Dear Pace Community Church,
God has not called us to play-it-safe. He has called us to take chances, take risks, and dare to believe for the impossible. Our biggest accomplishments are NOT when we have experienced a 15% increase in the budget or a 20% increase in attendance. God is glorified when we say, “God, whatever You want, whatever You say, no matter how humanly impossible it seems, we are willing to follow Your lead.”
I feel like God is going to have us take some risks in 2008; that He is going to lead us to some new places and to a new level of ministry that we’ve never tried before. I am both intimidated and yet excited about the possibilities of this.
Along those lines, let me say something about church growth and its connection to the Great Commission: The most overlooked principle for reaching people is to simply LOVE PEOPLE THE WAY JESUS DID. It’s really that simple. You can cut through all the hype of church growth and the pious platitudes of being deep in God and distill it down to this one principle – LOVE PEOPLE THE WAY JESUS DID.
That has been a philosophy of ministry at PCC since day-one. By loving the unlovable we have been criticized, burned, misunderstood, and ridiculed by others. But most of all, we have been BLESSED! And we still are.
God is doing great things through the ministry of PCC. In spite of every challenge we have faced, God continues to do His work among us.
Some churches like to brag about how small they are by suggesting the reason they are small is because they haven’t “watered-down” the gospel while growing churches have. Whatever. Maybe the real reason they don’t have a crowd is because they DON’T WANT a crowd. Jesus attracted large crowds and no one would ever accuse Him of watering down the gospel or not “being deep.” He was able to attract large crowds because He LOVED PEOPLE.
We will continue to follow this simple pattern of ministry demonstrated by the Founder of the Church HIMSELF – the Lord Jesus Christ. It works. Always has. Always will.
This week, love someone the way Jesus did.
God has not called us to play-it-safe. He has called us to take chances, take risks, and dare to believe for the impossible. Our biggest accomplishments are NOT when we have experienced a 15% increase in the budget or a 20% increase in attendance. God is glorified when we say, “God, whatever You want, whatever You say, no matter how humanly impossible it seems, we are willing to follow Your lead.”
I feel like God is going to have us take some risks in 2008; that He is going to lead us to some new places and to a new level of ministry that we’ve never tried before. I am both intimidated and yet excited about the possibilities of this.
Along those lines, let me say something about church growth and its connection to the Great Commission: The most overlooked principle for reaching people is to simply LOVE PEOPLE THE WAY JESUS DID. It’s really that simple. You can cut through all the hype of church growth and the pious platitudes of being deep in God and distill it down to this one principle – LOVE PEOPLE THE WAY JESUS DID.
That has been a philosophy of ministry at PCC since day-one. By loving the unlovable we have been criticized, burned, misunderstood, and ridiculed by others. But most of all, we have been BLESSED! And we still are.
God is doing great things through the ministry of PCC. In spite of every challenge we have faced, God continues to do His work among us.
Some churches like to brag about how small they are by suggesting the reason they are small is because they haven’t “watered-down” the gospel while growing churches have. Whatever. Maybe the real reason they don’t have a crowd is because they DON’T WANT a crowd. Jesus attracted large crowds and no one would ever accuse Him of watering down the gospel or not “being deep.” He was able to attract large crowds because He LOVED PEOPLE.
We will continue to follow this simple pattern of ministry demonstrated by the Founder of the Church HIMSELF – the Lord Jesus Christ. It works. Always has. Always will.
This week, love someone the way Jesus did.