Shhh…It’s a Secret! tagged: , , ,

Shhh…It’s a Secret!

Posted by in Church & Missions

Shhh…it’s a secret!  One of the hard and fast rules of transitioning to a new field of service is secrecy.  Don’t let anyone know that you are considering a move.  But why does it have to be a secret?

I came to Cornerstone a little more than eight years ago.  Prior to my arrival in Colorado, I was finishing up my final year at Southwestern and my sixth year at First Baptist Church in Lipan.  The work in Lipan had been anything but easy.  My first three years were wonderful resulting in much fruit and a respected standing in the community.  The next two years were filled with progressing conflict as I more and more saw the leadership and myself going in different directions.  The final year in Lipan ended up being a year of peace and reconciliation as I threw in the towel and gave up.  I can remember the very moment when God lifted the burden of a particular issue from me and I no longer cared.  Don’t misunderstand–I cared for the people, I cared for the church–I just no longer cared about the issues that were dividing us.  I felt that God was letting me up.

In February, with graduation from the seminary fast approaching, my wife and I began the difficult and prayerful process of trying to decide what our next step would be.  At the time, I was considering the pursuit of doctoral degree at SWBTS which made staying in Lipan quite appealing.  We determined that we would go ahead and allow the seminary to list us in the graduate catalogue, not because we necessarily wanted to leave Lipan, but rather to make sure that we weren’t prematurely shutting any doors.  I also made the decision that I would invite my church to prayerfully walk through the process of seeking God’s will with me.  I would not keep my search a secret but would openly discuss each step along the way with the church as I understood God’s promptings.  We would make the decision together.  I stood before my congregation on an overcast February morning and shared with the church that I was beginning the process of seeking God as to whether I was to continue to be their pastor or if God had a new assignment for me.  I asked for their prayer and for their discernment as we moved forward.  I shared with them my goal of keeping no secrets but rather to include them in every step of the process.  I believed at the time that we would all eventually know whether I was to stay or go.  That Sunday morning I had no prospects for any other places of ministry and as far as I knew, the result of the next few months would simply be my continuing at Lipan with a new mandate for ministry while pursuing my doctorate.

I was not prepared for what happened next.  Over the next three months, Tina and I received letters of interest from 92 different churches from all across the nation.  It was an overwhelming task to attempt to pray about each and every field of ministry.  We would put the letters in one of three piles:  yes, no, and maybe.  Without going into too much detail, we had dozens of promises that I believe were given to us by God.  This was very much a spiritual search for the will of God and we listened, asked questions, and used every bit of understanding that we had to make these initial decisions.  Some of our qualifiers you will likely consider silly and yet I believe that God gave them to us in response to our sincere desire to follow His leadership regardless of consequence (or salary).  We believed our place of service would include mountains, water, “going home”, Tina and I serving together, rocks, and even “Cornerstone”.  There are many others but perhaps you get the idea.  We weren’t necessarily looking for all of these promises literally but they would all turn out to be quite literal.

As these promises and new ministries would come into our periphery, I would share with the church what I understood, asking them to share with me what they understood.  Eventually there would be five churches remaining, then four, then three (including Lipan), then only one.  It did not come as a shock to anyone when I stood before my Lipan church family and shared with them that the Colorado church was coming to see us and that in fact they would be in our congregation the following Sunday.  It wasn’t a shock because we had been prayerfully working through this process for some four to five months.  It wasn’t a shock because my church in Lipan knew as much about the Colorado church as I did and many were already seeing the possibility of my going to Colorado as a mission-type endeavor.  It wasn’t a shock because there weren’t any secrets.

We would relocate to Colorado later that summer to a small struggling church 1/5th the size of the church in Lipan.  It perfectly fit the promises that God had given to us and we continue to this day to see eternal fruit born into the kingdom.  We surpassed the size of the Lipan church a few years ago but their place in my heart has not diminished at all

I’ll never forget that amazing day when the Colorado search team showed up in Lipan.  Two days before their expected arrival, someone spotted a Colorado tag nearby (If you’ve every lived in a small rural town, then you understand how this happens).  The search team arrived on Sunday morning as expected and were graciously and warmly received.  There were the expected humorous jabs about tires being slashed, etc., but all-in-all, I was extremely proud of my Lipan church.  At the end of the service, I invited the team to come up to the front of the church and I then asked the church to come and pray for them.  I’ll never forget the sight of my friends and family in Lipan praying for this search team from Colorado to have wisdom and insight.  In that moment it wasn’t about a losing a pastor or even gaining one…it was about finding the will of God.

Secrecy robs us of fellowship.  It robs us of mutual understanding.  It robs us of the opportunity to grow together as we come to understand the will of God.  The risks of doing what I’ve done are great–but so are the mistakes of secrecy.