Some Dangers Associated With God's Blessings

Tom Shrader traces the founding and growth of East Valley Bible Church from its humble beginnings in 1991 to a congregation of over 4,400, celebrating God's faithfulness through volunteers, staff, and a clear purpose statement. He then turns to warn the congregation about dangers that accompany success and blessing, including entitlement, over-reliance on paid staff, resistance to change, and departmental tunnel vision. Drawing on Richard Baxter's 'The Reformed Pastor,' he calls every believer — veteran or newcomer — to examine their own heart, stay humble before God, and actively serve rather than observe.

“Burnout is simply trying to do God's work under your own power.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: DNA of EVBC

Recorded: 2002 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 43 min

Themes: blessing, humility, entitlement, service, church growth, complacency, faithfulness, stewardship, new to church, longtime member, feeling entitled, pastor, volunteer, new believer, struggling with pride, navigating change

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14

Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church health, sanctification, pastoral care, spiritual maturity, body of christ, spiritual gifts, biblical stewardship

Full Transcript

The Early Days of East Valley Bible Church

Next week, we are finally back into the book study, and I am looking forward to getting back into it. We will be in 1 Corinthians 14. Even to a casual reading, if you look at that chapter, you are going to see the word tongues repeated throughout. So what about tongues? What are they? Certainly it is a volatile issue, not necessarily at East Valley Bible Church, but in the body of Christ today. So next week, and probably the week after — at least two weeks — we will talk about tongues.

I have been postponing it. My view is that tongues have ceased, and I thought if we kept pushing the topic back, that for sure by now they would have had to have ceased. That was my hope. I know some of you will need to do your reading, your work, your homework, and come prepared, because next week is going to be a little technical. I have worked very hard to be precise. Bring your Bibles and your notebook. You do not need either one this week — all you need to do is listen.

We are going to have a little family chat, just like a fireside chat. We are going to talk about the history of this church, and it is going to be important. This will be brand new material to many of you, maybe most. It will be familiar to some of you, but it is going to be important to all of you.

Let me ask a few questions, because we have done this in the other services. How many of you have been here two years or less? Look around — that is a lot of people. How many of you attended when we were at our previous location on Dobson Road? A little sparse. How many of you were there on November 3rd, 1991, when God stopped the sun in the sky and began this great work? Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen. Not many.

Those were days — I do not want to call them necessarily the good old days, but they are the days I want to talk about today. It is very easy to come in, look around, and assume it has always been this way. I think it is important for you to understand where we have been, so we can appreciate where we are and begin to plot the course for where we want to go.

Humble Beginnings

We gathered together, a group of men, in the late spring and early summer of 1991, and the question was: does the East Valley need another church? There are churches all over the place — do they need another one? Obviously, after we talked about it, the conclusion was yes. We did not know what we were doing — and this is not self-deprecating, this is an honest assessment. We had essentially no real, solid experience at this. We were armed with that black book, the Bible, and we were filled with the Spirit of God, meaning we were obedient to what God would have us do.

Our greatest strength, I think, was that we did not have a lot of experience — and obviously that was also our greatest liability. We were creating our own tradition, and that was a genuinely exciting thing. Almost immediately, God began to produce fruit. By that I mean God began to bring people to us.

We had no vision, no strategic plan, no long-term plan. The long-term plan was to get through the week. If we could get through the week, that was success. It was simply about getting together. We were an entirely volunteer-run organization. We had no employees for almost three, three and a half years.

That made for interesting circumstances, because there were a lot of things that needed to get done that most of the time did get done — but not always. There were three Sundays I remember where you could show up and not get a bulletin. That did not bother me much at the time. I still twitch when I think of those days.

We have always had the philosophy of putting the giving boxes out rather than passing a plate. We used to put them outside, and then one Sunday, a couple of kids stole them. So we moved them inside. We then had a Sunday where we went to Dobson Heights for Easter — that is where we used to hold the service — and people were flocking in, and we forgot the box. Some of you are still holding checks from that day, and you can drop them in any time you want.

What We Did Have

But let me tell you what we did have, because we were not the smoothest machine in the world. We were committed to teaching God's Word from the front. God blessed us with Paul and Naomi Klum, who were extraordinarily dedicated and committed to what they were doing — Naomi at the piano, Paul leading worship. That is what God gave us, and they were extraordinarily committed to that work.

As we were getting ready for our first service, somebody said, "What about children's ministry?" I said I had not thought about it. They said, "Well, kids are going to come." I said, "Susan, you are the director of children's ministries." We had teenagers at that point, but we really had no experience in youth ministry either.

Some key people stepped up: Dave and Beth Bauer, Ron and Karen Fulbright, Karen Clow, and a little bit later Jamie and Andrea Sell. They received virtually no support from us — not that we were unsupportive in spirit, but we had nothing material to bring to them. We had little resources, and they worked and worked and worked and worked.

Built on a Foundation of People

All of those people are still involved in ministry here today. Administratively, we were a total volunteer organization. A man by the name of Craig Regal really got our documents started, and to this day I don't know where our articles of incorporation are. We were pretty loosely run.

God assembled an elder board: Dave Moore, Jerry Smith, Haskell Kiner — there's a name some of you might not know, though some of you would smile hearing it because you remember Haskell. No one has ever worked harder at this campus than Haskell. He worked hard, and then he transferred, and obviously that ended his time here. Roger Wallen, Mark Cromwell, Chuck Holmes, Tom Angstead, Jim Scorza — God assembled this elder board. Gradually, we began as elders to understand what our role was, and our growth really demanded some structure and some organization.

God put together a team. The first employee we ever had was Gary Bloomquist. Gary came and began to give definition — not just to Sunday worship, but to the deeper question of what worship is and what it means. Then Les and Jerry Taylor arrived, and with Les and Jerry you got organization. This is a man who vacuums his garage — we got organization. Then Lorraine came, and all of a sudden her spirit took over Children's Ministries, along with her ability to rally and galvanize volunteers and identify them. Kathy Montgomery, Beth Hancock — all of a sudden God began to put a team together.

Growth and a Strategy for Staffing

Then we moved to this campus. We arrived here, and within literally months we doubled in size. Over these brief four years, we are roughly seven and a half times numerically larger than we were four and a half years ago. God continued to assemble the team: Walter joined us, Jim Harper, Tim Maughan, Neil replaced Les, Jamie Self came on staff. God put together a facilities crew. Chris Christensen joined us. We have a professional support staff second to none — a tech team with Steve Ebright, Josh Cass, Steve Pirch, Matt, Sam, Larry Ross, and Mike Feather.

We had a really simple strategy in hiring people: hire the best people you can, give them freedom — freedom to fail as well as to succeed — entrust them with that, and provide minimum supervision. By minimum supervision I mean you are hiring them to get the job done, and they can do it. If they cannot, then you probably have the wrong person.

I want to really emphasize something I glossed over. We gave people the freedom to fail, because I think that is how you grow. Beyond that, we tried to create an environment that is healthy, where people are having fun. Some people think working in a church is different, and it is different, but nobody wants to work somewhere that is not fun. A lot of churches are not necessarily healthy environments — by that I mean places where people are physically and spiritually healthy, where staff are not working seventy or eighty hours a week or six days a week. These people work plenty hard, but it is a healthy environment with healthy people.

A Team Built Beyond Its Season

God did something very unusual, and I hope I can explain it. He assembled a team for a church of four hundred that was gifted and talented enough to shepherd a church of four thousand. That is very unusual. You can see the same dynamic in a business analogy: the person who can run a single restaurant cannot necessarily run a chain, and the person who figures out how to tweak a golf club and make it better cannot necessarily run a golf empire. God put together a team that was in place for a church of four hundred, is now serving four thousand, and I believe can handle eight, ten, or twelve thousand — or as many people as God brings.

A Philosophy and a Style

Out of all of this came two things we did not have before: a philosophy and a style. The style became known as the East Valley Bible Church way. It was undefined and yet clearly understood, at least by the people around here. The first time I ever heard the term was from Michelle. My door was open and she was on the phone, and I heard her say, "No, no, uh-uh, no — we won't do that. I'm sorry, that's not the East Valley Bible Church way," and she hung up. I walked out and asked her, "Michelle, what is the East Valley Bible Church way?" She said, "I don't know, but that wasn't it." I don't know, but it ain't that.

What it has come to mean — and it still remains undefined — is something people continue to talk about. I get a great smile on my face and a sense of satisfaction when I hear our staff reference the East Valley Bible Church way, because it is clearly undefined and yet clearly understood. I think it means that whatever gift God has given us and whatever work God has given us, we do it with excellence — not perfection. You will go nuts chasing perfection. We pursue excellence.

Our Purpose Statement

The philosophy that emerged from this is something we try to keep in front of you every week. That is why when you open this bulletin, there it is, right in front of you every week. Here is the purpose statement we are all about: *to glorify God by helping one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives.* You ought to know this by heart. If someone asks where you go to church and you say East Valley Bible Church, and they ask what that church is about, you ought to be able to say, "We are there to glorify God." Is that not what Paul tells us — to glorify God in everything we do?

How do we do it? We do it in a variety of ways, but what we are emphasizing is helping one another. This is a mutually participatory activity. It is not limited to what happens here on Sunday. Sunday is helpful, but perhaps the greatest lessons are taught in your small group, your growth group, or your women's mentoring group.

Come, Learn, Serve

That is how you continue to learn, to help one another learn God's truths. That is what we want to do. We want to take that Word and we want to know it. How do we know that we know it? Our life changes. I was this, now I am this. That is what ought to take place in your life.

There ought to be people who can testify to that change, and I hear it all the time. Someone is at the church, and when asked how they came, they say: I worked with this guy, I know this gal, and I saw her life was distinctive from mine. I asked her what was different. She said she knew Christ. I said I was in church. She said, "No, I don't mean go to church. I know Christ." They talk, and inevitably they end up here. That is the name of the program we identify with in our evangelism program: Changed lives change lives.

Many of the people you see who are Christians and frustrated, many of the people who have burned out, have burned out because they are trying to do God's work under their own power. Many people in pews play at church, and that is really hard to do. You are exhausted at the end of the day with that. It is a changed life that changes lives, and if that is not in place, it is not going to happen.

So we said, how do we get our arms around it? How about a motto, three words: Come, learn, serve. You know this. Come, learn, and serve. Now let us define them.

*Come* is an invitation to join us. This is not a closed club. Every Sunday there are new people here. I have been in churches where they do things like stick something on your lapel if you are new, or put a flower on you, or have you stand. I was at a church where they did this — here is literally what they said: everybody stand up, and then they said, okay, now all of you who have been here before, sit down. I was some poor visitor, wondering what happened, standing there by myself in the middle of all of it. We do not try to isolate you. We want you to figure out whether you want us to know you are here, and if you do, we are ready to serve you.

You ought to be able to look around and see new people. I was back in the back a couple of weeks ago, about the third pew from the back, and there was a woman who looked like she was brand new — she had that kind of lost look on her face. I said, "Can I help you?" She said no. I said, "Well, I am glad you are here." She said thanks. I said, "Have you been here before?" She said, "No, this is my first Sunday." We talked, I introduced her to someone, and there they were. You ought to be doing that every week. You ought to be an ambassador.

It is really hard, because sometimes you come and this is the only time in the course of the week that you see some friends, so the natural thing is to want to talk to them. I understand that. But all around you are people who are here for the first, second, third, or fourth time. They do not feel connected, and you can be the point of connection. It is somebody's first Sunday every time we meet.

Learn and Serve

So we come. Then we *learn*. Learning is a lifelong process of knowing and experiencing God by studying His Word and then applying it to our lives. When we say continuing education, there is a sense in which that is redundant — education by definition just keeps going. It is to know God's Word and to put it to work in your life. If all God wanted to do was get you to heaven, understand that at the point of conversion He would have simply taken you home. But He left you here for a reason. Paul says, "I count all of life as nothing compared to the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ" — of knowing Him.

But you have not really learned until you *serve*. The elders got together and wrote these definitions, and I am so proud of this sentence. Serve: the believer's obedient response to participate in God's work. Now, in case you think we are very shortsighted, we know that God is working all over this world. You need to serve somewhere, and we encourage you to serve in places other than here.

I was with the Young Life staff last year and they told me they thought as many as 80% of their volunteers in the East Valley were from East Valley Bible Church. So it is Young Life, it is Campus Crusade, it is what God is doing on the campus at ASU, it is Crisis Pregnancy Center, it is Christian Family Care — all sorts of organizations where God is working. Having said that, you have a special affinity and connection to serve here. This is your family. Come, learn, and serve.

How Are We Doing Collectively?

Let me go back to the purpose again: help one another learn God's truth, live biblically changed lives. Here is a question I think is especially appropriate if you have been here the last couple of weeks and we have asked you to examine your life. We asked how you are doing. Now we need to ask the question: how are we doing? You have established how you are doing individually — how are we doing collectively? Are we indeed a place where God is being glorified as we help one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives?

Here is my assessment, and I do not think it is based on blind optimism. I think it is an accurate assessment of where we are. We have been very successful in seeing this vision lived out — successful by God's standards and successful by man's standards. It is not just that we are growing numerically; it is that we are growing spiritually. I wrote this down, and I want to read it to you because it deals with this area of success. You know the figures: numerically, we have grown from 600 attendees to a congregation of over 4,400. Our praise and worship, the worship we celebrate —

Entitlement: The First Danger of Blessing

Our student ministry sets the standard by which other ministries are measured. Each week, with love and in a safe and clean environment, hundreds of children hear God's word. Women's ministry is a machine operating, it would seem, without flaw. Small group and adult education, once our Achilles' heel, is now equipping and encouraging nearly 1,000 men and women. Our operations and administration has indeed become world class, and the facility is pristine in many respects — cleaner than the day we were given the keys to the building.

I think that is a pretty accurate assessment of East Valley Bible Church, and you could add to that. I think we are successful. But with success, it seems to me, can come danger. I want to talk about some of the dangers that are associated with success. Whether it is business success, success in sports, or success in your individual life, there are dangers associated with God's blessing.

As God begins to bless, as I begin to see success and begin to see what God is doing, if I am not careful, my attitude will naturally have a tendency to move away from Him and to develop some very negative characteristics.

The first danger is this: you can develop an entitlement mentality. You can quickly get the attitude that you deserve what is going on. You can quickly say, yes, God is blessing here, but look at what we are doing — why wouldn't He bless here? And all of a sudden, you start to expect it. You begin to presume on it.

Is there not something repugnant about a person like that? Those of you who have teenagers can relate to this. Are there not times as parents when you almost feel like a human ATM machine? They are coming in, pushing buttons, the cash is going out, and you are saying, how much do I need to do for you? There are times you feel exactly like that, and there are times when you create an environment so healthy and so much fun that people simply begin to take it for granted.

The Danger of Growing Accustomed to Blessing

One author writes this: "One of the evidences that we have grown accustomed to our blessing is the spirit of criticism and complaining. Instead of thanking God for what we have, we complain about it and tell Him we wish we had something else. You can be sure that if God did give us what we asked for, we would eventually complain about that. The person who has gotten accustomed to His blessing can never be satisfied. I believe God is grieved when we get accustomed to our blessing and start to complain and criticize. The best cure for the sin of getting accustomed to our blessing is this: constantly giving thanks to God for all He gives and all He does. The final analysis is pride that makes us accustomed to our blessing."

What I am saying this morning is powerful, and I will tell you what makes it powerful. I am not a pastor who is in trouble. Our church is not in trouble. None of these signs are present in the church right now. All I am saying is: watch out. If you do not deliberately and purposefully guard against this, this is how you will end up.

Think about it in terms of a Christmas bonus at a job. I have always cringed a little at the idea of a bonus — I thought we were paying you to do the job, and I thought that was enough. But all of a sudden, that bonus becomes expected. We naturally evolve in that direction. If I pay someone to not work, a body at rest stays at rest, and they develop a mentality for that. The same thing happens here.

Letting the Work Go to the Pros: The Second Danger

The second danger is this: you can let the work go to the professionals. When I had just started teaching Bible study and had left the real estate business, we were out to dinner one night with some people. When the food came, one of the men said, "Tom, why don't you pray? That's what we pay you for." He was joking, and I laughed, and I know what he meant. But you can develop that attitude in all seriousness.

To be sure, we have staff, and that staff will continue to grow. As God continues to bless, we have deeper needs and newer needs, and there will be more staff and more people who are paid. But that does not mean volunteers are no longer necessary. We have some key people who help set the theme and provide the necessary tools, but about 300 people volunteer in Kids Ministries today. You just sat here and enjoyed praise and worship — a couple of those people are on staff, but the rest are all volunteers. They are in here every Thursday night. They were here this morning at 6 o'clock. They will be here until 7 tonight. They are simply committed.

Not long ago, someone called me and said, "Will you meet with a friend of mine?" I asked what the problem was, and he said this person had been around for a while and wanted to come to Christ but had not yet done so. He asked if I would meet with them. I said, "Why? You have been a Christian for seven years. You tell them the gospel. Don't bring them in here to me." After seven years, if you cannot share the gospel with someone and answer basic questions, what are you doing? Do not develop that attitude of leaving it to the professionals.

Resistance to Change: The Third Danger

Two more dangers go together. The first is the attitude that says, "We have always done it this way." That attitude is closed to change. We are not dismissing the reality that change is inevitable — we know that — but what we are saying is...

Resisting Unhealthy Patterns in a Growing Church

Change is almost always painful, and the most painful change is when it is done in reaction to circumstances that have gotten out of control — now it is involuntary, and that is a very painful change. "We've always done it this way" is an awful answer, motivated by fear. The second dangerous mindset is "We've got it all figured out," and if the first is motivated by fear, this one is motivated by pride.

Let me say something about East Valley Bible Church. We think we have a way, but we do not think we have the way. We have a way to do many things, but we do not think we have this thing all figured out.

Having said that, there are some things we are not going to change. If you are here and there are some fundamental, core things we do that bother you, understand we are not going to change them. If it drives you nuts that people are not in choir robes, or that I do not wear a tie, or that parking is hard, or you do not like the style of worship, or you have a problem with the Brown Book — with the doctrinal statement — I can help you out: it is God's will for your life that you get out of here. We are not looking to change our core fundamental principles. We are not looking to change who we are. Are there lots of things that can be changed? Absolutely, and we need your help there — but I think you see the difference.

The Danger of an Unhealthy Departmental Focus

Here is the next danger. All of a sudden, you can develop an unhealthy departmental focus. In other words, you get so involved with student ministries that you think student ministries is the only thing happening, and the only place God is working — and you are working harder, smarter, and longer than everybody else. Or you are in kids ministry, and it feels so consuming because you have to set everything up and move everything around and manage all those moving parts.

I have the greatest life and the best job in the world, and what this job gives me is the joy of seeing God work across the board. I get to hear the story of the third grader who, for the very first time, is starting to see that he really is a sinner and that he is lost. I get to hear stories about the students — and students are always the most radical, so we gravitate toward them.

It is easy to think God is really working there, and it is usually very graphic. You see the kid who came to summer camp three years ago with a dog collar, looking like he fell into a tackle box, hair going in forty-eight different directions — and then all of a sudden those things fall away and he gets his life together. You see a heart change. You see a naturally selfish young person who starts to genuinely care about others.

Or consider adult ministry. A woman this week — she and her husband had not been leading a small group very long — received a call from someone in the group saying, "I'm looking for godly advice, so I'm calling you." She said it took her breath away: "I'm giving godly advice. This is serious business." It is very easy to think the only place God is working is where you are. God is working all over this place, and He is working all over the world. There is extraordinary fruit in every ministry here.

The Danger of Simply Maintaining the Status Quo

All of a sudden, you can become the person who just maintains what is going on. I love the fact that as you look at our calendar year, we have three, four, or five events we have never done before — and we have not the foggiest idea whether they are going to work. I love that. I assume some of them are not going to work. They are going to fall flat, so we will ball them up, move on, and go to the next thing.

I was in a church not long ago, and in its heyday — not size-wise, just in terms of influence — it was one of the most significant churches in the valley. I was in there about sixty seconds before I said, "God, please never let East Valley Bible Church be like this." Sterile, dated, bureaucratic, no heart — just doing programs. Bulletins filled with activity. I chuckled when I looked at our bulletin this morning. There was a big blank space, and I thought: that is good. That is a good thing. We are not just trying to see how busy we can keep you. We are not trying to fill every night of your week with programs.

Forgetting Your Foundational Principles

And over all of this, number seven: you can forget your foundational principles. This applies to your personal life, to business, and to us as a church. You forget why you are doing what you are doing. You are simply busy.

When you hear about burnout — this person is worn out, that person is exhausted — burnout is simply trying to do God's work under your own power. Some of you are suffering and suffering and suffering for the Lord, running in a thousand different directions. And even in that, it can be riddled with pride, because it becomes all about you. Why do you do what you do?

Examine Yourself First

Here is what I am going to ask you to do. The first thing is to examine yourself. What I think is so powerful about this morning is that we are not responding to something. We are simply saying, watch out. Inertia will take you into some of those areas we have talked about, and the first thing you need to do is to begin with yourself.

Richard Baxter wrote a book around 1670 — that is a long time ago — called *The Reformed Pastor*. It has nothing to do with theology. It is about how a pastor ought to live. Under the section titled "The Pastor's Need for Repentance," he writes this, and I read it to you because it applies to every Christian, especially those of you who are leading — leading a small group, working in ministry somewhere.

He writes: "It is only too common that we expect our people to repent when we haven't done so ourselves. What efforts we will make to see that they are humbled and yet we remain unhumbled. How hard we may press them with our teaching convictions and emphasis to wring out of them a few penitent tears. Yet our own eyes remain dry and our hearts so little affected by remorse. If we would only spend half as much time to affect and amend our hearts as we do with our audience, how different our lives would be."

What he is saying is that you had better look at your own life first.

Find Your Place and Serve

The second thing is to figure out where you fit. You fit somewhere. This is home. This is your church. Get there and start to serve. Help us turn our weaknesses into strengths.

I mentioned earlier when I talked about small groups and adult education — for years that was an area of weakness for us, and now it is an extraordinary strength. Our missions department, under Mike Pasha's leadership with Mark Rance and Jerry, all of a sudden has vision, vigor, and vitality. It is ready to go. Be part of it. Get involved with a kingdom perspective, with the understanding that there is something bigger than you.

A Word to Each of You

Let me speak to each one of you. To the veterans — those of you who have been around and have been working for five, six, seven, ten years — I am, in many ways, preaching to the choir. Let me encourage you: do not grow weary. If you are pooped, take some time off. You need to get out of it. If you are going through the motions and you have lost your zeal and your passion, ask God about it. It may be that you simply need a rest.

If you are an observer — you may have been here a year or two, but you are sitting on the sidelines — this is not a place to sit and observe. We were watching the Patriots game last night, watching it more for the snow than for anything else, and we kept seeing the fans in the stands, shivering, snow stacking up on their hats. I kept thinking, I am glad I am not there. There were 60,000 or 70,000 people watching 22 guys play a game. That is not what we are looking for here. We are not looking for 4,400 people to watch 11 guys play the game.

Maybe you are a rookie — this is going to be home, you have made that decision, and you are just trying to figure it out. I want you to understand your history. You are standing on the shoulders of people who paid an extraordinary price so you can be here today. There was a group of 200 or 300 adults who were the leaders — financially, sacrificially, in every way — who made this church possible. You stand on their shoulders. You stand in that tradition.

Whatever Brought You Here

Maybe you are a tire-kicker, here for the very first time. You could not have picked a better day to come, because now you understand exactly what you are getting into. That is what we are about, and we want you to understand it clearly.

If you are here and you are not a Christian but you feel like you need to be back in a church, you are in a great place. If you are at another church and a little dissatisfied, first take a look and see whether you are the problem. Do not assume it is the church's problem. Maybe you are the problem. If you are the problem in another church, we are not looking for new problems — stay over there.

If you are in a church that has lost its direction and is not teaching the Word, this is a great place to come. But you had better understand that you will not be here very long before we expect you to get in the game. If you are here simply because this church is closer to your house, that is not a sufficient reason. We had a couple who drove an hour and fifteen minutes every Sunday from nearly Wickenburg. Their kids came on Saturday nights. Proximity is not the point, because someone will always build something closer to your house, and then you will just move again. You are either with us or you are not.

I think this is part of the strength of East Valley Bible Church. When you talk to people about this church and ask what they think, one of two things happens — they either like us or they do not. Nobody ever says, "Oh, it's okay." You know why? Because it is very clear who we are.

Guarding Against Complacency and Bitterness

You either love it and you're part of it, or you don't like it — in which case you very quickly realize it's time to move on down the road. We are not interested in simply seeing how big we can make this. We are not going to customize this to you; you fit here. That is your heritage, and it is very important for you to keep that in front of you.

These are real dangers in your life if you don't cautiously, proactively, and deliberately evaluate where you are. If you don't, you'll end up as some critical, bitter person who has always done it this way, just going through the motions. That is not what we are about. I want this place to be as vibrant fifty years from now as it is right now, and I believe it can be if we keep that in front of us.

Closing Prayer

Next week we will be in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and we will work through it verse by verse.

Father, help us see this truth. God, I thank You for these men and women — extraordinary people that You brought together to do an extraordinary work that You began — and we pray that You will continue that work. We know that at any moment You could withdraw Your blessing from us, for You are a sovereign God. So God, we pray that we would stay humble and obedient before You, and that You would use our lives — these broken vessels — for Your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.