Got To Love It
I am NOT venting in this post, I am simply sharing with you some of the crazy yet humorous things that happened in the past 7 days.
1. We had a former family who left our church a couple of years ago try to recruit one of our faithful families because we don't teach or use the Bible at GRANITE.
2. We had a family leave the church this week because we are to strict on how we teach the Bible and how serious we are about it.
3. I had a "christian" family tell me they left the church because of that darn rock and roll music we use sometimes to open up our services.
4. I baptized a man last week at the lake who said he was tuned in from the moment we sang Livin' On A Prayer (sung during our prayer series, and it was awesome)
5. Was told by a man that our church is to strict when it comes to holiness and purity, so he needed to find a new church that his lifestyle could fit in with
6. Was told that a man in our church was approached by someone and encouraged to leave our church because we lack standards
7. This week our church gave $1,000 towards feeding, clothing, and educating orphans in Africa, and 17,000 the week before to feed 240,000 meals to starving people in a communist nation
8. This week a man told me he was done with GRANITE because we do nothing as far as the social Gospel is concerned.
I could go on and on, but I won't because the list is long, and if you are like me you don't care. There is only one person we need to please, and only one person we do church for, and only one person we will stand before and give an account to, JESUS! And it is JESUS we will continue lifting up, it is JESUS we will continue bragging about, it is JESUS we will continue to model our ministry after, and it is JESUS' opinion that will always reign supreme at GRANITE.
I'm sorry for those who may not like the way we do ministry, and I am happy for those who like the way we do ministry, but in the end, we need to ask HOW DOES GOD FEEL ABOUT THE WAY WE DO MINISTRY.
We will stay true to the DREAM OF JESUS for GRANITE, meaning we will continue to GROW our church, MULTIPLY campuses, and BIRTH network churches, all for God's glory. So when Jesus comes we will not be caught debating ministry models and philosophies, but we will get caught doing ministry seeing people lives forever changed through the power of God!
that's like judging a book because of the artwork on the cover - try showing up "behind the scenes" and see our church leaders serving God in service oriented ways - i know for sure that our leaders will not ask us to do anything that they themselves are not willing to do - my soul is fed and regardless of what we like and/or don't like about the music etc. we are to be in agreement with the church and that is to Reach the lost for Jesus! nothing more nothing less - we are NOT there to have poor pathetic flesh attended to - it's not about us - it's about Him! the One who gave His all for each of us with a love everlasting -
ReplyDeleteAMEN! Well said Karen, well said!
ReplyDeleteRight on John. The "social" gospel in this man's definition was feeding the poor and doping things to help the oppressed in the world. Like if we took people on a missions trip, or try and open up a feeding center in a communist nations, or supported a pregnancy care center, oh wait, we do do those things, lol!
ReplyDeletemy buddy bill cosby, aka the huX, always said "I don't know the key to success, but I do know the key to failure is trying to please everyone." We've got 1 person to please in all of this and it's JESUS like you already said.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy, when I hear the complaints that people have I can't help but shake my head. Clearly something really great is happening at Granite for God's Kingdom because Satan just wants to try and hurt us any chance he can. Here's the thing, we ARE Unstoppable and with Pastor's like you and Court and Greg doing what you do everyweek, more and more people will come to know Jesus and hopefully understand that it isn't about us, it's about HIM, the one who gave HIS all for us and it's our job to give our all for HIM.
ReplyDeleteLike you say Pastor, we are so blessed, we are blessed to be a blessing so that other people will know the Glory of God. There are sadly, some people, who let the negative voice of Satan get into their heads and turn their hearts away from what we are supposed to do as Christians. Thank God that you don't let this negativity turn your heart and hopefully these people will find a home that makes them happy but more importantly they will stay on their path with Jesus and let HIS voice be the voice of truth and reason.