First Love is...About Kingdom growth

Sorry I saw this post that was supposed to be published weeks ago and apparently was only saved as a draft.

It is very easy for a church to become church growth oriented. Why not? If the church grows then more people are hearing the gospel, and more people are being connected to Jesus. The problem, however, is when we get offended when they go to other churches. Yes we want them to attend church...if it's our church.

What if a church wanted to see the Kingdom of God grow, not just their church? That would change everything. If my goal as a Christian/Pastor/Minister was to increase the Kingdom of God and not to increase my church attendance, I have a new agenda. I'm no longer concerned with where you go to church, as long as you are chasing after God, as long as you are growing and wrestling with His word. I now care about you, because God loves you, not because you have a bunch of kids that would fill our youth ministry (this may or may not be a thought I've had in the past).

When a church grasps this, we see true unity. We see pastors not talking about their numbers and how great everything is, but instead praying for each other because they can all get beat up sometimes. We hear people say things like " __________ church has a ministry you would love, you should go check it out." instead of "we should start the same ministry. Look how successful it is over ther." There is nothing wrong with doing a ministry other churches are doing, but there is also nothing wrong with joining together!

At First Love we want to empower the ministries in our community, even if they aren't recognized as "ministries". Whether they are through local or federal government, or secular non-profits, or even other churches.

What I learned today

It is early. I started writing this post at 9:11am on a Wednesday. I learned something about myself today. I learned that my belief is more important than facts. I'm not talking about my spiritual beliefs, (although I don't blame you for assuming that since it tends to be my subject matter) I mean that even though there are things that aren't moving forward in my life, I'm not discouraged. Even if my successes aren't piling up in front of me I know, I believe, I am going in the right direction. If I were "being successful" somewhere else, I'd be doing the wrong things.

I guess it is the Placebo Effect. And I think I'm OK with that. I'm not miserable. I'm content. I am moving forward. Do I want success? Yes. But success could spring out at literally any moment. I'm putting myself in the correct places to see it when it is ready for me. Until then, I just have to help others see how easy it could be to move from small crushing failures to monumental success, in whatever form of life it presents itself in.

I'm just a Kirby salesman

A few months ago, when I'd meet new people, things would start great. We would talk about weather, Iowa football, or whatever the circumstances we met under were. At some point, however, they would ask me the conversation killer "...so what do you do for a living?" Almost every time I told them the truth about being a Youth Pastor they would change. They may change from someone who was formerly swearing and telling me about their drug use, into a saint that only talks in church language. Or they may change from a pleasant person, into someone that now hates me, because they assume i'm judging them.

I could be writing a blog post about my loss. I once had a title, now I don't. I'm a guy that "is trying to start a church" (it doesn't look good on a business card, I've tried). But I'm not writing that blog post. I'm writing as someone that can now relieve concern by telling people what I do. "What church do I go to? Why? Are you a Pastor or something?" to which I reply, "I'm just a Kirby salesman."

Things have changed for me. My routine is different than when I was paid to vision the future of my ministries. But it works. I am finding out that Kirby salesmen can be in full-time ministry too.

First Love Is...Sending ministers into the world

I have been a part of many things that were running swimmingly. Everything seems perfect and then...someone tells us they are leaving. It can be devastating. The most talented singer in the band is going to lead worship as a full-time job. A youth volunteer is going back to college with a renewed passion to make a difference in the world. Or even a small group leader wanting to split because of rapid growth.

These things are not bad things. But transition is difficult, even painful. What I have noticed is this: When someone leaves for a great reason (like following their call by God, or education for their passion), or even for a plain old real reason (being in need of a break, or stress), we think of ourselves. "How am I going to get along now?" It's a natural question.

But what if we had an attitude of sending people out? What if we accepted that our role was to take these ideas, these questions, our strengths, our experiences, and spread them around the world? What if we were like a dandelion? We grow, we mature, and we spread.

First Love will be encouraging and celebrating those that are graduating and moving away, those that are following their dreams, their calls into ministry, their next adventure. When a small group needs to split off because they are too big, the original small group will adopt them. They will be like proud parents of a new baby small group, scouring for ways to encourage and bless them. And like any good parent, they will immediately badger them about when they can expect grand-babies.

A healthy dandelion produces more dandelions. It's hard to do that if the seed never leaves home.