Church Leadership

Transition – Discovering God’s Call for Your Church

Many of you know that my calling is to a very specific field of ministry in the church. I am a transitional pastor. I help congregations discover God’s call for their collective of Christ followers. I met Bruce Cormier and his wife Lesia at my last transition. Together we, the collective of Christ followers called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship – Mimico and myself, set out on what ended up being an 18 month journey to understand what God was saying about the future of our church. We had a building. We had a small in-person congregation of about 30 and a similar sized online group who, in their younger years had attended in person. It took me 18 months to get to this point and Bruce managed to say it in just over 1500 words!

This little church has close to doubled in size and continues to grow under their new permanent pastor. The biggest question we needed to answer was about the building the church owned. As you read this, maybe your church needs to ask itself the same question they were asking:

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I Am God

That’s a scary statement! It may be less uncomfortable if you assume that I am applying the rules for the title of a literary work by capitalizing each word. I could have been calling myself a god not the God but because it is a title it requires all caps. Then there is another possibility. I could be me attempting to grab the attention of the reader with the intention of pointing out that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27 NIV). Maybe in a strange way this does make us God. Maybe, but I am not comfortable even attempting to defend the suggestion that I am God because I am made in His image.

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What makes us different?

The upside of living in a beautiful country…

…like Canada or the USA is we want for very little. The downside of living in Canada or the USA is we want for very little. The power of God is often missed, written off as part of our everyday lives. It is difficult to see God as active in our lives unless we make an effort to look for Him in action. In countries less fortunate than ours, every day is a day to discover the depth of God’s love for His children. God is seen, felt and heard in the activities of the day and His provision and protection are obvious to those who call Him their Heavenly Father.

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Jesus said;

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:28-34 (NIV)

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The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Sheep Stealing

It is considered the biggest offence a church/pastor can commit. Those accused of committing this offence often are unfazed while those behind the accusations feel wronged in ways that cannot be measured. Do some churches set out to steal sheep? Some. Do some churches have sheep go missing because they aren’t being good shepherds? Some. Do some sheep change sheep pens because the grass is always greener in some other sheep pen? Some. Do some sheep look for a new shepherd because the one they have isn’t shepherding at all? Some. Is the type of sheep stealing that the modern church concerns itself with actually something God is concerned about? Sometimes.

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The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Thirst

His title is The Most Interesting Man in the World (If you don’t know him click for videos) He is best known for his catchphrase, “Stay thirsty my friends.” He peddles beer, he doesn’t always drink beer but when he does, he has his brand. I don’t always drink beer. As a matter of fact I don’t drink much beer at all. I really don’t like beer although a few times a year on a hot day I have been known to have one and actually enjoy it. I know as a good Christian I should be a teetotaler, but I’m not a Christian at least not in the way we use it in North American, I am a Christ follower. I follow the guy who turned water into wine. By the way, I do like wine with a meal every now and then. Wait, how did I end up talking about alcohol? Oh yeah, I was talking about The Most Interesting Man in the World and his catchphrase, “Stay thirsty my friends.” I usually find advertising to be misleading but I must admit the product and the catch phrase are 100% on the mark…

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