When Mission Becomes an Idol
Posted by Doug Foltz on Mar 7, 2011 in Church Planting, Pastoral | 2 comments
I love the mission of God. It’s motivating. I keeps me up late at night. I work with church planters who are sold out to the mission and take crazy risks in order to fulfill the mission God has called them to. But when the mission of God gets detached from being personally connected to God things get bad. Suddenly what you thought was God’s mission may not be God’s anymore and might be yours. But since you are convinced its God’s mission, you zealously push forward. As you may of guessed for this post you can be replaced with I. This has been a struggle for me personally. It’s easy when planting a church to just keep pushing. Work harder. Come up with new ideas. Try new methods. This is God’s mission after all. But is it? Or is it your mission?
When planting a church it’s important to stay connected to God. Sounds about as basic as it gets, but if you think church planters cant’s get disconnected your crazy. Church planters stop praying praying, they stop reading their Bibles, they question God and they question themselves just like everyone else. You’re not immune. That’s why its so important to have accountability. People that you are real with. People who are real with you. People who can see what you can’t. The bottom line is that as exciting as God’s mission is, it doesn’t even compare to the excitement of being connected to God. Before you push God’s mission forward any more, pause for just a minute and ask if your connected to your Creator. If not, take some time off. Put the mission on hold. Spend some time with God.
Agree, agree, agree!! Not just in new church plants, but in any ministry and/or church. I hear of leaders all the time, who rationalize their lack of personal time with God by talking about how much time they study for lessons, or sermons, or for some assignment. It’s absolutely not the same!
For women also…filling out an extensive book each day is not the same. It may be beneficial, you may learn a lot, but it’s not the same time as the devotion time with God in His Word, allowing Him to speak to you through His Word and prayer.
There are too many burnt out pastors, wives, elders, teachers, etc., and I truly believe, from working with so many of them, that this is the #1 cause. It becomes a job DOING for God, not a relationship BEING with God.
Laura,
Thanks for the affirmation. Sometimes the greatest faith comes in patiently waiting on God’s plan and not trying to manufacture God’s agenda with our plans. I appreciate your thoughts.