Combating expectations as young Christians

“I don’t know what I am doing,” is what Francis Chan said was the whole point of his sermon today. It’s funny because everyone including himself laughed at that notion because he was suppose to be telling us what we were suppose to do as ministers today, I mean that’s why people paid to come see him right? But what he meant by this is that he doesn’t know what he is doing because he is completely surrendered to the will of God. He doesn’t know where he will be in a year from now, even a day, because that’s what surrendering ourselves to God’s will is; not knowing just going. He asked if we would even want to know the will of God? And if we knew it would it freak us out, because of the sacrifice involved. Thinking on everything said and reading my notes I am almost at a loss for where I should take this post because I literally have 4 pages of notes, none of which really fit together but I guess we’ll see what direction God takes me in. 

The point I want to hit the most, the one he probably hit the most, was that as ministers our goal should be to make people independently dependent on God. Meaning you teach them how to become teachers so that they can disciple to others. Equipping them with the tools necessary to stand on their own two feet. But because people are unwilling to invest in people and outreach to people we give them opportunities to not have to be courageous by hiding in the church and relying solely on the church for spiritual edification, even though we know cowards will have their place in the lake of fire according to Revelation 21:8. Somehow we have become fixated on just keeping people at church and numbers instead of making disciples and sending them off to other places. Why does every church have a youth ministry, college ministry, paid pulpit preacher? Because we are unwilling to take on the tasks ourselves. We would rather pay someone to do it for us then create generation after generation of teachers. 

Why is this? Because we are afraid to be lonely and afraid to be rejected. People always wonder why they aren’t/can’t do great things in the kingdom like other people. I wrote down a lot of quotes from Chan today and this is one of them, “You will do great things if you are willing to be rejected and lonely.” Making disciples will not be easy and will not be comfortable, and I think sometimes (more like often times) we see Christianity in America as this comfortable thing. I mean when was the last time you were beat up for Christianity or had a legitimate fear of death for something you believed in? In America the worst fear we legitimately can have is ending up in some rescue mission for giving up everything for Christ, and even then we will be taken care of. But Francis pointed out “Why would God send the comforter to a comfortable people?” If Christianity was meant to be comfortable why would we need Jesus? If we earnestly believe and trust in God it’s time to get uncomfortable, take leaps of faith and fail if we have to. Because if you’re gonna step out on faith, you will fail and you will be rejected. We have tried too long to get people to experience God and the holy spirit in a church and not where we actually will experience the holy spirit in situations where we have to rely on it, it situations in the world where we are unsure of the outcome and our safety.

Christianity and ministering ultimately comes down to us. We will have to answer to God one day and we won’t be able to blame our church, our pastor’s, our elders, and our family, it will all be on us.

“Though none go with me I still will follow.”

So how do we lead and make disciples? Lead by example, follow the commands of the Bible and surrender completely to the will of God. We probably won’t like the will of God for us and what it means for our lives, but remember Christianity is not to be an “ivory couch” (thanks for that Mike) but a dirty ground floor. It’s not made to be comfortable and for a reason. We should long for Heaven and long to please God so that we can leave this uncomfortable world.

So there you go, somehow I managed to culminate a lot of my notes into a semi-legible/understanding stream of thought. It’s weird I went in thinking it was going to be a life changing experience or I was gonna come out being on fire for God after hearing Francis Chan, but instead I think I understood something much more valuable. Francis Chan is just a man, a human like any of us. He is simply telling us what the Bible says, he just has chosen to live it out like anyone of us can do and should do.