Last weekend my son, Levi, and I went to New Hampshire to visit the church we planted 15 years ago, Lighthouse Calvary Chapel. They just finished the fit up of their new building and they asked me to speak at the dedication service. For me, it wasn’t about dedicating the building as much as it was about commissioning the people. Of course, it’s a beautiful building in a great location but the most important thing is the people. New England is a post Christian culture making it a very difficult place to pastor. Keep in mind that the two great spiritual awakenings in our country happened in New England. But years later, many churches have been turned into MMA or karate studios. Returning even for a weekend reminded me of the challenges Christians face there.
God Help Us To Be Thankful
With that in mind there are three things that God impressed upon my heart. The first is thankfulness. God help us to be thankful. What God does weekly at Calvary Chapel Las Vegas can become routine for us. So much so, that we lose sight of the wonderful works of God among us. In New England we would pray for months that God would give us just one convert. Here in Vegas we are blessed to see a harvest of souls weekly. Let’s pray that God revives our thankfulness and the spiritual insight to see His miracles, appreciate His work, and give Him the glory.
Love People, Preach the Gospel, Equip the Church
Secondly, I was reminded how important love is for the church and for our ministry team. When we planted Lighthouse we simply wanted to love people, preach the gospel and equip the church. Loving people needs to be a priority at any church. It’s the supernatural love of God that identifies us as belonging to Him. The church is different from the world when God’s love is shared among us. When we are filled with His love the church becomes a place of healing for hurting and broken hearts. No program or ministry machine can produce this, only God’s love.
Religious Judgment Kills
When God’s love is manifest the wounded will come, which brings me to my third point: religious judgementalism kills the work of God’s Spirit in the church. Pastor Dean at Lighthouse showed my God story before I spoke this weekend. Right after the service a woman named Julia approached me, so excited about what God had done in my life. She shared that her testimony was similar. Yet as she was talking to me it was evident that she was embarrassed about the past that God had pulled her out of. In New England the spirit of religion is unfortunately alive and well. By that I mean, many people in the church believe it’s by their goodness and religiosity that they’ve made their appeal to God. Consequently, like the Pharisees in the story of John 8 they have stones in hand ready to condemn those in their midst they deem as unworthy or unrighteous. Yet, these needy unrighteous sinners were the ones that Christ was calling to Himself and they are the ones that we want to come to church to hear the saving message of the gospel. The Pharisees in the church will always be holding the stone in hand, defending their own self righteousness, and sneering down their noses at the least among us. We need to choose to be like Jesus, to build bridges of hope to those in need not walls of separation.
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