Break Camp
Just thought I'd share one of my leadership paradigms.
I feel like my primary job as lead pastor of National Community Church is to make sure we keep playing offense. We need to keep learning, keep growing, keep experimenting, and keep making mistakes.
At some point most leaders start doing ministry out of memory and stop doing ministry out of imagination. They start repeating the past and stop creating the future. And most churches stop taking the risks that got them to where they are. They start playing defense.
Sidenote: the greater your leadership gifts the greater the danger. You're so good at what you do that you can stop growing and maintain a measure of influence. But you'll never reach your God-given potential. It's so easy to become comfortable. It's so easy to live in the past. It's so easy to keep doing it the way it's always been done. NCC is no exception.
I'm not exactly sure how to say this, but the blessings of God are dangerous. They can lead toward pride and complacency. That is when the blessings of God backfire.
Most of us settle east of the Jordan. We never enter the Promise Land. And I think there are lessons to be learned from the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. If you want to make it to the Promise Land you have to break camp. That is what God tells the Israelites in Numbers 9:15-23. Sometimes they would only camp overnight and the cloud would move. Other times they stayed put for weeks or months. But whenever the cloud moved the Israelites broke camp. By my count, the Israelites had to break camp forty-one times to reach the Promise Land. The travel itinerary is recorded in Numbers 33.
A few observations.
Most of us want to get to the Promise Land in one step or two stops! It doesn't work that way! It took forty-one moves for the Israelites to get there.
It is easy to break camp when you're at Rephidim--there was no water. You're ready to go the instant God calls!
It is much more difficult to break camp when you're in Elim--there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees. I'm convinced that Elim is the most dangerous place in our journey. It is so easy to mistake it for the Promise Land. We can become comfortable there. We don't want to leave! So we settle down when God wants us to break camp.
The same is true at Mount Horeb. The Israelites have a God encounter. They hear His voice. They receive the ten commandments. And part of you wants to stay put. But God says in Deuteronomy 1:6 says: "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites."
Permission to speak frankly? Too many churches are more focused on protecting their own turf than taking enemy territory! I'll be the first to confess: somtimes it's easier to pray for a church that is four states away than a church that is four blocks away!
One last observation.
I think the story of this journey through the wilderness is a picture of the multi-site church. When the cloud moved, the production team tore down the tabernacle. And the setup team put it back together everytime the cloud stopped. I love multi-site because it's one way to overcome the natural complacency that sets in at some point in our journey. You're always breaking camp! It doesn't allow you to get too comfortable!
We're getting ready to break camp! Can't wait to launch our next location!
I feel like my primary job as lead pastor of National Community Church is to make sure we keep playing offense. We need to keep learning, keep growing, keep experimenting, and keep making mistakes.
At some point most leaders start doing ministry out of memory and stop doing ministry out of imagination. They start repeating the past and stop creating the future. And most churches stop taking the risks that got them to where they are. They start playing defense.
Sidenote: the greater your leadership gifts the greater the danger. You're so good at what you do that you can stop growing and maintain a measure of influence. But you'll never reach your God-given potential. It's so easy to become comfortable. It's so easy to live in the past. It's so easy to keep doing it the way it's always been done. NCC is no exception.
I'm not exactly sure how to say this, but the blessings of God are dangerous. They can lead toward pride and complacency. That is when the blessings of God backfire.
Most of us settle east of the Jordan. We never enter the Promise Land. And I think there are lessons to be learned from the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. If you want to make it to the Promise Land you have to break camp. That is what God tells the Israelites in Numbers 9:15-23. Sometimes they would only camp overnight and the cloud would move. Other times they stayed put for weeks or months. But whenever the cloud moved the Israelites broke camp. By my count, the Israelites had to break camp forty-one times to reach the Promise Land. The travel itinerary is recorded in Numbers 33.
A few observations.
Most of us want to get to the Promise Land in one step or two stops! It doesn't work that way! It took forty-one moves for the Israelites to get there.
It is easy to break camp when you're at Rephidim--there was no water. You're ready to go the instant God calls!
It is much more difficult to break camp when you're in Elim--there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees. I'm convinced that Elim is the most dangerous place in our journey. It is so easy to mistake it for the Promise Land. We can become comfortable there. We don't want to leave! So we settle down when God wants us to break camp.
The same is true at Mount Horeb. The Israelites have a God encounter. They hear His voice. They receive the ten commandments. And part of you wants to stay put. But God says in Deuteronomy 1:6 says: "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites."
Permission to speak frankly? Too many churches are more focused on protecting their own turf than taking enemy territory! I'll be the first to confess: somtimes it's easier to pray for a church that is four states away than a church that is four blocks away!
One last observation.
I think the story of this journey through the wilderness is a picture of the multi-site church. When the cloud moved, the production team tore down the tabernacle. And the setup team put it back together everytime the cloud stopped. I love multi-site because it's one way to overcome the natural complacency that sets in at some point in our journey. You're always breaking camp! It doesn't allow you to get too comfortable!
We're getting ready to break camp! Can't wait to launch our next location!
6 Comments:
Sounds like a good theme for a book!
"the greater your leadership gifts the greater the danger."
You are so right. We would be stupid to think that we can't learn from others. Frankly, I would rather not repeat mistakes others have made. If I can skip some of those, I will get more forgivness for failed experiments of my own. Unfortunately most of us get into a groove where things are going so well that we stop looking outside.
I also know a church planter in Raleigh (Jimmy Carroll, Journey Church) who has rented a wherehouse. He said "it scares me that people might start looking at the building as the church." He said that if that happend he would move back to the school.
You sparked my memory of Ken Blanchard's book, Leading at a Higher Level, where he comments on the need to have a "clear picture of the future." When we have a clear picture, but don't see where we're at as that picture, it compels us forward. However, if we have no vision/ picture, then the first thing that comes along that looks good may serve well as our new "vision". May God empower all ministry leaders with a clear vision of the future- to dramatically impact our communities and cultures with the awesome message and hope of the Gospel, so that it transforms lives.
Mark,
Dude, Thats rich, I mean rich...
Hi Mark... I actually internalized this and took it personally. At 57 and a participant of the "Jesus Movement" revolution of the ealry 70s, my fear today is to become irrelevleant as a boomer Jesus freak. I must break camp PERSONALLY, take the risk, advance to the hill country and "take the land." I may be "old-er" but I still burn! And what we are getting into here in Pittsburgh throws fuel to the fire.
Thank you. I need to be reminded of that again today.
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