Stepping Up or Stepping Out
Tom Shrader announces worship leader Matthew Brazelton's transition to the Second Mile church plant and uses the occasion to address the congregation about faithful stewardship of God's abundant blessings. Drawing on Luke 12:48 and examples from Acts and the Pauline letters, Shrader argues that releasing gifted leaders to plant and partner with other churches is costly but essential kingdom work. He calls the congregation to think beyond their own campus, embrace change, and step up to fill the gaps left by those God sends out.
“God has given us these things, but not ownership — we're stewards, we're managers of what God has given us, and that stewardship demands that we take a hard look at this.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Samuel
Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 44 min
Themes: church planting, stewardship, generosity, sending, change, leadership, sacrifice, kingdom work, worship leader, transitioning ministry roles, navigating change, feeling called to plant, stepping into leadership gaps, long-time church member, ministry staff, young leader
Scripture: Luke 12:48, Acts 13, Acts 20, Philippians 2, Isaiah 6, Hebrews 10:23
Theological Themes: missiology, ecclesiology, faithful stewardship, kingdom expansion, pauline partnership, church multiplication, biblical stewardship, sending church
Full Transcript
A Different Kind of Sunday
This is one of those days — there are probably two or three of them in the course of the year — when we do some family business. It takes something pretty significant for us to set aside a normal Sunday and dedicate the teaching time to that. So if you are with us for the first time, we are typically studying First Samuel right now, and we will resume that study next week. But we have something we want to share with you.
There are things we have talked about for years, and then when they start to happen, you think, "Oh my goodness, look at that." One of those things is a great announcement we have this morning. We are excited about it and we want to share it with you. After that, I want to take some time to tie a few things together.
Matthew Brazelton's Story
Matthew Brazelton has been on staff here for five years and has been part of the church for seven. Some of you may or may not be familiar with him, or even aware that worship happens simultaneously in the conference center. We try to direct people to the website for that, but Matthew has been leading music over there every week.
Seven and a half years ago, Matthew and his wife got married, and at the outset of their new family they wanted to find a good church where they could grow and learn. They came to East Valley at the end of 2001 and quickly got plugged in. They learned very quickly that the culture here carries a value of coming to learn and then serving. They got involved, wanting to serve the Lord, and connected with Tyler and Tim, getting involved in Access, which was the college ministry at the time.
Matthew got the opportunity to start out leading a small group there. Tyler partnered Matthew and his wife with Luke and Molly Simmons, and they quickly developed a deep friendship that has grown ever since. From the time Matthew has known Luke, Luke has had a heart and a desire to plant churches — as many of you know, he planted Second Mile at the beginning of this year.
The Dream of Planting Together
As their relationship grew and developed, Matthew got to see Luke's heart for planting, and they began to dream about doing that together someday. God was gracious and allowed Luke to come on staff here, where he joined the training center, was trained up as a pastor, and served as an area pastor for a while before he left. Then, in God's providence, Matthew joined staff about six months after that, taking the opportunity to lead worship at the conference center venue and grow it into what it is today.
When Luke announced about a year ago that he was going to plant Second Mile, Matthew and his wife were torn. They loved what God was doing at East Valley, loved the people, and loved the direction the church was heading. And yet it had been their heart and desire to go with Luke for quite some time.
There were challenges in the way, most notably that Matthew would have had to find outside employment. There was no support to bring on a second person right away, and that would have conflicted with his desire to be fully part of the church plant while still being present for his family. They have three young children. So God's timing was not for them to go then — but just recently, God provided an opportunity to make it happen.
Wrestling With the Call
Through much prayer, seeking, and waiting on the Lord, Matthew and his wife have decided to make that transition, with the full support and encouragement of the leadership team here, which has been a huge blessing to them.
About two months ago, Matthew and Luke got together. Matthew had wanted to share some of the things God had been doing in his heart over the previous six months — he had been wrestling with the question of calling. Was he truly called to ministry, or was it simply something he enjoyed doing? God revealed a great deal through that process and solidified the answer in Matthew's mind about two months ago.
At that point, the issue of Second Mile seemed completely off the table. Matthew had thought that opportunity had come and gone. But once he felt settled — knowing that full-time vocational ministry in God's body was where he wanted to be — this opportunity came up. When he met with Luke, Luke mentioned that Joel Buckingham, who had been leading worship for Second Mile, was no longer able to do so. Joel is one of the East Valley men who goes over in the morning and then returns here in the evening, which is just another way East Valley has been supporting that plant.
When Luke mentioned they were looking for someone and asked if Matthew had any ideas, God placed a burning sense of direction in Matthew's heart in a very real and clear way. The last few months have involved praying through that and seeking the Lord. And probably the biggest test to confirm whether this was indeed of God was to see how the leadership at East Valley would respond.
A Season of Transition
Tyler asked me one day — I hadn't said anything — "Hey, you ever think about going to Second Mile?" We sat down and talked, and then the next day Tim Lawn did the same thing. I hadn't told him, and Tyler hadn't told him. It just seemed like God was opening that door. Tom was really receptive, and everybody has been super supportive, Tim as well. I couldn't be more grateful for that, because we didn't want it to happen unless it was clearly right.
You can imagine that in most workplaces, if you start thinking about going to work for somebody else, the last person you tell is your boss. Typically you tell him on the way out, with security leading you from your desk to the door. That is not the environment we think is healthy, and it is certainly not what we want to cultivate here.
The first contact I had was with Matthew, and then right away Luke called. Luke and I meet once a month for lunch anyway, and he said he wanted to move it up and talk about this. His spirit was so striking — he said, "If this in any way, in one slight way, impedes anything or puts any barrier between the two churches, we don't want to do it, because the relationship of these two churches and what God is doing is far more important than any one relationship." That is Matthew's spirit as well. We told them that not only is it not an impediment — it is exactly the fruit of what we want things to be.
The Message That Confirmed the Decision
That really started everything, and it started right around the time we were talking about stepping up or stepping out. It was really interesting that the week God solidified that decision and that desire in my heart, you preached that message about needing to step up or step out. This was before I had talked to anybody about it, and so all the pieces just lined up.
One thing I am excited about is that because East Valley has had such an impact on Second Mile, I really don't feel like I am leaving this family. I feel like I am just moving to another part of it. I truly feel like a partner still serving with you for the cause of God's kingdom.
Growing Through the Process
You mentioned that you went back and listened to some of those first recordings. When I started five years ago, there were about fifteen people over in the conference center — and that was probably a good thing. We recorded every week for the first three years so I could listen back and learn, and it was pretty rough.
In a culture like ours, where we are trying to raise up young guys to preach, teach, and lead worship, the only way to get better is to do it. And the only real place to do it is on Sunday. There are other venues, but this is where you hone those skills. I tell guys all the time when they ask how to get better at teaching: the only way is to do it. You do it in a lot of venues, but Sunday is where you really discover what you have, and where you can watch what God does to develop and grow you.
A Word to the Conference Center
One more thing that is really important to me: I want the folks in the conference center to understand how much they are valued and how much I love serving and worshiping with you every week. We intended to make this announcement over there as well, and we tried to see if we could make it happen. Because of some video complications, we couldn't, but I want you to know that you are valued. The leadership takes the unplugged expression very seriously, and we are going to make sure that continues.
What Comes Next — For Now
One of the important questions, particularly for those in the conference center, is: what are we going to do? One of the phrases I always try to pass on to church planters and young leaders — something I didn't do well enough at first — is to end every significant statement with the phrase "for now." So here is what we are going to do, for now.
Tim Lawn will be leading worship over there. Tim's job description keeps getting bigger and bigger, and he is not looking for something else to do — and yet here we are. We will not be doing what we do on Sunday night over there, meaning it will not be the expression from the Sunday evening service. We will continue the unplugged style — same songs, same sheet, same books, same work together. Tim will be working with a team, and hopefully with some of the team already there.
Praying Together
I am going to take about half an hour to talk about some other really exciting things this raises, but I thought it was significant to take this time first and pray — specifically for Matthew, for Luke, and for Second Mile. Rather than just have me pray, I want to invite you to grab the people around you. Maybe it is just the two of you sitting together, or maybe three or four of you. You don't need to form a circle — one or two of you praying together is just fine.
A Moment Worth Pausing On
I want to take a moment and talk about this, because this is really a big moment and I want to keep us focused on it. I wrote this question in anticipation of this moment — one thing I try to do is ask myself, what is it going to feel like in the room when you have an announcement like that? So here was the question I wrote down: What did you think when you heard that announcement about Matthew joining Second Mile?
Let me tell you the thought process I went through, and I want to be really honest, because I think it is important to be as honest as we can here. My first reaction was, what about me? What about us? What about East Valley Bible Church? My first reaction was, what are we going to do? We have worked really hard. As Matthew said, we spent five years watching him develop and grow and build people who really see him as their worship leader over in the conference center. What do we do with that?
I will confess that was my first reaction, but it was really a flash reaction — a momentary reaction. Once I got my breath, I found myself saying, "Wow, God, You're answering our prayers." This is what we have been praying for. This is what we have been praying all about. This is what we asked You to do — we asked You to move in a significant way in our body, our staff, and the people here in the church, to have a significant move of Your Spirit in the East Valley. And God, You are doing something, and isn't it incredible that we get to be part of it?
Core Values and the Call to Influence
In most every organization and in most churches now, they have developed a mission statement and core values. You have those at work. Typically you put them on a laminated card and put it in your wallet — nobody ever really looks at them — or you frame them and place them by the copy machine where people can see them. But really they are just an exercise that people go through.
We take that exercise here very seriously. One of the core values that really emerged three or four years ago, and that we champion — and it was easy to champion because everybody got on board pretty quickly — was that we wanted to be an influence beyond this campus and beyond this generation. We took that very seriously.
Developing and Releasing the Next Generation
To that end, as we began to staff, we were wide open to filling our staff positions — many of them — with young men. At one point we had, I think, seven or eight pastors who were aged twenty-eight or younger. We knew that if we were going to be an influence beyond this generation and beyond this campus, we had to develop the next generation of leaders, and we wanted to be instruments that God used to develop and grow them.
We also knew — and listen to some of these key words — that we needed to be willing to release them. The natural instinct is to cling to them. But as we developed them and as they grew and as God began to use them, we would have to release them. We knew that was going to be important.
We knew we needed to take the resources we have here — we will talk about it more in a minute — especially the human resources, especially at the leadership level, and be willing to make those available to churches with whom we were affiliated, but also to churches where perhaps the affiliation was a little less formal, a little less connected. We would in fact aggressively seek opportunities where we could find placement for these men, where God might bring them together with another person or team of people who are looking to communicate the Word of Christ through the church — not just necessarily in the East Valley, but anywhere that God is moving.
The Cost of Transition
We also knew — and this is the biggest thing for us, and that is the point of this moment — we as a body here needed to be prepared for that transition. What that means is that there is a huge cost associated with it on your end. It means there will be a lot of change, and at times it is going to feel like there is almost too much change. And if you are close to human — and you are — you do not like a bunch of change. You are not looking for a bunch of change. You like things just the way they are.
Why Has God Blessed Us?
Here is a question that we ask internally, and the answer to this question really compels us: Why has God blessed us so abundantly? Why has God blessed East Valley Bible Church this way?
You can look around and see the obvious things, but there are some ways that may be a little less obvious to you. The strength and depth of our staff is very unusual. The training mechanism — through the Surge and simply investing time in leadership development — is exceptional. We have a healthy network with other churches, especially young churches. The reputation that East Valley Bible Church has is, by and large, a pretty good one in the community — through East Valley Bible Church and through Priority Living and the work I do, we are really looked at as one of the stronger and most influential churches in the valley. We have a mature congregation — you may have been around long enough to recognize that.
Stewardship and the Call to Expand
We have been around here for a long time, and we have demonstrated a pattern of coming to learn and serve. We are also in a very unique position in this moment as a nation: we are sitting here with no plan, no building under construction, no plan to build, and no debt. That is a very strong position to be in. God has blessed us in an amazing way.
Jesus warns those of us in this position. Here is what He says in Luke 12:48: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will be asked more." That verse drives this whole issue for us, because this is fundamentally a stewardship issue. God has given us these things. He has transferred this really important possession — these resources — to us, but not ownership. We do not own these resources. We are not in control of our own destiny. We have a responsibility. We are stewards, managers of what God has given us, and that stewardship demands that we take a hard look at what we are doing.
One of the key things we must look at is the expansion of God's kingdom through church planting and through other mechanisms. When we say "church planting," my fear is that it narrows things too much. When we say church planting, we tend to think of specific models — for example, something like Second Mile, where you take two or three hundred people, send them off, and away you go. But it is way bigger than church planting. It is us being really concerned about the kingdom of God.
As I sat down to think about this, I want to address four areas. Number one: this is expensive. Number two: it produces tension. Number three: it forces us to think "we," not "them" — in other words, we are growing a kingdom. And number four: it is going to keep us fresh and healthy.
The Real Cost of Kingdom Expansion
When I talk about expensive, I do not mean only the money involved — though there is some money involved, I understand that. The expense I am talking about is far bigger than finances. It is the human resource expense. When you consider Luke and Matthew and then add the Mesa plant that will happen toward the end of the year, and you put all those things together, that is really expensive — and that is only the tip of the iceberg. With each of those plants comes a whole set of people underneath them who are in significant positions of leadership here.
We start to lose small group leaders. We start to lose key coordinating people across various ministry areas. Children's ministry has come to me saying we are seeing a lot of our best people, our sharpest people — the ones who are really carrying the load — emerging and leaving for these church plants. Here is what I want you to see: that is how God works. That is just how He does it. If He is going to move, that is how He is going to move.
Three Biblical Examples of Costly Sending
I was thinking about three instances that illustrate this, and you do not need to turn to any of them — just relax and take this in. In Acts chapter 13, the church at Antioch is getting ready to send out an expedition team. The Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I have called them." The Saul mentioned there is Paul, who is emerging as this young leader. Imagine you are in Antioch and you are saying, "I think God is doing something. I think God wants us to go. I think God wants us to push out. Who should we send?" And the message comes back: Barnabas — the son of encouragement. My guess is he was a key player in keeping that whole thing moving. He was the one absorbing a lot of the friction in the church. And then there is this young upstart they had poured time into, whose name is Saul, and he has a lot of potential. Why not take a couple of the people you would most wish would stay, and send them?
When you get to Acts chapter 20, Paul is saying goodbye to the church at Ephesus, and it is an emotional moment — there is weeping and hugging. Why? Because Paul spent three years there. Paul had grown deep roots there. I am sure many people were saying, "Why don't you just stay here? We'll send others." And Paul says no — in this case, he is going to send the best and the brightest.
In the letter to the church at Philippi, in the second chapter, Paul says, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I may also be encouraged when I learn of your condition." Then here is how he describes Timothy: "For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare." I have always read that passage from the perspective of the church at Philippi thinking, "This is really exciting." But it occurred to me as I was putting this together that Timothy is leaving somewhere, and somewhere another congregation is thinking, "This is not so exciting." Paul just said he has nobody else like him — they cannot even find a replacement for him. Yet God's work goes on.
What Expansion Reveals About Us
This whole venture of church expansion is truly expensive. It is a huge challenge, and it reveals a lot about who we are and what we are all about. When Matthew prayed in the first hour, he prayed, "God, show us our idols in the midst of this." What he was saying is this: sometimes it is fear. Sometimes it is our concern about not wanting to be uncomfortable. Sometimes it is our desire to leave everything the way it is because it feels just right. He was asking God to reveal those things to us.
Someone once said that golf is a character builder. Well, golf is as much a character revealer as it is a character builder. The same is true of church planting and church expansion — it is a muncher. It is as much a character revealer as it is a character builder. It shows us who we really are, and it shows us what we are all about. It is really easy to talk about this. It is not so easy to do it. It is really easy to say, "God, we want to be part of a move that You have got going."
Tension in the Body
Planting and sending demands an enormous amount of corporate and individual security, and a true spirit of cooperation and generosity. When you start talking about church planting — talking about Luke and what he is going to do with Second Mile, talking about Bill going to do Christ Church — people start asking questions. They want to know what the new church will look like, and then they start pointing out differences from East Valley Bible Church. Very quickly it can degenerate into a conversation filled with tension and opposition.
Let me be direct: Luke does some things differently than we would do. Bill is going to do some things radically differently than we would do them. I am not intimidated by that. It is God expressing Himself in individuals through individual ways. God gives us a prescription in terms of the components that need to be in a church, but He does not dictate what a church is supposed to look like.
We applaud, support, encourage, and even push these people to find their own expression of how God might use them. God does not need fifteen churches just like East Valley Bible Church. There are other ways to worship God, other expressions, other men who teach in other ways and other styles. We need to celebrate that rather than resist it.
There is also individual tension that kicks in the moment you hear someone is going to plant another church. The first question out of your mouth is, "Are you going?" And all of a sudden you are in a whole discussion, trying to defend turf rather than celebrate what God is doing. Do not let this happen, because this is only the tip of the iceberg. If God continues to move us as we hope He will, these plants, associations, and partnerships are going to come at you again and again.
If they are a source of tension for you — if your security is tied to the idea that this is how East Valley Bible Church does it — let me tell you something: we are not the only way to do church. God is doing great things here, but this is not the only place on the planet where He is working. We celebrate that He works in all sorts of different places.
Diversity Among Church Planters
We have a group of church planters that meets here on campus once a month. The last meeting we had, I thought, was the best meeting we have ever had — and it was filled with tension. Some of these men are doing small house churches and hoping something grows from it. Some are building strong pulpit ministries. Some are advertising. Some use music; some do not have communion. You could see everyone in the room trying to defend their own position rather than rejoicing in the diversity.
I walked out and said to Tyler, "I think that is the best meeting we have ever had." He said, "I agree with you — but there was a lot of tension in there." That is just part of this. That is a good thing. We want to celebrate that God does different things in different places in different ways.
We, Not Them
The third thing this forces us to do is think in terms of "we," not "them" — not East Valley Bible Church over here and all those other churches out there. We celebrate the fact that God is working in the lives of our people, and I want to hold on to this point because it is critically important.
There is absolutely no distinction between what I do as ministry and what you do as ministry. I happen to be paid for it — well, I do it on this day, and we have people here who are paid for it. But I hate the idea that there is a laity and then there are pastors. I hate it when someone says "Pastor Tom." I do not walk up to someone and say "Attorney Bob" or "Computer Programmer Bill." That is a meaningless distinction. We are in this together.
When you walk out of here, you walk into a ministry field. That field is wherever you are. Your work is your ministry. You serve there, you pastor there, and you let people see Christ in you there. And it goes beyond your workplace — you also get to participate in other organizations.
I love the fact that when I go to a CAP dinner, a crisis pregnancy center dinner, a Young Life event, or any number of other organizations, I see a large number of East Valley Bible Church people there. The Young Life leaders told me a few years ago that roughly eighty percent of their budget for the entire East Valley came from people at East Valley Bible Church. I love that. This is not about seeing how large we can make our own kingdom. This is about being a very small part of what God is doing in a much larger way in His kingdom.
Holding Things Loosely
You will hear more and more about churches we are associated with, and these will be partnerships where our name does not appear on many of the things we do. That does not matter. There is an old paradigm where a church would maintain control — even over a church plant, the sending church really still owned it and claimed that connection. We are holding these things as loosely as we possibly can.
Looking ahead, I believe the future is going to be found in business and in every area of life, through much more informal partnerships.
Stepping Up or Stepping Out
More than these rigid, siloed companies, we want to work together and champion that. God has really gifted us to be able to do that because we have an attitude and a spirit that wants partnership, and we are easy to work with because we are willing to share resources, time, energy, effort, and money.
Here is the last thing that will keep us fresh and healthy, and it is very difficult. I go to a lot of meetings where I hear, "We're losing that person." Whatever — God has a plan. He is pruning. He is cutting. We use the phrase: it is time for you to either step out and get involved in one of these plans, or step up here. We need to recapture the old "come, learn, and serve." This is not something for you to sit and watch — you need to participate in this.
Elevate Your Game
I was listening to somebody the other day and they were talking about basketball in the NBA, talking about the playoffs. They said of a specific player, "He's going to have to elevate his game for the playoffs." Here is what I am saying to you: it is time for you to elevate your game. It is time for you to step up. It is time for you to understand that you are part of an organization.
I have said this for the last two years and I have had a lot of opposition to it from different people — and whatever, you are dead wrong. I am absolutely right. This is the healthiest this church has ever been. This is the healthiest the leadership has ever been. It is the healthiest the elders have ever been, the healthiest the staff has ever been, the healthiest our vision has ever been.
There are all sorts of tensions, and that is what you see — a lot of tension in this thing. But the health is undeniable. The vision is so good, and now it is time for you to be a key part of it.
Here Am I, Send Me
When I was in Cannon Beach, I referred back to Isaiah 6, and we go back to this over and over again. Isaiah, who at the time is already a prophet but does not truly know God, has this vision of God. When he sees God, he sees himself and says, "Woe to me, for I am undone." Then God says there is a lot of work to do — "Who can I send?" — and Isaiah says, "Here am I, send me." That is our cry right now.
A Father's Proudest Moment
I found something the other day — three paragraphs — and I am going to read them to you. When Haley graduated from eighth grade, I was the commencement speaker. About three days before the event, she said to me, "Do you know who is going to introduce you?" I said I did not. She said, "I am." I said, "Oh, really — do you need any help writing that?" She said, "No, no, I have it under control." I said, "Do you want me just to proof it?" She said, "No, I'll be fine. Thank you."
That night was a great night. It was a great night for her — she was recognized in a bunch of different ways. Then it was time. She was there with a little blue cap and gown on, cute as could be, and I was sitting in the second row.
Here is what she said: "Our speaker tonight is a man who is very important to me and has had a great influence on me. He teaches Bible studies to businessmen and women during the week, and on Sunday he pastors a church called East Valley Bible Church. In his spare time, he enjoys golfing and spending time with his family. He is a husband as well as a father of two teenage daughters."
Then came the last paragraph, and really the sentence that matters most: "Our speaker is a man who is living proof that if you give your life to Christ, He will do miraculous things. Will you please help me welcome my dad, Tom Schrader?"
She came down, I came up, she hugged me, and she put her head over so they could not see her face and said, "Don't screw this up."
Living Proof
The sentence I love in all of that is this: "Our speaker is a man who is living proof that if you give your life to Christ, He will do miraculous things." Can I finish that? I might have constructed that sentence a bit differently. He is living proof that if anybody gives their life to Christ, He will do miraculous things through anybody.
The author of Hebrews writes this in chapter 10, verse 23: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who has promised is faithful. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near."
That is where we are. We are in an amazing time, an amazing place, and I am telling you, an amazing church. It is not perfect — I get that. But there are not many churches willing to embark on the venture we are heading on. Not many are willing to do this because of all the reasons we have talked about: it is expensive, it builds tension, and you risk losing your best and brightest — not from God's kingdom, but into it.
What If He Lives to Be an Old Man
From the very beginning, my concern was not "What if Tom gets hit by a bus?" — though that was the question at every meeting I went to for a while, and after some time I could not distinguish whether it was a rhetorical question or a prayer request. When Tom gets hit by a bus, that is God's design.
My concern was not that. My concern was: what if he lives to be an old man, and we do with this church what we see happen in virtually every church around us? It is founded by somebody, it grows big, and then it just goes dormant. It makes me so sad to look around and see that. With your help, our vision, and God's grace, that is not going to happen here.
Our best days at East Valley Bible Church are absolutely ahead of us. I do not know exactly what that means or exactly what it will look like, but it will be more of this. I can tell you this: if you do not like change, I will add to "step out" and "step up" a third option — step off. Because this is going to continue.
Embracing Change
Change is all over this moment — it has to be. If God is going to do something, it is going to require stretching us, taking us to places we do not necessarily want to go. The irony of that struck me this week: He is an immutable God, meaning He does not change, but He loves change. He loves changing us.
If you say you do not love change, think about what would happen if you had never experienced it. Your conversion was change. Your destination has been changed, your designation from sinner to saint has been changed, your destiny has been changed. The way you see today has been changed, who you are has been changed — you are a new person in Jesus Christ. He transformed you so that you could be part of what He does as He transforms others.
A Call to Be Radicals Again
When we get to summer camp this year, three weeks from Friday, we are going to talk about a transformed heart, an informed mind, and a radical life. It is time for us — our generation, the old hippie generation, the revolutionaries — to be radicals again. It is time for us to break this mold we are in, where everybody has their own territory and one person runs it all into the ground. We are in this thing together, partnering together, ready to go.
We are ready to lead. We are waiting for God to lead us in some specific areas, but clearly He has led us in Second Mile, and clearly He is leading us in the plant in Mesa. We pray that God brings more and more opportunities to us that require hard decisions and difficult decisions, because it is going to demand us exchanging, trading, and sharing our resources — especially our people and our money — for those around us.
Prepared for This Moment
He has prepared us for a moment like this. This is what we have been waiting for. We have been praying for years — God, move; move in a significant way — and asking whether we could be part of it. Matthew, Luke, and Bill are, I pray, just the very beginning of what He does. I hope He is raising up people right now whose names we do not yet know, people we are going to partner with, and we are going to see God do something and see it all emanate from our willingness to sacrifice.
Being secure enough to say there is a better, different, other way to do it — that is what this is about. This is a very big moment for us. There is a certain sadness to it, I admit that. You see someone like Matthew, you see things going well, and you wonder what it means for us. But you only have that thought for a second, and then you realize what it means: it means God is doing something in a big way.
The Invitation: Step Up, Step Out
Here is my invitation to you — step up, step out, join one of them. Step up, find out where those opportunities are, and be supportive of what is going on. Look, see, and understand that this change is exciting and that this change is never going to end, never going to stop.
C.S. Lewis writes that change is never complete, change never ceases, nothing is ever quite finished — not you, not me, not us. These are genuinely exciting times. This is a big, huge deal. It is time for us to step up, and that is our invitation to you: to step up and to celebrate what God is doing.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this amazing truth. Thank You that You have called us to be stewards, that You have blessed us so abundantly, and that You have transformed our hearts so that we can now partner together to release that transforming power — to be ministers of reconciliation to this church, this body, this place in time. God, use us. That is what we ask, and we are willing to pay the price.
We are willing to live with the tension. We are willing to understand that ultimately this will make us healthier. We accept the fact that as we embark on this endeavor, we now have to think "we," not "them" — "us," not "they." Open our hearts to what You are doing in our lives. I pray for each of us individually that we are ready for this.
For those who are here this morning and would love the opportunity to pray with us, remind them that we are here to serve them — pastors are at the front of the church to pray with them on this very special day. God, we ask Your blessing on Matthew and Christi and their kids, on the family of Luke and Molly and their kids, and on Second Mile Church. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.