I was blessed and privileged to be back at GCC on Sunday August 9 and enjoyed preaching on the passion of discipleship. Since it is part of a three sermon series, let me encourage you to look it up and listen to it! It may answer some obvious questions you may have about moving forward together.
My sabbatical was a wonderful time of refreshment and provided an invigorating change of pace. As many of you know, a center piece of the time was the two weeks which Anna, Caron and I spent in Japan. The two weeks there was exhausting in a good way and inspiring. There were some challenges along the way, but our hands were full of opportunities to encourage missionaries, bless the Japanese church, and share the gospel of Christ in personal encounters. I’m glad our elders encouraged me not to make it any longer. It took a little while to recover from that.
Here are a few highlights of the rest of my sabbatical. I read biographies of Charles Simeon and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer may be familiar as a Christian Martyr in Germany in World War II. His courageous and clear understanding of the evil of National Socialism is an inspiration to any Christ follower today (Eric Metaxas is the author). Simeon is a less familiar name today, but was a towering figure in England in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. He served only one church- and that for 54 years until his death. He endured great opposition to eventually prevail and have great influence for Christ. He is a great model of perseverance and grace under trial
I read a number of leadership books, but of greater interest is the six interviews I had with pastors with long pastorates- all more than 20 years. I took special notice of the practices of personal communion with God that sustained many of the pastors. That area of spiritual health and life balance is one I want to think about further. Like Charles Simeon, several of these pastors endured great hardship to continue on to find effectiveness for Christ.
I spend many days during my sabbatical reflecting, praying and writing about the great prayer of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:14-19. The result of that time is a devotional booklet that I hope we can put to some use in our life together. This prayer has meant a lot to me, and this booklet was produced out of my own desire to grow in my knowledge of the love of Christ.
Near the end of the sabbatical I took a great course from Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte called Christian Spirituality. It was a survey of many of the greatest minds in Christianity through the years who were known for their deep communion with Jesus Christ. Some of these writers were thought of as Christian mystics, though none of them would have owned that title. Several had very practical instruction for people in their day about how to grow in their personal devotion to Jesus Christ.
So where do we go from here? Of course any changes in direction are for the elders of our church to decide. Truthfully I come back with no major new initiatives for us. Nothing I speak to our elders about will be a surprise. I do have some older ideas to ponder. Here are some things I walked away from my sabbatical thinking about in regard to Grace Community Church:
1) Spiritual life: Important to the health of pastors is some kind of plan to balance their life and ministry, and grow in their love of Jesus. That may seem strange, but ministry is sometimes the enemy of the soul of a pastor. We have some good things in place, but my desire is to see not just pastors, but all of our leaders to develop and put in place plans for their spiritual health. And if that is good for all of us, why wouldn’t it be helpful to everyone in our church?
2) Next steps together: I don’t think the great story of Grace Community Church is over. I didn’t come away wanting to coast the next few years and take it easy! I want to explore with our elders the ways we can reach out to our neighbors who either haven’t had a chance to respond to the gospel in an informed way, or who have checked out of church for some reason. The pathways to that are not mysterious, but the leaders have to seek God’s wisdom as to the best approaches forward. My love for church planting is no secret to anyone, and there has been some interest in that here at Grace that I’d like to explore with them for our future.
Those two emphases are related. If the leaders of Grace are not maintaining intimate communion with Jesus Christ and a healthy balance in their lives, adding more stuff to the plate by making efforts to move outward is going to be a harmful step. A “both and” approach is the wise way forward. Take care of the soul, and out of that health and life move to reach out to people who need some encouragement to take the next step toward God.
Believe it or not, that’s just a quick summary! Thanks so much for your patience during this time. Thanks to Tag, Sean, and Chris who handled the preaching duties. Thanks to Jimmy who freed up Tag from Foundations in the late spring. It was great to see everyone Sunday. I hope to see the rest of you this Sunday!
In Him,
Don