I often get asked from pastors/planters if I could only give them one piece of advice than what would it be?

It would be simply BE SECURE IN YOUR CALLING.

There are days when nothing will get you through the day but your calling. There are days that the only thing that will keep you from quitting is your calling. There are days when you think you are in over your head but you know you are called.

People who don’t pastor will never understand the pressure that goes into the position. I’m not complaining about that, but it is the reality. I pastor, lead, stress, and think about Revolution Church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is like the Waffle House, it is never closed.

When those people you have poured your life into, have cried with, laughed with, have been there when they were hurt and yet they still decide to leave, the only thing that will comfort you (and not much) is the fact that you must KNOW you are called to this thing.

When other Christians are criticizing, blasting, and preaching against you, the only thing that will keep you from responding and sinking to their level is knowing you are called to do church the way you are doing it.

When other people are trying to get you to do church “their way,” trying to get you to change, blasting you because you don’t emphasis their passion enough, the only thing that will keep you on the straight and narrow is your calling.

When other churches around you are seeing more success the human reaction is to think you suck and blame yourself. Your calling allows you to praise God for their success and yet still celebrate what God had done through your work because you know that is what you are called to do.

It has taken me 3 years to become secure in my calling. My insecurity lead me to being competitive about other churches, caused me stress out if someone didn’t like us, caused me to lose sleep for fear of losing someone, and led me to continually feel the need to justify the way we do church. No more. More then ever, I know the type of church God has called us to be, the leader I am called to be, and the people we are called to make. It is a great feeling to be secure in your calling.

Here is something that EVERY pastor and planter needs to learn and accept: No matter what you do, people leave. No matter what you do, people will criticize. No matter what you do, people will say you are doing it wrong. No matter the vision God has given you, people will try to tweak it. No matter how much success you see, others will see more. No matter your focus, others will say you should focus on something else. No matter how much you love and care for people, they will hurt you and you will hurt them. No matter how much you have it together, you will drop the ball. No matter how much you plan, you will hit a dud. Those things are life.

I would love to be running what Steven Furick runs, I would love to teach like Perry Noble, I would love to have 10,000 people sign up for small groups in one week like Michael, I would have loved to have been as prepared as Tadd has been for his launch, I would love to meet in such an awesome High School as Tony McCollum, I would love to be launching a 4th campus like Mark Batterson, but I am not them. God has a different calling on my life and the life of Revolution that is unique to us. Being secure in that calling helps me sleep at night, helps me stay excited about what God is doing here, helps me celebrate what God is doing in other places, and helps me have the peace in my life that I am doing this thing for an audience of ONE.

Be Secure In Your Calling. That is the best advice I can give guys in ministry and planting churches.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Church Planting, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.