Today, as I worked out of a local Panera Bread today I overheard a very agitating conversation. A conversation that I wish I could just erase from my memory all together. There was a table of people (all in there 40’s or 50’s) directly behind me talking very loudly and rudely about area churches. They basically went through every local church I had ever heard of, and believe me with all the research we have done for Horizon’s launch I have a deep knowledge of the local churches, and shamelessly bashed them for one thing or another. No matter what the denomination, belief, or style they were shooting lasers at em’ all.

One lady shamelessly spoke about how she shopped several local churches looking for which one would, “give her what she needed to stay happy.” And even though no church could do that, she settled at the one who did the best job.

Then, the gentleman across from her spent ten minutes blasting a church for not adhering to a specific Biblical principle, and then proceed to explain why he thought churches were stupid for teaching that hell exists. The concept of hell was just too judgmental for him to believe. COME ON!

Now, I was sitting at my table quietly preparing a lesson for this weekend with Bible and laptop open, and I was embarrassed that other people around us, who could obviously hear them, might associate me with these people. Worse yet, when the conversation inevitably turned to their church, it turned out to be the church of a pastor that I know personally. I was just infuriated, because I know this is not what this man is teaching, yet these people will be viewed as the product of his teaching.

Here’s my point. The reason God’s kingdom is not moving closer towards unity is not because there are too many conflicting beliefs between denominations, it’s because of selfish, judgmental, hypocritical individuals. The church does not exist to make us feel good. The church exists to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world and to educate everyone, through the Bible, on how we can better accomplish this goal.

Here’s my question as a concerned pastor of a new church: How can we stop our churches from producing people with attitudes like this, or is it just inevitable?

This second entry for my “Vision for life” series is very ironic since I haven’t posted on my blog in over a week. I just wanted to point that out myself. I will give you 5 seconds to laugh at me if you wish. 1…2…3…4…5, it’s over.

I am going to stay current and be on time!
I think that one of the biggest problems that faces people in this world today is poor time management. When we aren’t up to date at work, or at home, or with anything it causes us stress. And stress inevitably causes problems with everything!

So, what does that look like for me? Something like this:

When my wife asks me to do something for her, I’M GOING TO DO IT RIGHT AWAY. That’s not always as easy as it sounds, trust me, but it is a good practice for the sanity of our marriage.

When I am thinking about something that needs to get done, I go ahead and do it. Putting something off is the best way to forget it.

When I have an appointment or meeting to get to, I’m going to center an entire half a day around making sure that I get there AT LEAST 15 minutes early. This has been a practice of mine for quite a while now, and it’s never really been hard for me, until I became a father. So, I’m going to make promptness a priority in my life.

These things may sound simple and easy, but I believe that it is simple things like these that can dramatically change your life and how you live it. They will also show people how much you care about the short time God has given you on this earth.

I believe very strongly in vision. My wife used to says that I have a vision in my head for how I’m going to mow the yard next week, and whether that is a good or bad thing that’s just the way I am. So, in light of this I thought I would share some of the vision that I have for my life in the next year or so in hopes that you might think a little about the vision and direction for your own life.

I am going to be a family centered man:
I have always had a strong bond with my family and friends, but in recent years with all of my wanderings, that bond has become a little more loose. I have seen that it truly takes effort to show your family that you still care; especially when they are in another state or country.

After the birth of my son last fall my wife and I came to the stunning realization that we didn’t spend enough intentional time together. I mean we were always together, but we were not doing anything together. We realized that to really make a family work, we had to spend intentional time together, even if we had to put that time on a calendar.

I once heard Andy Stanley speak at a conference about cheating the church and it changed my perspective forever. His point was that we all cheat something or someone in our lives, and we should strive to cheat our jobs, and in a minister’s case, the church, in favor of our family. I have tried with all my heart to live my life like that, and I think we all should think about how intentional we are with our time.

This morning I was reading the swerve blog when one of the questions on their “10 questions” series caught my eye. It said this to church leaders:

“Is our vision so big that we obviously can’t accomplish it without God?” -Craig Groeschel

This statement really got me thinking about something my dad asked me this past weekend. We were sitting at a local restaurant having dinner and amidst normal conversation about Horizon’s upcoming launch he asked, “Do you have any goals or expectation about how many people you will have over a certain time line?” And as I started to give him the normal answer of, “we really have no idea,” I just blurted out what I felt God could do. I told him that I think we can launch the church in September with twice as many people as we have now, and that we expect to reach ten times that amount over the first two years.

As many people would have my dad responded, “Isn’t that a little too ambitious?” And my only response was YES! It is too ambitious for me! But it’s not to ambitious for God! If these last 6 months of planning and preparing have taught me anything it is this. My talents, my abilities, my connections, my knowledge, and my courage have NOTHING to do with the success of this church. It doesn’t depend on any person withing the organization. It depends only on God, and for that reason I will continue to plan for and expect God to do things that I perceive to be impossible.

Maybe we should spend more time planning for God’s power to move within our lives, and our churches and less time planning for what we think we can accomplish alone.