Finish What You Started
This article lays out our vision and plan for the ministry season we just started in September. In the first part, I give the context and background, tracing where God has brought us over the past three years. In the second part, I highlight the steps we are taking this ministry year. If you want to skip ahead to the second part and bypass the background context, it won’t hurt my feelings a bit!
Part 1: Where We’ve Been
I have served as the lead pastor of LakeView Church for five years. It’s no surprise, then, that we’ve been in a season of transition. A new lead pastor often means a season of prayer, followed by new direction and change. But change takes time, and churches frequently grow weary in the process. There’s a real temptation to give it up and go back to what’s comfortable and familiar. That’s when we need to take a breath, regroup, and finish what we started.
In 2019-2020, our vision for the year was Jesus wasn’t cool—he was crucified. Be crucified with Christ. God was calling each of us individually to pursue something different from the world around us. Rather than seeking praise, popularity, status, followers, money, comfort, success, promotions, and recreation (like the world), we should live crucified lives for Christ alone. In other words—take your faith seriously and recognize that you exist for Jesus, not the other way around.
Collectively, this vision meant putting to death our desire to be “relevant,” “trendy,” “accepted by the culture,” “seeker-sensitive,” and “cool.” It meant redefining “success” as more than higher attendance and increased donations. Success is seeing people born again and becoming more like Jesus. It also meant understanding that we do not bring success as a church—God does. It’s not our programming, our style, our events, or our marketing that draws spiritual consumers to come enjoy our products. No, it’s God’s Spirit among us, God’s Word applied to our lives, and God’s People loving one another that attracts others to the presence of God they see in us.
This change in our philosophy of ministry required us to evaluate everything we do as a church: programming, events, communications, marketing, goals, leadership, and organizational structure. This is the path we’re currently on.
In 2020-2021, God called us to finish what you started. Knowing that energies would wane as the change process got underway, the Lord reminded us that he would bring to completion the good work he began in us if we continue on the path with him. Much like a cross-country coach who encourages the kids to keep running even though it’s hard, God challenged us to stay the course. He called us to keep putting to death our selfish desires, keep fixing our eyes on Jesus, and keep moving in the direction he’s leading.
In 2021-2022, God gave us three specific steps to take.
Remove the high places
Repair the damage
Restore the watchmen
The high places are places of divided loyalty, where we think we can have both God and the world. Removing the high places involves identifying those areas of divided loyalty in our hearts, and transferring full allegiance to Jesus. As Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
Repairing the damage means fixing our broken perspectives of what the “church” is. Somewhere along the way, American consumerism worked its way into churches. We began looking at the church the way we look at our dentist’s office. The pastors and staff, like dentists and oral hygienists, are professional service providers offering services, goods, and content for us to consume when we feel the need. We look for churches the way we look for dental care: What products and services do they offer? Are their services up to date with the latest trends? Do they utilize the newest technology? Is there something for my kids to do while we’re there? Do they have wi-fi, coffee, and snacks? Do I like the staff? Will I get good service here?
That method works well for finding a dentist. But a church is not a service provider, a content producer, or a community organizer. A church does not have consumers. Nor is a church marketing a product (no, Jesus is not our product—he’s our Lord). Repairing the damage means correcting our understanding of what the church is, namely, a spiritual family of brothers and sisters in Christ with God as our Father. This paradigm shift from consumer to family member is the most difficult part of the vision God has given LakeView.
The third step God revealed in 2021-2022 was restore the watchmen. This meant evaluating and changing the way we are organized as a church. Elders needed to be restored to their biblical role as Overseers of God’s flock, the church. Elders are Overseers, not “board members.”
Part 2: Where We’re Going This Year
We knew that the three steps God gave us in 2021-2022 would take more than one fiscal year to implement. We’re still working on removing the high places, repairing the damage, and restoring the watchmen.
Restore the watchmen. Our primary avenue for accomplishing this is through Gospel Communities. These are medium-sized groups of 20-30 people who meet once a month for a potluck and prayer. We have nine Gospel Communities that started in September! The Elders can now serve as Overseers by leading these groups and shepherding them. We also have appointed a Stewardship Team to function as the board on behalf of the Overseers. Additionally, we are hoping to appoint Deacons this year. Once we have Overseers, Deacons, and the Stewardship Team fully functioning, we will have finished restoring the watchmen.
Repair the damage. We plan to continue to reinforce a Christ-centered group identity as the family of God in all our ministry settings, including youth and children’s ministries. We hope to build tighter connections through monthly Gospel Community gatherings. And we have some fun all-church events planned for the year. These include Fall Fest (planned and produced by the youth for the whole church), a conference in March with a special guest speaker, and our annual Easter Breakfast.
Remove the high places. Last year, members of the congregation wrote devotionals, and we practiced a season of self-denial called Remove the High Places. We got a lot of feedback that people felt challenged and encouraged by it. I thought perhaps we were done with this step. But then the Lord convicted me: Are all the fruit of the Spirit ripe in your life? No. Living in a self-centered world requires a regular practice of denying self, taking up our crosses, and following Jesus. So, we hope to produce another devotional this year, this time from Psalms. Don’t worry—we won’t ask you to take cold showers for nine weeks! But we will invite everyone to give up something during Lent, and remind ourselves who is sitting on the throne of our hearts.
That’s a 30,000-foot view of the 2022-2023 ministry year that runs roughly September 2022-May 2023. There is a lot more than could be written. We have plans for LV Kids, LV Students, and our worship services as well. Those ministry plans will be sent out in future installments.
You might be thinking, “What does this have to do with me?” Here are a few applicational points.
Commit to belonging to the church as a family member, rather than attending services as a consumer. Make the shift in your heart to make LakeView your home.
Commit to gathering for worship weekly. God is worth one hour a week. Don’t give him your leftovers—make worship a priority for you and your family.
Join a Gospel Community. This will help you build relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and will help the leaders of the church know how our family is doing and how we can pray for you.
Participate in the Lent devotional and fasting exercise. It’s good to remind yourself that Jesus is the King of your life.
Meet people you don’t know. We have many new people at LakeView! As an introvert, I understand how difficult it can be to introduce yourself to a person you haven’t met. But, someone has to take the first step—why not you?