I recently read an article from one of my favorite authors when it comes to church planting/pastoring a smaller church, Karl Vaters. The title of his article was, “Turn The Team You’re Stuck With Into The Team You Want (10 Steps For Church Leaders).”
To read the article in its entirety, click the link below: http://www.christianitytoday.com/karl-vaters/2019/july/team-youre-stuck-with-team-you-want.html
While many won’t take the time to read the whole article, perhaps you’ll read a few statements that jumped out to me:
(1) “No one starts with the team they want. Teams aren’t born, they’re built.“
(2) “In December of 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld got into hot water when he responded to reporters’ questions about whether-or-not US troops were ready for war by saying “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
(3) “It’s the same in the church… You go into spiritual battle with the church members you have, not the members you wish you had.”
Did you catch that last line? IT IS THE SAME IN THE CHURCH. It is the same in YOUR CHURCH. It is the same in MY CHURCH. It is the same in the church across town.
Let me take it a step further…IT WAS THE SAME IN THE CHURCH YOU’VE BEEN COMPARING YOUR CHURCH TO FOR YEARS! (I’ll come back in a separate article to attack that later)
Listen to me…unless you want to lose your mind and stay frustrated for the rest of your life, you’ve got to stop worrying about WHAT you DON’T HAVE and understand that NO ONE STARTS with EVERYTHING THEY WANT!
You don’t start a church with people you wish you had, you start with whoever you have, which might just be you and your immediate family. START ANYWAY!
Let me encourage you with the words of Zechariah: “Do NOT despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work BEGIN…” (Zechariah 4:10/ NLT)
Do NOT despise your small beginnings. The Lord REJOICES to see YOU START WITH WHAT YOU HAVE!
Rag tags or All stars?
The Latent Potential
It’s good… it leaves a less than desirable taste in my mouth because of the “rift raft” mentality that is attached to the people that a Pastor is “stuck with” – from my vantage point, the issue goes back to a point you make in that we look across town or across the aisle at the conference, and see what “we don’t think we have” when in fact if we took the time to hear the testimony of that Pastor and his “all star” team, we would quickly be introduced to a bunch of rag tags that somehow became all stars for Jesus… the difference you ask? Not the latent potential of either motley crew, but rather the Pastors ability to “tap into” that latent potential. God has written an incredible story and attached it to everyone of us. It’s those unique giftings that compliment and offset the angel of the church… but it must be discovered, which it means it must be pursued, which means the Pastor must become blind to the natural and embrace the invisible. In embracing the invisible, his language, demeanor, disposition and carefulness for and towards his flock will radically move from doubt and complacency to mountain moving faith and opportunity. If a parent is constantly reminding him or herself and his or her child of the good for nothing that they are, they will inevitably live up to precisely that expectation, but if we, as stewards of the Kings kids will see in them what the King sees in them, then despite the puddle of blood, we will say live! And despite the wrecked past, we will declare the plans for a Future and a Hope! I’m not talking about buttering someone up, but I am absolutely talking about building into our character as leaders, a faith that actively RISKS being overconfident. It will be in so doing that our Peters will no longer see the water as a place where only we tread, but they too will say, bid me come.