Affirmation

Have you ever wrestled with finding out what God wants you to do? Maybe in a small decision? Maybe in a life-changing one? Maybe the next step for a church? That question was a very real one for me recently.

As we approached the end of the summer, we knew that if we didn’t do something we wouldn’t have room for the people who would be showing up as summer and vacations ended and students returned. The natural tendency was to go into planning mode and come up with a course of action. Not to would be a failure of leadership, right?

But the lessons God had been teaching us troubled me as I felt the pressure to do something. For the last several years, God has been carrying us on a journey. He has carried us away from a long-range strategic approach to ministry, to a much more immediate one which I have briefly talked about in earlier blogs. I refer to it as Acts 1/Acts 2. Some of the principles are “pray first then plan,” “first the Spirit, then the strategy,” “convergence,” “experiential,” “so that,” “others-oriented,” and “dreams and visions.”

These principles had a ring of truth and were helpful theoretically and in smaller issues. But when it came to “big” stuff, the pressure was to go back to “business as usual.” But “business as usual” (come up with a strategy, vision-cast, then implement) seemed to me to be a reversion to the norm. Some of the basic requirements of this new approach are counterintuitive. Waiting for God to bring convergence (what does that look like?), continuing to “simply” pray, etc., felt like an abdication of responsibility. Not to mention the potential fallout from newcomers—many of whom don’t know God—failing to return because there were no parking spots or seats to sit in.

My first impulse was to ask God to give us a miraculous sign or affirmation. Maybe someone would offer us a free building in Madison Heights. Maybe there would be a groundswell of “convergence” as everybody got on board with a particular course of action. We had talked about three services on Sunday, two services on Saturday night plus two on Sunday morning, multi-site in Madison Heights, etc. But I had no affirmation from God. I didn’t even know what it would look like if He gave it. In addition, I came to a personal conclusion years ago that God doesn’t tell us the future anyway. He desires our trust as He leads us one step at a time. So how could I require a “sign”? Gideon asked for one in the Old Testament, but his request grew out of fear and doubt rather than faith.

All the while there was a growing excitement around Blue Ridge. People were coming to Christ, moving into deeper forms of community, confessing sin, taking on the roles of “big brothers” and “big sisters,” evidencing a growing hunger for Scripture, etc.

So a few weeks ago, God opened my eyes and spoke gently to me saying, “Woody, I am being consistent with what I have been teaching you over the last several years [all my life actually]. This movement is my affirmation. This is Acts 1. My Spirit is moving, my people are saying they are “all in.” Your response is to simply take the next step available to you. Jeremy’s message on Philip in Acts 9 was an added affirming element that God had planned weeks [an eternity?] before. When the Spirit moves, just respond—even if you don’t know the final outcome or it doesn’t make logical sense.

That freed me/us to move toward a solution that was doable quickly—the move to three services. I’m pretty sure it’s not the final solution, but it’s a response to what God is doing at Blue Ridge. Besides, we’re not responsible for coming up with ultimate solutions—that’s God’s prerogative. That releases us from assuming responsibility that is only God’s, and frees us to give ourselves fully to the thing we can have an effect on—the present moment. It is only in this moment that we can obey, worship, serve, and love. Let us give ourselves fully to these things in this moment and God will be glorified and we will be most pleasing to Him and most like Him.

Woody