The Grace of God

Does the grace of God wake you up in the morning?  Does it give you the gift of sleep at night?  Does it sustain you during the long hours of the day? Without the grace of God, God's favor toward those who deserve only punishment,  we find other things waking us up in the morning and keeping us up at night, and burdening us during the day.  We wake to the reminder of our failures of the day before and the load of uncertainty about our upcoming responsibilities.  We face the day with increasing restlessness knowing that we have more to accomplish than our strength can handle.  Then we face the night certain that we have fallen short during the day and lacking hope that tomorrow will bring any improvement of our situation.  Without God's grace we would only anticipate greater fruitlessness and pain, with occasional temporary joys and pleasures followed by the deep ache of eternal uncertainty.   With God's grace we wake up every morning with every sin forgiven and assured of God's sustaining love available to us throughout the day.  With God's grace our burdens during the day are invitations to draw near to the God whose burden is easy and whose yoke is light.  With God's grace we conclude the day resting all in the hands of our Father and trusting that he has separated our failures from us as far as the east is from the west. 

Lord God, turn me away from self-reliance, self-effort, and self-affirmation and toward the humbling, sustaining, and exalting truth of your grace.  May your grace be my refuge in the morning, during the day, and every night. 

Planting In Weakness

Planting a church is about being willing to feel weak.

For over 20 years I’ve heard stories of church planters starting brand new churches, launching themselves and their families into an adventure for God’s glory. These men, their families, and the teams that follow them have been my heroes.  They sacrificed the comfortable surroundings of outstanding local churches for the certain sacrifice of establishing a new church from the ground up.  For years there was a certain assumption of inevitability in this process.  Surely this level of faith and joy and partnership and support could only conclude in another outstanding church in the future.  But then I heard, for the first time, about a church plant that had to close its doors. Now I know that church plants close their doors all the time. The attempt is not inevitable after all.   Perhaps planting a church is not about feeling strong.

Now I am preparing to lead a church plant.  The adventure, the vision of serving and sacrificing for the glory of God has lost none of its attraction. To my maturing eyes, God has only become more glorious, the gospel more worthy, the need more desperate, the adventure more honorable. But now nothing seems inevitable at all.  I am peering into the future and realizing what all of those teams faced.  Planting a church is about being willing to feel weak. 

Weakness in the Bible is not cultivated immaturity, nor celebrated laziness, nor whining self-pity.  It is the reality of life as a creature and as a sinner.  We are not self-existent.  We do not create ex-nihilo.  We cannot save.  Being weak is not an occasional experience but the condition given to us by the Lord.  A church plant magnifies the normal weaknesses of everyone involved and invites us to see close up just how vulnerable we are.  A church planting pastor can’t save the unbelievers who listen to his messages. He can’t ultimately preserve his dear friends from wandering into unbelief and sin. He can’t bring spiritual revival to his new city home.  But these are the reasons he is planting a church.  A church planter is called to do, desires to do, what he cannot do.  The mountain is too high but we are called to climb, the stream too wide but we are called to swim. 

Of course we could give up, turn away, and applaud others from a distance.  Or we can be willing to be weak, so that the power of Christ may rest up us.  The more we desire to see of his power, the more weak we must be willing to feel. The more impossible the task we accept, the more weak we will feel, and the more we will see the glory of God’s power and the inevitability of his promise. 

God is not weak. God’s gospel is inevitable—it will reach the nations. Church planting means be willing to feel weak in myself.  Church planting is believing that God desires to reveal the glory of his power, the strength of his gospel. To see that sight, I am willing to feel weak. I am willing to plant a church.

Planting Lampstands

I love the "church as lampstand" image from the book of Revelation. 

"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man ....the seven lampstands are the seven churches." Revelation 1:12, 20

The apostle John describes Jesus as the one who walks among the lampstands--who is personally present with the churches that are faithful to him. The greatest warning offered to any of the churches is that their lampstand would be removed from its place before the Lord because of turning away from Him. As a church planting ministry, and as a future church planter myself, this image is full of faith-building insights as we plant new churches.

We are reminded that our church plants exist before the presence of the Lord. This reality is both comforting and sobering. Our light of gospel witness and faithfulness is not unnoticed by the Lord. The same God who calls physical light into being, who has shone into our hearts the spiritual light of the gospel, has given us the ability to shine into the surrounding darkness of our world with His Word. This is true despite our perspective that a church plant's witness often seems to flicker. At times the newness and inexperience and weakness and vulnerability of a church plant doesn't seem like a strong, brilliant light. At times on a church plant, it seems that the slightest gust of trial or conflict could make our light go out. But since our Lord is among us, we have confidence that he is tending to our flame. He is ensuring that our witness will be faithful, will be preserved. He has committed himself to the faithfulness of His church, and church plants stand under His watchful, loving, protective gaze. Remembering His nearness helps me as I contemplate the weaknesses and vulnerability of my ministry and of a new church plant. 

Yet the image is also sobering--because the same Lord who called our church plant into being is observing our faithful witness to His gospel, His truth. Our Lord is not willing that any of his lampstands, however new, however inexperienced, should succumb to the darkness of compromise. Neither our message nor our example should blend into the darkness of a world seeking to hide themselves from the gaze of the Lamb. We should be warned that his gaze is what we are living for--not the appearance of social prominence in our community, nor the popularity of large numbers, nor compatability with the pluralistic message of our culture. We live for the gaze of the Lamb, it is His approval of our lampstand that defines our success as a church plant.

And we look forward to gospel success with great confidence since, “what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:5-6

The same Lord who has shone in our hearts and created our lampstand, the lampstand of each church plant, will shine his light through our witness into the darkened hearts of unbelievers. His gospel will be successful even as it sounds forth from our stammering lips. His light will shine brightly even from our trembling hearts.  

May the Lord give us faith to keep planting new lampstands—comforted, sobered, and emboldened by His presence among us. And may His gospel light shine more brightly into the world with the message of grace.