I Don't Want To Forget...

As I sit in my office on the last day of 2011 preparing for our last worship experience of the year I find my self thinking about things from this year and years past that I don't want to forget...

I think one of the greatest mistakes that a leader can make is to forget what God has done for you. To forget where you were when God rescued you and how far He has brought you. Pride and arrogance often come as a result of a leader believing they have done some really great things all by themselves…which is why it is good for us to reflect on God’s faithfulness.

For example…I have never forgotten…

- Where I was when He saved me. Even though I had grown up around church, I was so far from Him…and yet He chose to save me anyway.
- Where I was when I preached my first “sermon” to a group of teenagers in a back room in my home church.
- The first church where He allowed me to serve as a staff member (youth pastor and business administrator). I am thankful for that church and their believing in me and what we were diong there.
- The opportunities that I had to sit under Godly leadership and learn that ministry was so much more than just preaching to people but loving them as well.
- Where I was when God called me to lead and start NewLife…I had never been a pastor before and was scared out of my mind.
- Standing up in front of our church and telling them that we were being sued by a Christian denomination who was trying to take our church from us.
- God's provision throughout that entire law suit and God's favor in it coming to a close at the end of 2007.
- Making the risk to ask our church to step up and give so that we could update our current facility and watching how God showed up big time in what was given over the course of the next two years.

I could go on and on…but you get the point. Whenever I am tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness in my current circumstances I simply have to remind myself to stop and look at all He has done in the past and know that I am not where I am (and our church is not where it is) because I am a really smart person who has it all figured out…but rather because God is so good and kind and He still uses “unschooled, ordinary men” for His glory (see Acts 4:13!)

Looking forward to the next steps God is calling us to take as a church and all that 2012 has to bring.