As a pastor, sometimes I wonder if all of the time and effort I put into prayer, study, message prep, and message delivery are effective. How do I gauge my effectiveness?
One word: application.
I love seeing people not just listening, but doing. Applying what they’ve heard and what’s been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit is the greatest compliment a congregation could give a pastor.
So I am absolutely thrilled to see the incredible folks from Calvary Assembly of God so quickly applying what we’ve been discussing!
My inaugural series was called “I ♥ My Church.” We looked at the practical ways the Acts 2 Church turned dechurched people—those who knew about God but didn’t have a personal relationship with Him—into those who ♥’d their church. How exciting it is to see such immediate application in our community.
Just a couple of examples:
- The message board in the lobby immediately sported the message “You are the church.”
- Stephanie helped Sophie get into the act with her new t-shirt.
- A group of our Impact! students volunteered their afternoon yesterday packing more food boxes than they could count for the needy.
- Last week we cleaned the house of a woman recovering from hip surgery.
- Tomorrow we’re helping a family move into their new house.
Wow, am I a proud pastor! I can’t wait to see how God is going to continue to use this group of committed people to change the world!
August 27, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Attaboy !!! You are off to a GREAT start.
LikeLike
August 27, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Yeah! Thats what I’m talking about. Pastor who leads and teaches his church to do what God ask them to do. Take care of your own too. Good Job Church for listening. To bad you are so far away. You go Pastor. Be tough, we like it.
LikeLike
August 28, 2009 at 8:17 am
Thanks for the kind words, Denise!
You know, we may be quite a distance from Ortonville, but we’re not too far away from Lake Michigan. So anytime your family wants to take a lovely (extended) vacation to beautiful west Michigan, we’d love to see you!
–CTO
LikeLike