JON ALLEN

High Rock is often labeled a "crazy" church. I love that! As far as I am concerned, if someone isn't criticizing, you aren't doing anything worth talking about. That is a concept that I am reading about in the book I mentioned in my last blog "Tribes". As an organization (in our case a church) grows and matures, it's personality begins to develop and an identity is formed. One of the pieces of our identity that is surfacing is that we are trail-blazing church. Often in the face of criticism, we move forward with the plans God has for us and seek His provision.

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...

The problem with all of these criticisms is that, while they seem logical, they are forgetting something... Listen to what Romans 4 has to say about Abraham... "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

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...
  

To steal a cliche; whatever God brings us to, He will bring us through. This why I do not fear when faced with the huge plans God has laid before us this year. To start two new campuses and pursue a $3 million dollar worship center at the Salisbury East Campus.

For now, we will listen to the critics, learn what we can from them, and blaze our own trail with God swinging the machete.