Last to see the Wonderful

Last to see the Wonderful

It has been five years. I came here to a church that I knew could die in three years. God has blessed us with 5. I also know that there will be more to go because this is a church in revitalization. Sometimes Satan tries to convince me otherwise. I came here on a mission to be used by God to turn a church around. It is one of the hardest things to do in the world. This article is dead on. You have to decide to outlast to see the turn. Well, I decided that five years ago and nothing has changed. Yes people are going to leave and it is obvious God is still sifting, stirring, pruning for a purpose and that purpose is to restore, rebuild and reflect his light. When you are in the midst of church revitalization you have to choose to outlast to see the turn. You have to decide if you are going to outlast the tension change naturally creates.

You wake up some days and don’t know if you can do it anymore.
You and your spouse dream about where you could work – maybe another church; a secular job without people.
Secretly you search job site boards looking for other positions for which you might qualify or be interested.
You wonder if you are alone and if anyone else struggles this way.
There are times you wonder if the problem is you – if you’re doing something wrong if maybe it is a sin to even be thinking as you do some days.
You know people talk about you, you just dread the next social media post or phone call that reveals what it is.

All of these are raw human emotions. Change is hard for the congregation. The Congregation has experienced an amazing history of lives being changed and stories that still inspire faith, but in every church there comes time for a change. Change is not just hard for the congregation – it’s hard for the ones leading it. And some of it may simply be a way to cope and survive. You get second winds, you get an occasional encouraging word, but you see on the faces of those still with you sorrow as they have already outlasted their friends who’re no longer here. You wonder how much do they blame you. You see the faces of a few new folks that haven’t yet perceived what is afoot and you wonder how much should they know, how much do they know already, will they stick around?

The reality is until you decide if you’re going to outlast the critics and weather the storms of change you will likely never realize the opportunities and pre-ordained blessings God has chosen for you to receive and achieve. Of course, there is never an excuse to be arrogant, tyrannical, or controlling. It’s a struggle at times to be humble, but purposeful because on occasion it just takes outright grit to get through and that doesn’t always look that sanctifying. God had sent me and the church has called me to do a restorative mission and that requires change. And leading change is hard and the reactions to it are not always pretty. Many times when things are removed people leave because those things are no longer there, to hold them there. That’s a natural transition but to onlookers, it can be overwhelming and even disturbing because revitalization is not revival. I think we often mix those words up as we do salvation and sanctification. We want sanctification to occur with the same immediacy as salvation. Well, people often want revitalization to occur as revival would with no losses, casualties, or change, just revive what was already here and do it all over again for another 50 years.

The question in church revitalization is not if it is going to be difficult. They say, the longer the church has been in decline the longer it will take to revitalize. I know for sure it takes longer than we often hope it will because I often overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what we can do in the long haul. I think that’s because deep inside me I don’t want there to be a long haul, but I know it will be. The question is if you are going to last through the difficulty to get to the potential wonderful. I see the potential wonderful. Five years from the day I came here God has moved mountains, reaped harvests and opened rivers, but there has also been pain and loss and struggle, but every step of the way Jesus has led us all the way. We will outlast to see the wonderful.

In year five we will have a full-time Spanish Pastor and a growing Spanish ministry.
In year five we will have a new staff and team of interns to begin the next phase of our restorative plan here at Trinity.
In year five we will pay off our debt of 5.3 million dollars.
In year five we will be investing millions of dollars into a future that will continue the legacy of life change this church has made for over 50 years.
In year five we will be sharing with the church family an amazing 2-year plan to rethink missional church and start creating ripples in a giant pool to turn around 100 years of a declining American church.

Look at the wonderful we are already seeing because we have lasted to see the turn.