Rolling Up the Sleeves; It’s Time To Get Busy



This past weekend, I was asked to take the role of Executive Pastor of Common Ground Community Church. The church truly loves the community and the Lead Pastor preaches in depth sermons, but we have never been too organized. The 4 plus years I’ve been working with CG, we have had hit and miss moments of organization but nothing constant. Lord willing that is about to change.

We’re looking at the children’s ministry first to see what needs to be done. I’ll be honest; I don’t have a clue on what we currently do with the children we have. We have scheduled a Question and Answer session after church on February 14 to hear from our current children teachers and leadership to see what is being done and ask what changes they would like to see. After this, we are looking at having a workshop in early spring; possibly March.

There is a lot that need to be done to get Common Ground where I feel we can do the most good, but I don’t have all the answers or all the ideas. This will be the work of God. Rick Warren put it best in the introduction section of “The Purpose Driven Church” that programs do not make churches grow; God does the growing. I see it as we need to keep our eyes on Him and see where or how He is working and get on the bandwagon. Rick said it was like seeing a wave and catching it to ride it; we can’t create waves but we can ride them when they come around. My desire is to ride the wave God has for Common Ground.

Getting our church where it needs to be will take the work of God. I am only one man who works a full time job and has a wife and baby, who are my top priority, so it will be a team effort. God has brought a great group of men who are the Elders of CG with a lot of experience. Most churches don’t have paid staff with their experience and God has put us all together. Roger Allen (Lead Pastor and founder of the church) has a degree from Centerville College and experience in the ministry; David Harris who has been a full time missionary overseas for many, many years and has worked with several churches in the U.S.; Phil Wirtz who has a degree from University of Maryland and experience with leading worship/music; John Allen (no relation to Roger) is a Coast Guard Academy graduate (retired as Commander), has earned a masters in counseling from Liberty University, and is currently the Vice President of a non-profit organization. He’s our Administration Pastor who calls himself the “Sr. Chief Bottle Washer.” We have a great group of men who love our God and Savoir who want His direction for our church.

I write this posting more to help me not to get overwhelmed by the task at hand; taking a 9 year old church from a loose (anything goes) structure to a well oiled organized body. I’ve learned reading through Ephesians that any task God calls me to do, He has already accomplished it. Since this is the case, I’m not doing anything; God has done it already. Any success is all God’s doing. Pray that we are of one mind as we move forward in God’s direction.