Don't Get Lost

Church Planting Series, Part eleven

Air France flight 447. Judge Sotomayor. Swine Flu. GM goes through bankruptcy. An abortion doctor murdered in a Lutheran Church.

This is what people are thinking about this week. Add to those items a broken relationship, an illness in the family, a special family celebration, financial struggles, some life successes, personal dissatisfaction at work, a vacation that’s coming, the struggle with an addiction, and a boatload of stress, and you have a pretty good idea of where people are at.

The question is: will you meet them there?

Church planting can be very thought and life consuming. It can get to a point where you’re thinking so much about ministry, you begin to think ministry is the whole point, the goal, the end. You talk with your ministry friends. You read ministry books. You plan ministry events. You work with ministry teams.

And you may forget that people aren’t thinking about ministry; they’re thinking about life!

Will you meet people who are living life with the Good News of Jesus Christ for their lives? Will you remember what it feels like to live?

One hazard of church/ministry planting is that a ministry leader can get lost in the church. You can forget to connect with people and take their thoughts captive for Christ.

Do you remember when the exiles were returning from Babylon and they heard the preaching of the Word for the first time? Nehemiah 8:7-8 tells us that the Levites, “Instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.”

People need to understand the Gospel for their lives, their ups and downs, their celebrations and hurts, their media-bombarded brains. If you forget to “make it clear and give meaning so that the people could understand,” you’re sending people away to become lost in the world.

You see, that’s the other extreme. People are getting lost in the world—-in the headlines, schedules, bills, and busyness. You shouldn’t be a leader who joins them—-and lets the headlines drive your ministry. But you shouldn’t be a leader who is disjointed from them. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us—-full of grace and truth (John 14:6). God came near. He touched the weak and sick. He laid hands on the children. He looked people in the eye. And He brought life. A blood dripping, screaming Savior joined us in our brokenness and helped us in our pain.

Will you draw near, make the connections, and articulate the fact that Jesus joins people in their real lives? If you’re having a hard time remembering how, get out, take notice, and live a little.