thoughts on five years

This Sunday Teri, the kids and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary at Council Road.

Hard to believe.

In some ways it seems like it was only yesterday that we stood before the church and accepted the call. In some ways it seems like it has been a lifetime!

There are days when I feel like I have been here my whole life- and there are others that I think I have only just begun.

Allow me to reflect on that.

Our family has developed friendships these past five years that seem as if we have had for many many years. We have renewed old friendships. We are continually making new friends.

In the sense that our relationships here are perhaps deeper than anywhere we have been it does seem strange that we have ONLY been here five years.

There are many many people in our lives today that I can't imagine ever not having.

But in another sense it does indeed seem like we have just begun.

I have been thinking this week about our journey together over these past few years and have thought about the road we have traveled. Here are a few thoughts:

1. I am grateful for every moment I have been pastor of CRBC- the good and the not so good- the fun and the gut wrenching- the times that have seemed so easy and the times it has seemed like we were pedaling uphill against the wind- I would not trade for one minute of it.

The truth is, if it were not for the good AND the difficult times we have had we would not know the full extent of the goodness and grace of God and how He calls us moves us along and providentially uses all things for His glory.

These past five years have been an incredible learning experience. I have gained invaluable knowledge about the church and the church has learned much about my leadership and passion. The result is that after five years we have come to what I believe is a calm assurance that God has brought us together for a wonderful mission purpose.

It hasn't always been easy. I came from a church I dearly loved and had been with from it's beginnings. I knew every member intimately and was the only pastor most of them had known. It was extremely difficult to rip myself away from that community of believers and come to a more established church with rich tradition and a significantly larger membership and history of great pastors. I was grieving the loss of my last church and CRBC was grieving the loss of a dearly loved pastor.

It took some time to get used to each other. But after five years we have settled into a great place- a place of understanding and trust and deep affection.

2. In some ways I think we are only just beginning.

The adage in ministry is that a pastor doesn't really get started until he has been around about five years. I think that has especially been true of us.

Five years ago I began to introduce new language. Today, words like celebration, connection, community and cause are normative. We have embraced an understanding of what it means to be missional, to understand that every member is a missionary and that we all have our own mission field. We are continually reinforcing our essential doctrines.

Although these are objectives that we have embraced- I do believe we are just starting in many ways.

We still have a long way to go. But I believe the difficult work of transition and scaling the learning curve is now behind us.

3. There are things that I believe I can lead us to now after five years that I was not able to accomplish before now.

As an example, I think it is now time for us to establish a church covenant that reflects our values. Our current bylaws do not include a covenant.

One of the basic values of Baptist ecclesiology is a commitment to membership around a agreed upon covenant. Over the past five years we have begun to lay the groundwork for this. We have developed a better understanding of our mission, what it means to be on a journey together and what we consider to be the most essential doctrines that shape our lives and commitment as we live life together.

I would like for us to begin work to clarify and formalize these values into a covenant that will strengthen our understanding and commitment to membership.

Last week the SBC passed a resolution encouraging churches to clean up their membership roles and to make a fresh commitment to "regenerate" membership. I believe this is good impetus for us a congregation to learn together what that might look like for us. We have people on our church role who the CIA and Jack Bauer couldn't find. We have people on our roles who are technically members but who are not committed to membership.

We need to remedy that. It will make us a stronger church and establish a healthier approach to every aspect of church life.

I would like to see us utilize a Baptist catechism as a benchmark for teaching our children and guiding us in our discipleship ministries.

I see us becoming more of a church planting church. In the past year, we have planted three churches and we have plans for three more in the next year. I can see us training leaders and pastors and encouraging other churches to start churches. I am very excited about our partnership with organizations like the BGCO and NAMB and Vision 360 to continue to encourage church planting movements.

I also see us becoming more intentional in our overseas initiatives. I would like to see us take a more direct approach to partnering with our missionaries who are attached to our church. I want to see us continue to expand the orphanage we have helped start in Motipur India. I want us to send even more people on short term mission trips, understanding that the more people get on the field, the more we will become a church with a global big Kingdom passion.

I can see us becoming more a church of different cultures. In addition to our two different morning worship services that meet in our big room, we have become a church of different congregations reaching into many different cultures around the city. We have ministries that reach into urban culture with The Bridge, one that targets Hispanic culture with our Espanol worship, one that targets people in need of recovery in Celebrate Recovery, we have a congregation that meets at the truck stop, a congregation that meets downtown and we are now organizing a church plant that will target Asian Indians.

This year our debt for the CUBE will fall below 1 million dollars. I think we are fully capable of paying off this debt in just one year if we pull together. With our church debt free we can focus more of our resources toward our mission causes. I would like to see us accomplish this.

4. I can see that what God has started in us is beginning to take shape in exciting ways.

We have become more missional. We have grasped the values of biblical community and a commitment to His word and disciple making. God is giving us a big Kingdom vision.

It is good for us to celebrate what He has done these past five years.

Even better for us to role up our sleeve and look excitedly to our future!