Better Dads Better Kids

My vision for St. Pauls Lutheran Church.

I presented this at a  church service that St Paul’s had at the LSA back in 2005.   There were about 1,000 in attendance.  It is written as a speech. 

The 10 windows in this book are pretty simple—but very profound and helped me realize this Church Doctor guy does get it.

This book asks some tough questions—like

Do you major in the minor things?

Are you willing to “Go Public” with your faith?

Do you trust God’s abundance?

Page 98, second paragraph says, “Somewhere the idea has developed that the Pastor is there to serve them”.  Maybe this Church Doctor has been around our church a lot longer than we think because there is no more willing a servant than our Pastor Wray.

I know he is not perfect and needs God’s grace in certain areas but could we ask for a better leader for our church?

According to our mission statement, his vision as the coach of our St. Paul’s team is to grow committed, passionate disciples who minister daily to our unchurched friends in the Decatur area.  We will love them into a mature relationship with Jesus through relevant worship, bible teaching, and small group study.  WBGL Radio has a similar vision and I love how they say it, “so all will know Him and those that know Him will know Him more”. 

Have you ever seen this book called  “Good to Great”—-those of you in the back have probably still never seen it.

It says one of the hardest things to do is take something that is good and make it great.  It says enduring great companies (and churches) preserve their core values and purpose while their business strategies and operating practices endlessly adapt to the changing world. 

Pastor Wray doesn’t have us do this stuff to be mega church—his ideas of new and different ministries are not to satisfy his own ego, he is trying to take us from good to great.

I am not sure if any of you have noticed this but Pastor Wray is not as young as he used to be—with all his talents, he can only minister to so many people.  If we are going to go from good to great, it is up to all of us to do the work of ministry.

Do we need a great church?

In this windows book, it says, “The world at its worst needs the church at its best”. 

This book calls for you not to be members of this church.  This book calls for you to be a disciple of this church.  Think about disciples in the Bible.  Disciples aren’t spectators.  Disciples are equipped to do the work of ministry.

So I ask each and every one of you—what is your ministry?  And how are you going to equip yourself to do it?

This isn’t a very original thought, but ask not what your church can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your church.

God has not gifted us all the same way as He has gifted Pastor Wray, but we learned in the 40 days of Purpose that God has a plan for each and every one of us.  Are you letting God fulfill that plan?

What is it that you do well?

What is it that you have a passion for?

How do you use that to benefit the church and accomplish the great commission?

Look around for a minute at all the people here.  Could you imagine if we were all on the same page—working together for the good of the team.  If everyone here could reach “Just one more for Jesus”.  We are going to need a pretty big roof to cover that group.