Against The Flow

As a new church plant there is always a hard call to make that has the potential to impact a lot of people. Some are easy to make and others you lose sleep over. I hope the following from pastor John Laeger makes your choices a little easier.

1. When you make a call, you will be booed and cheered at the same time. Thousands of people will watch as you make the call and they will immediately let you know if they like the call or not. There will be no private decisions when you are a leader. Every decision will be seen and evaluated. Some will love it and some will hate it. Some will even be angry and get up and leave. And when they leave, they will call you all sorts of names. But, you don’t make the call based on who will like it or not. You make the call based on playing the game right.

2. There is no Hi-Def, Slo-Mo, Instant Replay from 17 different angles BEFORE you make a call. If there were, you would never make a mistake – right? I have lost count of the decisions I have made in strategy, marketing, staffing, budgeting, and even teaching series that had I knew then what I know now AFTER the decision, I would not have made that decision. When you make the call, you make it on what you see at that moment in time and you make it with confidence.

3. You follow through on your call and then keep going. Regardless of getting booed or cheered, you keep going. You keep focused on the game. You stay doing what you are good at doing. You don’t second guess your call in the middle of the game.

4. Decisions are best made when there is wild rock music playing, teeth are getting knocked out, and human bodies are flying and crashing into the wall. Okay, maybe this one doesn’t have much of a connection to decision making as a leader – but hey…

Love this post from Mark Batterson:

Few things are as frustrating to me as infighting in the kingdom of God over gray issues. It’s unhealthy and unholy! And it is a waste of energy–sideways energy. I’m not saying we turn a blind eye to heresy or blasphemy. But there are blog stalkers who spend all of their energy trying to point out how everybody else is wrong. And that’s wrong.

The bottom line is this: God-fearing and God-loving people will disagree on gray issues until Jesus returns. Can we agree to disagree on gray issues? Can we love each other despite our theological or methodological differences? Maybe the gray areas are the very places where we can learn to love each other.

About four hundred years ago, a German theologian named Rupertus Meldenius, was frustrated with the infighting and backbiting in the church. And he said something so profound that it has passed the test of time. In fact, it is the preface to our statement of belief at National Community Church.

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

Yes, the church has its theological non-negotiables. Jesus is the son of God. He lived a sinless life; died a substitutionary death on the cross; and was raised from the dead. There is no room for disagreement on essential theological truths. But there are lots of peripheral theological issues about which we’ll disagree. By peripheral I don’t mean unimportant. But they aren’t essential for salvation. And in those areas we need a degree of liberty! And in all things, we need charity. Love is the litmus test. Not our systematic theology!