Just Decide

I feel like God is standing behind me lately.  His deep and wide voice is piercing me like a steel pipe through my chest.  His voice, as steady and resounding as any voice you will ever hear, saying, “Just decide.”

Flashback to three years ago.  As we decided to plant a church, we made so many decisions so fast that our heads were spinning.  Our plan was set in motion and we committed to give everything we had to this idea of a church that was even foreign to us.  We were going to abandon some of our own traditions, ideals, wants and needs in order to foster an environment for those that didn’t know Jesus.  We were going to give people the opportunity to ask questions, learn, grow, even decide not to follow Christ.  Our world and everything about our church would not be focused on those of us who had been on the journey with Christ for a long time, but rather we would lay down our needs and love people unconditionally.

The irony is that when you make a decision about who you are, you also make a decision about who you are not.  I’ve been wrestling for the last couple of months because I can sense that as our church fills up with an assortment of people from every end of the spectrum of the line of faith, that just deepens the line that we drew nearly three years ago. 

As the line deepens, it becomes clear that we cannot meet everyones needs and desires.  This is probably the most painful part of leadership for me.  Because we know who we are, we automatically aren’t right for some people!  How can this be?  The core of who I am wants to then bend and twist our values to accomodate everyone, but when leaders do that, what is lost is the framework and the mission that you started with.  YOU SIMPLY CAN’T BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE! 

And we’re back to that voice in my head…”Just decide.  Just decide.  Just decide.”  With great resolve, we have decided.  I love the fact that people of any walk of life are welcome in our church.  I love the honesty and the basic questions that people asking.  I love watching our long-time Christians being challenged, not by men’s breakfasts and women’s Bible studies, but rather because they are being asked to tell someone the story of Jesus for the first time.

I love North Creek.  With all of it’s flaws and imperfections, we are who we are and I like it.  I like it a lot.  And if you do, too, that’s awesome, but if you don’t, let me be the first to say, “We bless you on your journey.  There are so many great churches out there and my prayer for you is that you find one that you love as much as I love our church.  Just decide.”