. So I will try to be more perfect that I am today and you commit to the same.
What if...?
Someone I talked to this week got me thinking… what if Pastor Ray had resigned when he first told the church about his legal situation? (if you don’t know what I am talking about, come to 101)
Interesting question. I don’t know if I have really pondered it before, but it’s worth asking. I couldn’t get that question out of my head this week and thought about constantly. Here’s what I have come up with… things that effect me directly, other people, and the church as a whole.
- At little more than a year old, the church probably would have closed the doors. Ray’s passion, vision and leadership based on the call of God had a lot to do with the church’s success and I don’t think High Rock could have survived without him.
- The people of High Rock would not have learned nearly as much about grace and forgiveness extended to all Christ-followers.
- Ray, Angie, Caleb, and Tyler may not have had a support system to be with them all the way through this time.
- Angie would have had to go back to work to make ends meet losing time with the boys and being able to visit Ray.
- I would not be a pastor. Ray is my mentor, the one who taught me and offered me the opportunity to be a pastor.
- Jess and I probably would have moved back to NY because we wouldn’t have found a church family like High Rock.
- Ronnie would still be at UPS and probably not be a Worship Pastor growing as much in his faith and abilities as he has over the past few years.
- Ron would probably still be selling fitness equipment and not leading people to Christ on a weekly basis in Denton.
- Doug would possibly be a Production Pastor at another contemporary church, but most likely would have never had the chance to develop his gift as a speaker as he has in Kannapolis. Plus he wouldn’t have such good actors to work with in his videos…
- Brian might still be working at UPS and looking for a part time position as a pastor in a traditional church.
- Hundreds of people may have not been saved and baptized. So many lives may have been left unchanged.
- That is just a start, but if you want to add your list to this one, leave a comment.
Thank God that Ray is my Pastor, Mentor, and Friend.
Wind
I got up early this morning to go have breakfast with a good friend (just about the only thing that will get me out of bed at 5am) and as most of you know, it snowed about 2 inches. As I was driving back home I passed the car wash in Granite Quarry which had snow blowing vigorously off the roof and swirling to the ground. I couldn’t help but think, “Dang the wind is strong today.” The truth is, there wasn’t that much wind, I just don’t notice its power until I see it physically moving something. It blows like that all the time.
God’s power is the same way. It’s always moving, but sometimes we forget about it when we can’t see it in action.
Learning
Last Thursday JD dropped his pacifier, picked it up, and put it back into his mouth. UNBELIEVABLE!!! He has never done that before, and over the last few days he has done it over and over and over again. He is mastering it! I was so excited (for many reasons) that I couldn’t stop talking about it.
