As many of you know I am a blog stalker...I love reading blogs of people I respect and leaders I learn a lot from. This past week, one of the blogs I frequent, Craig Groeschel, shared about the growth that has taken place in his life as a leader, pastor and follower of Christ. One of the things he humbly blogged about was the complete change in his attitude and outlook on how he measures success in ministry today. If you know anything about Craig Groeschel, than you probably know that he is a gifted communicator, innovative leader, really good author and one of the voices that God is using to bring effective change to today's church culture...and to top it off he leads a HUGE church. But, what I respect above all that is his humility. I have read every book Craig's written, I have listened to several of his messages and have even been at conferences where he was one of the premier speakers and I have always sensed a humble spirit. In his blog he wrote about how today he is not measuring success by how many people show up on the weekend or how much money came in the offering but how many lives are being transformed and how they are investing back into the Kingdom. As I read that I began to think about what were the success markers that I could be celebrating and thanking God for today. The key here is these are the things that I see God doing in the lives of His people and in and thru His Church.
#1. There are two guys at our church Joe and Mike who lead a Samson group every Thursday night for men. Every time I have sent a guy to that group I quickly get a response from them about how these guys have been a blessing and real help to them. Men pouring into the lives of other men and living below the surface...yeah, I'm going to say that's a win! Praise God.
#2. We have a retired couple that instead of spending their lives on themselves they would rather invest their time and resources on those in need. So what they have done is mobilized our people to give of their resources to bless the ever growing transient migrant community that live just south of our church. Every other weekend this couple Rick and Mary Alice deliver items and invest themselves in this community...anytime people see the needs of others as more important than themselves, yeah that's a win!
#3. We are in the midst of doing an overhaul of our college ministry, it is going to be awesome. One of the things that we are going to go hard after is have Life Coaches for our college students that want to truly grow in their faith and walk in Christ. Right now we have over 30 adults going through training this summer to be prepared to disciple a small group of college students...anytime people recognize the potential in the up and coming generation and desire to be a conduit that God can use to help this next generation reach their God-potential, I'm going to say that's a win.
#4. Our ministry gives away a quarter of its income to ministries outside of ourselves and has no intention to stop growing that percentage...anytime a church cares more about what God is doing to build His Kingdom and has a stronger desire to be a part of that over building their own kingdom, than yeah I'm going to say that is a win.
#5. My wife and I have personally seen a handful of marriages in the last seven months be absolutely resurrected from the dead. When most women would of turned and run and understandably so, these women have chosen to forgive and to allow the Spirit of God to work, restore and redeem. And when most men would continue to hide, justify and even blame, these men have owned their stuff, humbled themselves and have found the power of true repentance. We have seen the body of Christ actually be the body and help these couples get back to the place God desires them to live in...couples seeking reconciliation instead of a bail out plan and believing that God can breathe life into what seemed virtually dead...yeah, I would say that is a win.
I can go on and on, but the point is to recognize the wins and celebrate the goodness of God as a result of it; because the bottom line is, NONE of those wins would be possible without the Spirit of God and the grace of God. It's not our plans, it's not our efforts, it's God! So celebrate the wins and thank God for them!
3 comments:
what blessings God has given to His people at and around Summit! Amen!
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