When I was 20 years old I was a mess. I was an alcoholic, a thief at my job, dishonored my parents and was a liar to all. Then Jesus, when I was at rock bottom, showed me the way out of bondage to sin and a path to freedom in Christ. Freedom from addiction, freedom from fear and freedom to trust others. The way out was placing my faith and trust in Jesus’ work on the cross and committing the remainder of my life in slavery to His work here on earth. It was the Gospel pure and simple that raised my spiritual life from the dead.
The next piece of the puzzle in my life was fellowship with other believers. In other words: the church. My experience in church up to that point had not been a good one. I was part a church environment that encouraged shallow relationships, clean living and voting republican over real life, authenticity and confronting sin. Those that led clean lives and kept their sin well hidden were welcomed with open arms. But those whose sin had been exposed faced subtle shunning and in some cases outright hostility. Going back to church for me under those rules was a dreadful thought.
My sins were no secret and despite the fact that I had experienced repentance and a had come to a genuine faith for the first time, I knew there would be no way I’d be accepted, welcomed or loved.
But then something happened…
I came into contact with a small but dedicated group of fellow believers that taught me what a church should be and were instrumental in setting my path with Jesus for the next 12 years. In that 12 years I have been a part of 4 different church experiences that God has used to shape me and mold me and showed me what it takes to build a church that lasts.
Over the next 10 weeks I’ll be sharing 10 different lessons I’ve learned on building a church that lasts. Some of them are from my perspective as a leader but most are from a perspective of a follower of Christ engaged in a Gospel-Centered Biblical Community. I hope these thoughts will serve as encouragement to lay people and leaders alike to think about the church or church plant they are a part of in a new way.
Part 1: Bible First
Part 2: Marathon Or Sprint?
Part 3: Authenticity
Part 4: Know The Gospel
Part 5: Flexible As Rubber, Steady As Glue
Part 6: Nothing To Do With, All To Do With Numbers
Part 7: Ebenezer: Celebrating Milestones
Part 8: LOST: Learning To Let Go
Part 9: Be Willing To Fail With Excellence
Part 10: Jesus Is The Senior Pastor
