In 2005, God sent my family and I to Queens, NYC to plant a church. What God did during that 10-year period was simply amazing, but the real growth/change/and ministry was what He did in me. I thought we were going to change the City, little did I know what was really going to happen was that God was going to change me.
King and Kingdom - The Gospel
As a church planter, I learned what the Gospel really is, and who I really am both with and without it's power in my life. Yes, the Gospel can be stated in a variety of Christian, Protestant, and Evangelical terms, but what it really comes down to is "King and Kingdom." The Gospel is that there is one true King and neither I, nor you, are him. God alone is the Kingdom and He has established His Kingdom with its rule and justice. Those who submit to the King will live in His blessings; those who do not, will suffer under His wrath and justice. It's that simple.
The Good News (Gospel) is not only is this one, eternal King both sovereign and perfect, but He is also loving and merciful. All that one has to do live under His blessing is repent and submit to His rule and law. There is no penance or self-reliance in His Kingdom, only mercy and aid for the repentant. Those who submit to God's authority receive forgiveness through the ransom of His Son and the power to do what is right through His Holy Spirit. The Good News is the opportunity to live each day in love and submission to the King while enjoying His Kingdom.
Building a Church vs. Submitting to the King
As I stated above, I truly believe the Lord did more in more during our time in NYC than in anything else we attempted. As a young pastor, responsible for producing a vibrant and growing church, it was incredibly tempting to get caught up in the expectations of culture, denominations, peers and self-glory. Everyone loves a success, and in America, success = big. Pastors do some really dumb thing in an effort to be viewed as a 'success,' including self-justifying really bad preaching and theology on both salvation and 'church growth.' During most of my time in NYC, I was no different in most of these respects. By God's grace, however, it was in the first year of the church launch that I was severely rebuked by the Lord for preaching 'felt need' sermons and 'prosperity.' The contemporary message simply was not in Scripture and I was burdened to only 'preach the Word' (I Tim 2). So, after our first 4-week 'felt needs' sermon series, I switched tactics and began preaching verse-by-verse through books of the Bible. It was through this hermeneutical approach that the 'King and Kingdom' truth of the Gospel came shining through and realized in our church plant.
Nevertheless, I still felt the earthly temptation to contribute and exercise authority in regards to God's Kingdom growth. I fought hard against my peers, enemies, and self-doubt for years trying to be the means of God's Kingdom expansion and numeric growth. Ironically, I was growing in my understanding of Kingdom principles during these early years, but I absolutely sucked at finding the right application. It was still all about me and my reputation before others. I was trying to build His church, and what I needed to do was simply submit to the King. Instead of caring about myself, or even others, God was (and still is) calling me and His people to care ultimately about HIM. When He is our first authority (not just love), we let go of the steering wheel of life and, instead, become about His glory and will, everything changes. We go from merely acknowledging His Kingdom and become benefactors and members of it. It took almost our full 10-years in NYC to realize this distinction and truth, but I am forever grateful that we did!
So, here I am. Having felt the leading of the Lord to resign my leadership in NYC and pursue ministry elsewhere, my family and I are now in a brand new (& very unique) form of vocational ministry and proclaiming the Gospel to a whole new group of people. The context will always change, but the calling and message of my life remains the same. I must simply submit to the King and proclaim His Kingdom until He comes again.
It's almost silly how simple a lot of what ministry is; submit. Submit, submit, submit. And I mean that in no way to minimize how difficult ministry LIFE often is, but the core isn't about the pastor, it's what God does through that person when that person is really, truly, interested in what God's plan is. We are helping in a church now in an attempt to help influence the culture that honestly focuses so much on environment, numbers, and popularity, that the church body is immature, and ill-prepared for living out Jesus. We are honestly struggling now on how to use our "submit" to do the most good in an environment that we see as having so many distractions. Keep marching on!
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