At MHC, over the last few months I have felt that a shift of direction was working its way into what we are doing. Our values and balance of order will stay the same. Since my wife and I came to the church, we have strongly valued missions, evangelism, stewardship, generosity, integrity, excellence and relationships among many other things.
God is clearly directing me as the Lead Pastor and Director of The Leader’s Edge to change our focus in a few areas.
1. We’re leaning more towards our Spirit-filled heritage by being even more sensitive to giving the Holy Spirit plenty of time and opportunity to minister to the people above and beyond salvations. We’ve always had a excellence of balance in our services, seen the effectiveness of the ministry and we have never been accussed of having a church without the Spirit, but in this shift, God is beginning to use us even more in the Gifts of Spirit and prophetic words for the purposes of power, encouragement, healing and deliverance. People have got to have an encounter with God’s power today. I believe we’re going to see more of the gifts in manifestation in these days ahead in our churches that are Sprit-led.
2. I have also noticed the content of my messages seems to have shifted from excessive grace to character building, pursuit of holiness and purity of heart within the body of Christ. Don’t misunderstand me, according to the word, everything God has provided for us is by grace and faith into His righteousness and I strongly endorse this with our congregation. But I have seen a fall of the standards and convictions in Christianity in the last several years and it’s not right. The practice of sin belongs in the world, not in the church. I am disappointed at best with the way I see believers misuse the grace of God to cover their sloppy character and dare to say it grieves our Lord as well.
3. One more thing. I feel in the shift of our direction at MHC is something I am almost embarrassed to share. For years we have worked hard hours with dilengence to see what God would do inside our church facility but not outside. Sure we do our share of community outreach but that is not what I am talking about. I’m talking about Evangelism. I feel like God is challenging us to take the message of Christ even stronger to our families, neighbors and into the world. We are going to have to become more aggressive with the spreading of the word while our delivery is engulfed with unconditional love. God is looking for every person in His church to rise up to the opportunity of harvest and become missionaries.
My attitude has always been to go where God is going, do what God is doing and say what God is saying. I am convinced we are going the right direction for now. Do you see yourself in need to shift some things in your own life?
2 Comments
September 17, 2009 at 12:15 am
Pastor, for years I have spoken to my family of the love of God and shared with them His greatness in every way I could. Their words to me are, don’t tell me anymore. If I want to know God I’ll ask you.
I will continue to be led by the Holy Spirit and I believe God will do what I can’t. The last 25 years have been heartbreaking for me. Perhaps my family and I need a healing so that we can receive what God is doing in THIS day.
September 21, 2009 at 2:09 am
God lead me to spend quality time with Him discovering who He really is and how to have Him in my life. Until we understand that God made us to have a relationship with Him (not to only worship Him but receive that worship right back) then I do not believe we can truly _want_ to evangelize.
We are so busy worried about the person speaking hurtful things to us that we back off and just “trust God to move in that person.” As I awaken more to who God really is, I have a hard time _not_ sharing God with others. When people understand and get that down in their spirit, I believe we will see our church explode!
I so wanted to pass that along to the youth tonight. How can a teenager continue to see themselves as worthless when they know that God desires them jealously and that Christ propped open the door for them to come in to God’s pressence? I am still so full that I am unable to sit still now.