I hope someone read that title and thought to themselves, “Is Pastor Jason really going to ride into church on a chariot?” If someone thinks I am crazy enough to try that, I’d be encouraged.
Although that is not the case, we don’t want anything to be off the table. Well that is of course, anything that isn’t sinful! We want to dream big because we serve a big God. Big dreams require big steps of faith. They require trust and obedience. They are fun to talk about and scary to act upon.
Two weeks ago we looked at Joshua 6. They had a city with a trained army and fortified walls in front of them. The battle plan? Walk around in silence for awhile and then eventually make a lot of noise, run in and trust God will knock the walls down. It doesn’t make sense. But God gave the people a God-sized promise that the land would one day be theirs to have. It required them to move forward in trust and obedience. It required them to do things God’s way and not their way. Our way doesn’t get us very far.
At the end of the sermon I challenged everyone to memorize Scripture that would help them move forward in trust and obedience. My family and I have been memorizing Psalm 20:7. It says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God.” In ancient warfare if your army was well stocked with chariots and horses you had a considerable edge over the enemy. Those armies could easily place trust in an strong military. The author of the Psalm is saying, sure some can trust in an army, but for the people of God, we must trust in the Name of the Lord! Joshua is an example of this.
For me, I never want to lead a church that becomes comfortable in our things. I never want to lead a church where we are comfortable in “us.” That is why we value Endless Growth. There are always more people to reach for Jesus and always more room for us to grow in becoming more like Jesus.
Leading up to the sermon I was at a conference with many of our leaders. The conference theme was “Dream Big.” Timely huh? At the end of the conference we took time to debrief and dream.
Four God sized dreams came out of that. Three that we hope to accomplish over the next 25 years and one that we hope to accomplish by the end of the summer. How will this all happen? I don’t know. But we are praying and willing to walk forward in trust.
Over the next 25 years we are praying that God would use Wellspring Church to start 1,100 churches. How? I don’t know. Money given to world missions? Starting our own churches? Starting churches that birth additional churches? All are possibilities. All promote Endless Growth. This keeps the focus on Jesus and not one church called Wellspring.
Over the next 25 years we are praying that God would use Wellspring Church to grow to 3,000 people in size. That doesn’t sound like Endless Growth. Seems like we would be content in that size. No. Did you catch our first goal? I want to create a culture where people expect to be sent out to start a new church. 3,000 is the only number I see in Scripture relating to the early church. The start of the church ignited a huge movement that is still alive and well today. I want to have enough critical mass that we can support starting new churches as we raise up leaders.
Over the next 25 years we are praying that God would use Wellspring Church to establish a Community care center. What will this look like, I don’t know. We do know that God has called us to relentlessly love our community. The purchase of a building where we could provide food, clothing, skills training and much more to our community seems to fall in line with that. Seems like it would promote Uncommon Relationships. Could it be a place where a single mom brings her beat up car, meets a nice mechanic from Wellspring and for free has her car fixed? Perhaps.
This will require us to be generous with our time and money. This will require us to pray. This will require us to think of others. This will require us to care more about the kingdom of God than ourselves. Ultimately, this will require our trust and obedience.
One small step in this direction is to continue to build a presence of relentless love in our community. So in August we are going to have a week where we love our community in practical ways. Should we call it Relentless Love Week?! It will be a continuation of what we are doing on a monthly basis. So what is the big goal attached to that? We want to collect 100,000 diapers to hand out to moms and families in need this coming summer. It’s a way to show relentless and practical love. We pray that it would continue to ignite a craving for Jesus in our community.
Interesting, kind of sounds like our mission statement; We exist to ignite a craving for Jesus by relentlessly loving our community.
Yup, some will trust in things, like chariots or horses, but we will trust in the Name of the Lord our God.
Written by Pastor Jason Coache,
Lead Pastor of Wellspring Church
