During our training I remember hearing from a couple church planters who were a year or more ahead of where we were that “you will be broken.” I always thought that meant we would reach a place of burn-out and that we would realize that we could not do this “church thing” in our own power, but through the power of God. And that is definitely true and we have experienced that variety of physical and/or mental brokenness both individually and corporately at Artisan. What I did not expect however is a brokenness of heart.
Over the past month and a half our Staff, Leadership Team, and church family have been praying and fasting for God’s heart and vision for the future. Specifically, we were asking if we should go to multiple services and multiple venues for our gathered worship. We expected direction, a firm “yes” or “no” to the question, “Should we go to multiple services.” What we experienced, however, was more akin to the experience of Nehemiah as he heard the report of the state of Jerusalem. The people in Jerusalem were living in disgrace and shame (Neh 1:3), and up to this point, did not see a way out of their predicament. Nehemiah, much like our Leadership Team ”sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven (Neh 1:4).” God broke Nehemiah’s heart for the people of Jerusalem and he broke ours for our own people.
God revealed our failings as a Leadership Team and a church. We wept and mourned because of our own “functional atheism.” We were acknowledging God exists with our minds, but our actions showed we had little need of Him. We wept for the hundreds of lives that are in disgrace and shame, many of whom may not even recognize it, and need godly leadership to restore them to a place of honor and glory in God’s kingdom. We wept because of our fear of the unknown and our lack of faith to move us forward. We wept because we realized that God wants to do incredible things through frail people like us. And we prayed.
Through our prayer we realized that this brokenness and humility is exactly where God wants leadership born from. Nehemiah started there, Jesus started there as the Creator humbled himself to be baptized by John the Baptist (one of the creation!). We recognized our need to be continually in prayer. When Nehemiah faced Sanballat and Tobiah he prayed. When there was murmuring within the ranks that were rebuilding the wall, he prayed. When he cast vision, he prayed. When the wall was completed, he prayed. After Jesus was baptized and before he began his public ministry, he spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness fasting and praying. It is in this continued prayer that God moved us to the place of vision.
God has inspired the Leadership at Artisan to move forward with the plan to begin multiple service times and venues. The reasons for doing so are a bit different now than they were before we started this journey. Now we are propelled forward by the brokenness for the things and people that break God’s heart. We realize that our neighbors and the students on the college campuses all around us are in disgrace and shame. We are moved by the idea that we could pour the grace and love of God through the Holy Spirit into these lives, no matter how short a time they are here (we estimate the average time a person stays at Artisan is two years because many are college students). We have a vision for raising up the next generation of godly leaders and sending them out to new neighborhoods where they will share the restoration that can only be found in God through His son, Jesus.
A friend recently shared a prayer with us. This prayer is attributed to Sir Francis Drake who, while he may have been a legalized pirate, wrote one of the most motivational prayers ever written in that it both breaks and inspires the reader at the same time. The prayer is titled “Disturb Us.” While uncomfortable and, at times, painful, we thank God for our brokenness. This experience has reaffirmed that it is the foolish (weak/broken) things of this world that God uses to confound the wise (1 Cor 1:27-28). We are nothing but cracked pots, but we carry an immeasurable treasure “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (2 Cor 4:7)”. Disturb us, Lord, I pray!
No comments:
Post a Comment