The “One” Who Does



From time to time, I think about what God is doing with Common Ground Community Church. I can’t believe it hasn’t been a year yet since we put more focus on getting the ministries of the church more organized. Roger (the Senior Pastor) asked me to get the church better organized because this is my giftedness. Last night Teresa mentioned how he has changed (in a good way) and it is because he can now just focus on studying for sermons and preparing for the Leadership Training sessions we do for future leaders of CGCC. In less than a year, a lot has happened in our little church and ministries are more organized and we are growing.

It can be freeing to know that you can rely on someone else to get things done so you can focus on your passion. I learned several years back that God is the One who builds a ministry/church. After all, the church is His bride. I’ve been a stuff member of some churches that say you must do XYZ and the ministry or church will grow. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn’t. If it grew, then you felt like you did things right and if they didn’t you had the stress of figuring things out to get it to grow. If you notice the common denominator is “you.” We don’t do anything to grow a church and/or ministry. God does the growing.

As the Executive Pastor of CGCC, my goal isn’t to organize the church to better reach our community with the gospel of Christ. My goal is for us to stay out of God’s way and follow His lead. If we keep our eyes on our Master, He will direct us where He wants us; He will send people to us to reach and teach; and He will send us labors to work with us to reach our community.

Once I discovered this truth; that it’s all about Him and bringing God the glory it has freed me to serve Him better. It’s not about building a name for myself in the SBC or having people ask me how we got it done or how we grew to X number; it’s all about pointing people to Jesus Christ. The words me, we (the Elders of CGCC), or us (the members of CGCC) should never be used in completing the work of the gospel. God does not need us to do His work; He chooses to use us.

Remember the main goal of the any local church. It’s not to build to a certain number; it’s not to be known in our community, city, start, or country; it’s not to have other churches calling asking how, why, or when; it is all about honoring our Savior and bringing Him the glory.