Let the Chase Begin!

I'm really pumped for the next six weeks at LifeSpring. Starting this Sunday we'll be studying the book Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. This book was HUGE in my personal walk with Christ when I read it last November. I had the opportunity to meet Mark at The Sticks conference last year. His talk and this book really put a passion in me to see the Spirit of God really work in my life. I'm excited to preach for the next six weeks on this topic and to have each of our LifeGroups get deeper into the topics in their home meetings. We'll also be providing new Bible study resources in order to help people get into God's Word more in their own private time. It's going to be great!!

For me personally, following the Wild Goose hasn't always been easy. In fact, sometimes it's just flat out hard! As a pastor, sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Sometimes people are not going to like you or agree with you. Sometimes you have to have difficult conversations with people who you really love. Sometimes what you say gets misinterpreted. Sometimes all the details of the church just seems so overwhelming. But, what I've learned the most this past year comes right out of Mark's books. And it's this, "since when did it become safe to follow Christ? Maybe it's time to come out of the cage and live dangerously for the cause of Christ".

Being on this Wild Goose has been the most exciting journey of my ENTIRE life. Leaving a successful career was crazy. Moving to Elmira to be an associate pastor was crazy. Resigning from such a wonderful church like Woodside was crazy. Becoming a lead pastor in a small church plant was crazy. And yes, some of the stuff we as a leadership team want to do going forward is going to be crazy :)

BUT THIS IS THE PATH OF THE WILD GOOSE!! So that's the path that I'm going to stick with! God has never left me! He doesn't abandon us half way down the trail. He has been right there with me through this entire adventure! It is HIS Spirit that is able to accomplish all this stuff. I've never felt so blessed. I've never felt so excited. I've never felt so terrified!

I'm praying like crazy that all of us at LifeSpring will chase the goose this year. Let the chase begin!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practical Atheist

Image
Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing. This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view
Read more

Revitalized Pastors and Leaders

Image
On March 15, 2023, the Barna Research Group released the "The Resilient Pastor Initiative". Its goal was to explore and share the state of pastors in America in the post-COVID climate we find ourselves in. According to the data, the state of pastors may not be as good as it appears from behind the pulpit. From 2015 to 2022 Barna notes the following where pastors responded "Excellent" in a number of categories: Spiritual well-being dropped from 37% to 14% Physical well-being fell from 24% to 9% Mental and emotional health plummeted from 39% to 11% The overall quality of life dipped from 42% to 18% The level of respect they felt from the community tanked from 22% to 10% Level of ‘true friends’ dropped by 50% from 34% to 17% The data also showed that this drop in wellness was more prevalent in younger pastors! Older pastors are riding it out to retirement. Now, before anyone from my church begins to panic, I'm OK. As shared in a blog post from January 2023 entitled
Read more

The Worship of our Worship

Image
  Every once and a while an idea pops into my head that I just can't shake. It keeps me up at night. It consumes my waking hours. It turns around and around in my head. It shows up in my dreams. It starts coming up in more and more conversations. I pray that God would just get rid of this idea because I know a lot of church people are not going to like what I have to say. This doesn't happen to me often. When it does, it's usually because I need to get this out of my head and into the world. Because I always find that I'm never alone. Others have been wrestling with the exact same idea.  I don't put this out to be confrontational or to cause division. I write this as a simple man who loves Jesus, who trusts in the teachings of Scripture, who tries hard to listen to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and who has been pastoring a local church for 14 years. What Started It Recently I heard the current COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the Christian Church compared to the Ba
Read more