Michelle and I are privileged to be at a Pastors & Wives retreat with several other couples from Christian churches like ours. The thing that makes this group unique is that all of us serve in churches that are a thousand or more in weekend attendance.

My roommate from college, yes I can still remember back that far, gave the opening talk at our first dinner. He hit it out of the park. The main idea? Well, yes, we’re all in the room because our churches have experienced a numerical kind of success. (Some of these guys pastor churches that run over 20,000!) Tim said there were a number of things we all shared in common. The last one was where we spent the bulk of our time.

The truth is, while we’re all in the room because our churches have grown and we’re experiencing some pretty amazing stuff, we are standing on SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOULDERS. There are countless ministers who’ve gone before us who did the hard work of ministry and maybe never served in a larger church. These are amazing men we all owe a debt too. As he talked, there were several people who came to mind, but one was clearly the ONE on whose shoulders I stand. My dad.

Thanks dad for showing me what it really means to love the Bride of Christ. Thank you for caring so much about people who were far from God that you were willing to be “unconventional” and creative in bringing God’s grace right to their front step.

One more person has been huge for me in recent years: my friend Tim Liston. He gave this talk, and I thought of him as well. Although we’re peers, he has been a huge influence in my life and ministry. This weekend, you’ll get to hear from him at Community. 

BE THERE!