I wish I could learn a lesson once, and then just follow it. Instead I seem to have to make the same mistake over and over, until I realize "oh yeah, I went through this before".
I feel like that right now, and it relates to my Spiritual Formation ministry at The Mission.
There have been occasions in the past when I have worked and worked on something in ministry and wondered why I wasn't seeing the results I expected. I was working hard and had the best of intentions but the breakthrough I was looking for wasn't happening. God had to bring me to the point of understanding that my best efforts weren't what counted. Ministry can only succeed when God is at work. When realized that and gave it over to God amazing things happened. This is a very important principle, and because of my experiences I have taught it to people far and wide.
Apparently that doesn't prevent me from falling into the same trap again and again.
My job at The Mission is to encourage and help people to grow spiritually. It's a really important job and I take it seriously. Over the past year I have worked diligently to teach and preach and write and organize all kinds of things to help that to happen. I've pursued what I thought were some pretty good ideas, and the response to many of these has been positive. Still, I can't escape feeling a bit of futility, asking myself "is the spiritual growth happening?" There are some positive signs, but I'm not a patient person and nothing ever seems to happen fast enough for me. Of course in my head I realize things like this take time and I will have to exercise some patience. Still, I have to ask, "Does God have more that He wants to do?" My answer is "absolutely!" The hard lesson is that it's not going to happen by me working harder or smarter.
I would love to see every single person at The Mission reaching their full potential in their relationship with God, but my best efforts aren't going to make that happen. It will happen when God is at work. That doesn't mean I should sit back and do nothing. It means I must allow God to be in control. It means I must faithfully follow His leading rather than simply pursuing my own "good ideas". And I must daily commit to Him the things that I can't accomplish.
Classes, sermons, conferences, and whatever other programs we can come up with won't create in people a desire to grow, and without that desire the best programs in the world will have little impact. Only the Holy Spirit can encourage in someone a desire to grow in their relationship with God.
The things we want to see will only happen when God is at work. Here's something we must understand. God is not a follower. He insists on being the leader. He will step back and leave it to us if we insist on pushing Him out of the way or fail to let Him be in control. So how do we see God at work? We pray.
I don't mean to say there has been no prayer. I pray about this fairly often. Others in the congregation pray regularly for the church and it's people. What I am saying is that it's time for us to go beyond a kind of token acknowledgement of God. It's time to take prayer from somewhere down the list of things we do, and put it at the top of that list.
Do we want spiritual growth? Let's pray.
Do we want to impact our community? Let's pray.
Do we want Godly leaders led by God? Let's pray.
Do we need more workers? Let's pray.
Do we need resources? Let's pray.
Aside from a few people who are called specifically to a ministry of prayer, most of us have to actively do things in addition to our prayers. So I'm not suggesting we sit back and wait for God to wave His hand. He could do that, but for some reason He wants us to be part of the process. So we serve to the best of our ability, but only while constantly acknowledging God's leadership, our dependence, and our willingness to place Him and His plans above our own. I am recommitting to that personally, and in response to how I feel God is leading, I am calling on the people of the Mission to make that commitment as well.
The essence of my prayer is something like this. Maybe you would adopt this kind of prayer as well.
"God, I thank you for calling me to serve you and for entrusting me with the responsibilities that come with that calling. It is a privilege to be your servant. The job you have called me to is a great challenge. In fact it is impossible for me to accomplish without you. So please forgive me for rushing ahead and trying to do your work on my own. I acknowledge once again that this is your ministry. The control is rightfully yours, and my role is to serve however you may lead. I want to see your will accomplished, and I want to do my part in the process, but I am totally dependent on you. I need your guidance, I need your enabling, and I for sure need you to do the spiritual work I am not capable of doing. So Lord, please take control of my ministry at The Mission. Help me to not run ahead of you, but give me patience to to await for what you will accomplish in your time. I am expecting great things at your hand."
I informed the congregation at The Mission on Sunday that I hope to launch a prayer movement at our church. I wouldn't dare go down this road just because I think it's a good idea. I am convinced in my heart that this is the priority God would have for me in the Spiritual Formation ministries over these coming months.
I don't know yet what that will look like. Even as I was preaching and making this announcement I really had no idea what that would entail. I have given it some thought since then, but I'm still pretty fuzzy on how to go about it. I stepped out and made a statement based on what I felt God was saying, and now I'm looking to Him for His guidance and instructions on how to pursue this challenge. The only thing I know for certain at this point is that we need to do it.
I am rather intrigued by a question raised by Corrie Ten Boom ("The Hiding Place). She asks, "Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire." In other words, is prayer an integral part of your life so that you look to God for His guidance on a daily basis, or is your prayer life limited to a 911 call to heaven when you run into some problem?
Unfortunately, the truth for many of us is that prayer is our call for help when we need something. God intended that prayer be so much more than that. He wants us to "pray without ceasing", to be in constant communication with Him. It's how we get to know Him, learn to recognize His voice, and come to rely on Him in every thing every day. Our lives would be so different, so much better, if we had that kind of intimate relationship with God.
What is true for us as individuals is also true for the ministries God has established, like the Mission. Some people treat church as if it were the Rotary Club or the Kiwanis Club. There are lots of things that distinguish churches from good service organizations, the most important being that the church belongs to God. It is His organization. It is established by Him to serve His purposes. He entrusts people like us to be stewards of His work, but as good stewards we must always be aware that it's His work and He is the boss.
Here's another important thing that characterizes churches and other Christian ministries. The things we are supposed to accomplish are impossible. That's right, the basic things God established the church for are beyond our abilities.
God's plan seems a bit risky, doesn't it? He establishes churches. He puts people in positions of leadership to make those churches operate. Then He gives us a "mission statement" that He knows full well is impossible for us to fulfill. The only thing that makes the plan work is that He goes on to say; I know you can't do this, so rely on me and I will make it happen.
This spiritual truth isn't really that difficult to understand, but for some reason we keep forgetting it. We busily go about the task of doing what we think churches are supposed to do. We're often filled with a sense of futility because we aren't succeeding like we would hope, but at the same time we're failing to address the fundamental problem. We have left God out of the equation. We have the opportunity to be in partnership with the Almighty God, but instead of exercising that privilege we work away at trying to do the impossible, getting frustrated, and continuing to ignore the source of guidance and strength and miracles.
Of course I'm exaggerating a wee bit to make a point. If we totally ignored God we would have closed up shop a long time ago. But I think you get what I'm saying.
We have all heard stories of a church body or a ministry organization that decided to truly make prayer a priority. They committed themselves to relying on God and tapping into the resources of heaven. The results were so amazing that the stories found their way into Christian lore as wonderful examples of what God can do when His people pray. We read those stories, are encouraged by them, then go on slugging away, largely trying to accomplish things in our own ability.
Here's the bottom line. God established The Mission for a purpose, a very long time ago. We have done a pretty good job, I think, of articulating that purpose. "We envision The Mission to be a place of refuge, restoration, and transformation for the community." "The purpose of The Mission is to continually guide people into a transformative relationship with Jesus Christ." These are wonderful statements of what we believe God wants to accomplish through The Mission. They are also totally impossible unless God is in control and exercising His power to make things happen.
So we can plug away with the best of intentions, trying to do the impossible, seeing good things here and there but never really breaking through. Or we can do what God intended from the beginning, to fully trust Him for the guidance and power to make it work.
As I was preparing and preaching the message God gave me last Sunday, my own heart was stirred. A number of people have told me that God was speaking to them as well. I say this not to be boastful in any way. I simply conveyed what the Word of God said, and God confirmed it to people's hearts. I give Him all the praise and glory for that.
If you missed this message, would like to hear it again or share it with someone, you can find the recording on http://themissionchurch.ca/index.php/sermons/.
I am looking to God for ways to encourage and facilitate a special movement of prayer at The Mission. If God lays some thoughts on your heart I would be happy to hear from you. As God directs in the coming weeks we will be presenting opportunities for our congregation to participate. Won't it be wonderful to see what God can accomplish at The Mission when we totally rely on Him!
Over the course of my life, particularly in the last 30 years since I left my secular work to go into full-time ministry, I have seen God do amazing miracles. It has left me with a firm belief in the power of prayer. That doesn't mean I am consistently a prayer warrior. That's something I admit with considerable chagrin because I should be, given all that God has done. Still, there is no question in my mind that God moves when His people pray. I've seen it over and over again.
I remember a particular time when I was giving leadership to CEFOntario. We had recently gotten out of a significant deficit, and God had miraculously provided us with a camp facility near Brantford. But in the year following the move the ministry's finances were not looking too good. I was becoming increasingly fearful that we were going to slide into the deficit position we had worked so hard to overcome.
As the leader it was my responsibility to do something, so I considered all kinds of ways we could work to increase the donations which sustained the ministry. God didn't give me any peace with any of them, and I just couldn't proceed. As I fervently prayed for God's direction all I could sense was a need to have a special prayer effort.
So, I set a date and asked all of our staff to come from around the province to the camp for a special day of prayer. Our board was invited to come as well. We had a list of prayer partners (not donors - prayers) who I also invited to come. I shared my concern with our staff, and then by mail with the prayer partners who couldn't attend in person. We committed ourselves to prayer.
To tell you the truth, I was expecting some kind of divine revelation, some clear sign from God for what we were supposed to do. Nothing like that happened, and we concluded the day only knowing we had been faithful to pray as He commanded us to.
I felt at the time that God did not want me to make a special appeal to our supporters, so beyond the list of those who were committed to pray no one was informed of our financial need.
This all happened in May. Over the following several months we were able to keep our head above water and we continued to pray that God would do something special. And He did. December was usually a good month for us financially, but nothing like what we experienced that year. We didn't have any special appeals or do any new promotion, but we finished that year with the highest surplus we had ever had. Just seven months prior things were looking desperate.
God continued to bless over the next few years as well, and we were never again in financial danger. And the blessings didn't stop with the finances. He worked in miraculous ways in many other aspects of the ministry as well. What did we do? In obedience to God we prayed, and He did the rest. We gathered together and presented the need to the God of the universe. After all, it was His ministry, not ours.
God has allowed me to have this kind of experience on several occasions throughout my ministry. He has shown me how important it is to truly place things in His hands. rather than desperately trying to figure out plans and schemes that come from our own heads.
We are not facing desperate financial problems at The Mission. But almost every church and ministry these days, including The Mission, faces many challenges. Some of them are spiritual problems we can't fix. Some of them are relationship issues. Some of them are volunteer needs. The list goes on.
It's not about surviving. We can survive as we are. But it's about flourishing, seeing God accomplish the amazing things we know He wants to do. We have scratched our heads on numerous occasions wondering what the solutions are. What are other churches doing? What do the successful pastors and famous Christian authors say? Is there any way to make some headway with the kinds of challenges facing churches in 2016?
The answer has been staring us in the face all along. We need to look to God. Of course we've been praying, but we feel it's time to make prayer a greater emphasis in our congregation than it's been. As God gives us wisdom we intend to do a variety of things designed to mobilize the church to prayer.
At this point it's not even a matter of having a list of specific prayer requests. The point is simply to turn The Mission, with all of it's programs and people and successes and challenges over to God and implore Him to bless His work. God wants the church to succeed more than we ever could. What we need to do is to trust Him, be obedient, and not get in His way.
If you're from The Mission you're going to be hearing a lot about prayer in the coming months. I don't know yet what it will all look like, but we are hoping to turn our congregation of 200 - 220 people into an army of prayers. Together we want to seek God to have His perfect will accomplished in and through us.
Are you on board? Why don't you pray about it.
