Don’t you settle for comfortable!

Hello Pastor!

I pray that things are going well as you continue to settle in at your new assignment.  I am proud of you and believe in you.  For such a time as this God has sent you to serve the dear people He has put under you care.

Recently I had a pastor ask me what he could do to break through to a new attendance barrier.  That is a question that every pastor will have to face several times during his or her ministry.

What it takes to get to and maintain at one level is not what it will take to get to another level.  It takes different skills and different priorities at different levels of ministry.

Sadly many ministers settle for what is comfortable and they lose their edge.  When they do this everyone suffers.  They suffer by not being all that they could be for their Master, the people they are serving suffer by not having the very best leadership possible (which they deserve), and the “lost sheep” suffer because the plateaued pastor has settled into their comfort zone and has lost their passion to do whatever it takes to finish the Great Commission (which is what breaking through barriers is ultimately about).

Remember, faithfulness and fruitfulness go together.  Jesus is not just looking for servants who are faithful (you can be faithful at running a church into the ground); Jesus is looking for servants who are faithful at taking what he has given them and increasing it.

God has given you a wonderful opportunity.  Sure, there are others who appeared to have been given better opportunities and resources; that’s between them and their Master.  What matters is what you do with what Jesus has give you.

Don’t settle for status quo.  Don’t settle with having a enough people to have a good congregation to preach to and enough contributors to pay the bills.  No!  A thousand times no.  Run to win!  Press toward the high calling of God.  Break through every barrier and do whatever it takes to reach the next level of ministry and influence so that more sons and daughters will be born into the kingdom.

That is why God has given you your assignment.

Over the next the next few weeks I will give you a short list of things you will need to focus on to break attendance barriers.  But for now, be assured that you are in my prayers.  The stakes are high and the cause is just, and you are in the right place at the right time and God is with you.

Praying that you have a great Sunday this weekend,

dlkemp

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 “As long as God gives me breath, I expect to preach the gospel! While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor, lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God-I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”

_William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army