Having said that, let me begin...
This post is based off one of the talks at the Leadership convention I was at over the weekend, but this is something that stuck with me and reminded me so much about Lifepoint that I had to post it.
Most people I know who tour Europe always mention two things to me. 1) The castles and 2) The cathedrals... which if you read the topic of this post is what I'm going to be talking about.
These monolithic? neolithic? Ginormous structures were massive houses of worship, built in a time where drafting software didn't exist and heavy equipment was defined as a hammer that weighed more than 10 pounds....
Notre Dame I don't think anyone would argue with me if I were to say it's a architectural and artistic marvel... They began construction in 1163, the cathedral was completed in 1345 so that's a 182 year period, during which time life expectancy was 30 years at best, or over 7 generations of time, the people who began work on the cathedral did so knowing they would never see the completion, but that they were building something that would outlast them.
And yes there were several cathedrals that went up under in under 50 years, but even so that's beyond life expectancy for any one generation.
And the craftsmanship. There were artist who worked on the structures doing carvings and other touches, in places where people would never see the work their response when asked? God would see it. And they did this work and in some places it's there for all to see, and in others only God would be able to see their work. They dedicated their lives to build these structures and NO ONE knows their names, they were there to do something great.
People dedicated their lives to the work because they had a vision of greatness, and in their case it was building a location that honored God to worship him.
As I sit here and type this I don't know where you, the reader is in your life. I don't know if you're a member of an awesome church that's mission is to reach people far from God, or if you don't even know what this whole Christian thing is about and you look at people like me as if we're mad, my hope today is that you would understand this, when people grab hold of a dream, a vision that's bigger than they are, and when they're willing to sacrifice to see the vision through, then they can accomplish great things.
If you're a lifepointer and someone pointed you to this blog post I want to tell you a few things, that before the doors open on Sunday morning and people come pouring in, there's a team who shows up before the sun (though NOT before the Son) arrives and they go about the business of unloading tons of gear off of 3 trailers to build an environment that helps people to focus in on the Word of God that pastor is going to bring.
That during the service there's a small army of people working making sure that there's as little to distract someone as possible, they might be holding a baby, it might be pushing a sound knob, it might be teaching a 5 year-old.
That after the service and you've gone home, or more likely out to lunch (be honest!) that there's another group who'll spend over an hour restoring the school back to how it was before we began (And in some cases even better), including reloading those same three trailers.
That during the week the staff and at least a platoon's worth of volunteers are working behind the scenes to prepare for the next week,
That pastor is on his knees in desperate prayer to God his heart breaking for the lost that we KNOW is going to be walking into church, possible for the first time, possibly for the only time, and that we have one chance to reach them. That's a burden of a senior pastor and one that I'll never be able to fully comprehend. (Sorry off on a tangent).
For the most part, if you just come and go and show up to lifepoint you'll be blessed, you'll hear the Word of God preached straight from the Bible, you'll hear worship music that amplifies and glorifies our amazing God.
And you'll be just like a tourist walking through a cathedral amazed at the beauty of it all, and never know any of the stories behind the stories.
But if you get your hands on the net, if you decide to get out of the seat and join us in the field, you'll find your life on an amazing ride with other people, who like those who came before are willing to pour out their lives for a cause a purpose that's bigger then we are. You'll be putting your lives into creating something that's much more amazing than a giant building, it's seeing life change and we get to see results in our lifetime.
And should we go on for another seven generations, another 182 years, I doubt seriously that people will know our name.
But if they know the name of Jesus, if they enter a relationship with their Creator, and Savior, than like the amazing artisan ship of centuries past, our lives would have been poured out into something that truly does last.
God Bless
Matt Furukawa June 8, 2009
2 comments:
Outstanding post!
That one deserves both a drum roll AND a cymbal crash or 2
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