Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way

Lately I've been talking to more church planters (the blog, email and locally) about the most important things to keep in mind when planting (or Pastoring for that matter). One of the biggest things for me has been to keep focused in spite of the pulling forces all church planters face.

In a plant everyone in the core (or beginning crowd) is usually of the Christian breed. Everyone claims they want the same thing and for a while everyone plays the role. It never ceases to amaze me however that when a career Christian gets comfortable... WHAM!

Gary has mentioned before that he doesn't have trouble with the unchurched. I "Amen, brother" his testimony. I've had the same experience.

The people who are most in love with our church are those who have had life change here. Christians who have come in with a skeptical eye have never lasted. What's worse than not lasting are those who stick with it when they know they'll never be apart of the vision. Those people who stick around and become your 'spiritual sandpaper'. They just rub you the wrong way.

Recently a gentleman within our church picked up on this concept. He came to me and said "Tally, some people need to know some things and you're not the one to tell them. I think I'm going to begin talking to some people. You need more support around here." He went on to say "People need to realize that our church is not all about them. It's about seeing people come to Christ and they need to lead, follow or get out of the way."

I nodded in silent support but on the inside I had a 3-ring circus going on. He's getting it! So for the last two Sundays I've seen him making his rounds. Some people he's encouraged and others he's challenged to squash their problems or come to me. We don't have a lot of drama going on right now but he's aware that if you let junk fester it can become bad news.

I encourage you to learn the lesson of Lead, Follow or Get out of the way! People are dying and headed to a real hell every day. That carries much more weight with me than Career Christians who want everything to look like their last church.