On the Verge

I have experienced the verge of great things in my life more than I have really experienced the great things. Often in life we have the ability to see possibility more than we see actuality. In my life as a pastor this can be very frustrating and discouraging. It is also very challenging and encouraging. It depends on where you are standing. If you are standing at the verge looking forward with hope then you are inspired and encouraged, but if you are looking back trying to find the verge you once thought you saw you are often frustrated and discouraged.

I find myself on the verge again right now. God is doing some amazing things in the lives of the people of Fellowship Church and within the church corporately. There is this feeling that comes from the Lord for me when I see the future possibilities. Honestly, I believe the Lord is ready to do more than we can ask or imagine. I believe Fellowship Church is at one of those verges.

The issue I now face is my own past experience. There is some trepidation and fear to speak of such a verge – to share with others the possibilities I see ahead. Why? Because I have seen it before and the verge of possibility did not come reality. So I have asked God over the last couple of weeks, what is it that needs to change as we stand at the verge this time.

I had some assumptions about what needed to change to see a verge become a launching point instead of a lost dream. I assumed we needed to cause some momentum, but then I realized God has already done that. Then I thought about how we needed to draw all the new people in – but then I realized God was already doing that. So I simply stopped thinking and started listening.

I stopped because Sunday morning was one of the toughest for me ever in preaching the Word. (Not just because I preached the longest sermon that I have preached since we started the church – sorry about that) It was difficult spiritually. It was a feeling and an experience I have had before. The crowd was down and my heart was heavy and my day was long – very, very, very long. Immediately I began to consider the times I had seen the verge in the past and thought about shrinking away with no expectation, but I realized I could not and that I would not.

So Sunday morning I got up at the end of church and told the church we were at a verge. I shared that it was time for us to work hard and move forward. I tapped into my inter Tebow and laid it out there that I would not be outworked because was ready to see God move in a mighty way. And I said with an excited spirit but a doubtful mind. The attendance was the smallest of 2009 and it did not seem the day to lay out such a statement.

That was when I realized we really are at the verge. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. That is when too often we turn back from the hope of the verge and walk back into the valley of mediocrity.

NOT THIS TIME! I am calling everyone at Fellowship to prayer. God is at work. He is changing lives and he is using us. Are you ready and are you willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES? I am. The first thing it will take is prayer. The second is work. We must get on our knees and then we must get up. And when we get up we must run…run…run. We need to not measure our actions and commitments by the hours they cost us but by the eternity it impacts. It is time to stand at the verge and to see not the possibilities, but the Person of the possibilities. We must fix our eyes on Jesus.

So I call you to kneel at this verge with me and to pray. And then to get up and not walk forward but run into what God has ahead of us.

Expect more blogs along these lines over the next couple of weeks as I layout some prayer thoughts and share my personal experience concerning this verge we are at.