"Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God... (Haggai 1:3–14)
During the ministry of the Prophet Haggai, the exiles who came back to rebuild the Temple ran into opposition and ceased. When the housing bubble popped in the USA, many housing projects that were in process ceased. I saw one the other day in Jacksonville - an unfinished condominium project that looked ghostly. This is probably what the Temple looked like. For many years the people stared at a half-completed Temple, a ghostly, almost corpse-like structure. It seemed the people had abandoned their mission and gone into maintenance. This does not mean they were sitting on their hands. Oh no! They were extremely busy! But they were busy about all the wrong things. They were building paneled houses for themselves and pursuing prosperity. But they forgot this is not why God brought them back. God had his OWN purpose for bringing them back and that was to rebuild the Temple of God for the sake of his own glory and fame. They lost their missional perspective and abandoned the work God called them to do. This resulted in a lack of fruit in their lives.
Church planters know that becoming an established church carries with it a significant danger: losing our missional perspective. How this happens is when we reach a goal and mistake it as the goal. My first goal when I came here was to exit church-plant status and have a plurality of elders leading our church.We accomplished this goal, but I see now it came at a cost. Despite my efforts to avoid this danger, we (and I include myself in this) have lost our missional perspective. We have fallen into what some call maintenance mode. We're just trying to keep an ineffective machine from breaking down completely. What happens is people get tired, disillusioned and drop out. We see very little fruit from our efforts. While this is a sad thing to face, we have to remember it is meant for our good. We are HIS people. GCC is HIS church and he loves us. God is calling us to refocus and regroup and get back to doing what he put us here to do.
This is why I am changing my thinking. I have come to realize I need to start thinking like a church planter again. I want my kingdom dreams back! I want to see us directing our energy towards outreach and dreaming of ways we can put the magnificence of the gospel on display for all to see. I want to see each of you trained and engaged in evangelism. But right now, I want you all to focus on a few simple things: get together with one another, share a meal, pray for one another, strengthen your relationships with one another, attend small groups, attend men's and women's functions. LOVE one another a Christ has loved us. As I have always said, those who see our love and devotion will want this for themselves. And don't wait for training, but share the gospel with whomever God puts in your way. Pray for boldness. Also, start to dream! Dream big dreams no matter how far-fetched they seem. Let's not even consider the "impossibility" of what God puts on our hearts. He is bigger than all of the hurdles, obstacles and opposition we might face. “I am with you, declares the Lord.”
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33)
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