Grassroots Greatness

God sees great potential in our little churches

 

Lately, I’ve been reminded of how important my focus is.  As a pastor, I sometimes lose sight of what a privilege it is to influence the hearts of people.  Our American pace of life is so hectic and busy.  At times I get caught up in it all instead of remembering that I’m called to capture hearts with the beauty of who God is.

I remember my first year as pastor 20 years ago.  It was time for VBS, which meant “Vacation Bible School” to our people but “very busy schedule” to this small church pastor.  Furthermore, it was summertime and many felt justified in excusing themselves from any volunteer church activity in their schedule.  And for some reason, others felt justified in suspending their financial support too.

It was easy to lose inspiration looking at bales of hay on our platform which served as our “special decorations”.  My thoughts turned to the fact that if our two-year-old son were older, I’d probably want him to go to VBS at another church!

Then my children’s director brought me back to reality … the stuff that would happen in our children’s hearts was more important than the stuff that would grace our platform.  We only had about 30 children at the time, but some weren’t living with self images that made them feel special, others were battling broken hearts because of their broken homes, and still others were called of God to do special things but needed confirmation in their hearts.  My children’s pastor made me aware of the fact that a large percentage of Baptist pastors first felt God calling them to vocational ministry at “Vacation Bible School”!

Needless to say, once my perspective changed godly passion came alive in my heart again.  My focus caused me to find immediate fulfillment and has led to a fruitfulness that has surpassed the grandest dreams I had for our church.  Every week now I watch those “little kids” lead our church as worship pastor, children’s pastors and as directors of many of our church’s two hundred ministries.  Believe it or not, our worship pastor is now my own son, who was two years old back then!

I have a friend who pastors in a small Oklahoma town who expressed similar sentiments recently.  He built a bus ministry in his town, drove a bus and worked a route each week because he felt that God told him to.  But after a couple of years, he found himself focusing on the hundreds of hours spent and the thousands of dollars seemingly wasted with so little being accomplished.

In prayer, God impressed upon him that he knew things my friend didn’t know, and that he wanted him to stay focused on things God knew he needed to stay focused on.  Today, more than 10 years later, when my friend preaches he follows a worship band made up of musicians who were mostly bus kids 10 years ago!

It is often hard to see the great thing that can be in the midst of our difficulty.  I’ll admit that too little prayer in my life sometimes seemed justified because of the many problems that needed solved in the life of our congregation.  But I’ve learned during those times to focus on grassroots greatness.  It helps remind me that God called me where I am because He sees something worth doing.

Maybe that’s what a certain Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball realized that caused him to visit a 17-year-old class member he was concerned about. It’s amazing that laying a hand on this young shoe store clerk named D.L. Moody and speaking with him about God’s love would lead to one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in the history of our country!

It’s even more amazing that D.L. Moody would lead J. Wilbur Chapman to Christ, who would lead Billy Sunday to Christ, who would lead Mordecai Ham to Christ, who would lead Billy Graham to Christ.  Maybe God really has called all of us unknowns serving at the grassroots level to great things in his kingdom!