Earlier in ministry, my wife and I had a strong vision for Colorado and moved to the northwest side of the Denver metro area to plant a church. My launch team was my wife Jeanne, my five-year-old and my eight-year-old. We had $400 left to our name after we put a deposit down on a rental house. I figured we might as well give it all to the church, so we wrote a $40 check to a missionary in Mexico and launched the first church service with $360. One lady with her two small children came. She brought a guitar, played two songs and sat down. Jeanne took the younger kids to another room, and I preached to this woman and my eight-year-old son for three weeks. Then the woman’s husband came. I said, “Come on, Holy Ghost! We’re growing!”
Over the years, we grew little by little. Before we knew it, we had a couple thousand people in the church, and we bought land and built a building.
On our 20th church anniversary, our staff tracked down the original couple who attended our church plant. They wanted to find out what it was like in the early years of the church, and this is what the woman said, “I felt like when Pastor Mike was preaching, he was preaching to a thousand people. I would turn around and look behind me because it felt like they were all there.” I laughed. I said, “They were there—a thousand people. They were just in my heart.” They hadn’t arrived yet, but that was my vision.
I remember hearing about a very successful youth pastor. He was asked the question, “How did you become so successful?” He said, “For 200 things I tried, one worked.” When you’re in ministry, it’s not so much about doing what the people want; it’s about being authentic, genuine and sincere. People are looking for that. In our early years, I was so concerned about making mistakes and looking like I didn’t know what I was doing when in reality, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was willing to try a lot of things and fail. Failing doesn’t make you a failure. If you’re not failing in something, you’re not trying in anything, and if you’re trying to be safe, you’ll never get anywhere!
I think pastors today are facing a season of change. We see it societally, culturally. The technology is just unbelievable! We had no internet when I started the church. We had to actually shake hands with people, look people in the eye, and invite them to church. It wasn’t like it is now, but I still think face-to-face communication is critical. Some pastors don’t show up until right before they preach or right before the worship starts. You need to mingle among the flock, love on them and care for them and look them in the eye and pray for them. That’s what people need.
My approach to ministry in times of change is to think first of WHO, then HOW.
If we don’t start with the “who,” are we really in ministry? Everything God did and does today is about people. I remind myself of this all the time. Heaven is about people. Hell is about people. Mercy and grace, forgiveness and healing, prosperity, blessing and favor—everything is about people. If my focus is not on people, then I have misrepresented God to others. Now, even when I’m preparing to preach, I think about what I would need spoken to me if I was sitting in that chair or pew.
We know it’s not really about us, right, Pastor? I knew even in my church planting days that if I lifted up the name of Jesus, He would draw all men unto Himself. That’s why I made sure that no matter what we did, we lifted Him up. Now, I’ve preached some bad messages. How about you? I remember one was so bad that I was still beating myself up while I was driving home. The Lord changed my entire ministry trajectory from that one service. He said to me in the car, “I’m not looking for perfect performance; I’m looking for a perfect heart.” I suddenly realized my heart was right. I had prepared, I studied, I prayed. It just didn’t quite come out the way I thought it would. But God was not displeased. In fact, God was very pleased because He doesn’t care about performance.
For the record, our church grew no matter how badly I preached. Why? Because we lifted Christ up. That’s why it’s important that we keep our focus in the right place, that our service is to God and about the people. I make sure I spend 30 minutes before service and after service in the foyer meeting people, greeting people, loving people every week. I tell every pastor that’s the “golden moment” because it gives your members the opportunity to have your personal attention. If they say, “I had a bad week” or” I lost my job,” you can take that moment to pray with them. They will feel like you’re their best friend and that you authentically care about them. Of course you do, but now you’re demonstrating it. To say it is one thing; to demonstrate it is another. Then it doesn’t matter how badly you preach. They don’t care! They just care that somebody loves them.
Pastor, if you will focus on the people and quit worrying about your performance, you will see great results in your church. People are hungry. They’re looking for truth, and I believe we have truth to give people, but focusing on the WHO is most important. After the WHO comes the HOW. The way I’ve always looked at it is that if we are focused on the WHO, then we can develop the HOW, how we can reach them and minister to them in meaningful and life-changing ways.
When they built the airport in Denver, they poured concrete 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three solid months to build runways. I was captivated by this. The Lord showed me that sometimes you have to invest in a landing pad if you’re going to land something. This is the HOW.
We want to build a landing pad for the Spirit of God to come into our ministry so He can touch people and deliver and direct and correct them. My job, once I’m focused on the people, is to provide this landing pad for the Spirit to come in a powerful way. My team and I are to create an experience so that when people come on to the campus, they suddenly feel welcomed and comforted and accepted so they can have an encounter with God. You have to have systems, structures and so on to develop that experience, but the model should be flexible and meet the people’s needs.
But a landing pad becomes a launching pad too. So, Pastor, you may have been working to build a landing pad for the Spirit of God, but you don’t just want Him to land; you want Him to launch too. As pastors, we want God to launch people, ministries, souls, and more. The HOW is important once the WHO is identified.
My encouragement to you today is to not get caught up in the drama around pastoring. Stay focused on the vision that God has given you. Cast your cares on Him, do the best you can serving and loving people with your focus on the WHO, figuring out the structure, strategies and systems you need for the HOW so you can serve them better. Then let the Holy Spirit do what He’s going to do. You will see God move in your ministry and lives changed and launched into greater things from your humble launching pad!
This blog was created using content from the webinar Communicating Vision in Times of Change.
