The Great Temptation

Now that I am moving to a position that is paid through fundraising, I find myself tempted to make decisions to please others (and raise funds) rather than do what I would normally do.

The major one is on deciding what church to attend in Oxford. When we visited, I really connected with the church we visited. I spent a year visiting churches three years ago. I know what it is like to experience a church for the first time. I know what I am looking for in a church. When I was hunting for a community to become a part of, none of the churches seem to have more than a few of the points I was looking for. I am conscious that I am overly critical, but this church hit the spot. It's the church I was praying to find three years ago. It just happened to be three hours away.

One of the key goals in my campus ministry will be to train the students how to function in a church, whether that is a house church or a traditional church is not important, but being part of a church outside of the campus ministry is an important element of discipling. In four years, they will be out of college. Having had a good time in campus ministry will have helped them remain faithful in college, but it will not have laid the foundation of life in a church body that will be essential for the rest of their lives. I do not want to ignore that.

Because this church is nondenominational and not Church of Christ/Christian Church, I began to wonder whether deciding to go there would hurt my fundraising. I came to the conclusion that the question of whether it will be good for fundraising or not should not influence the decision of where we go to church. Despite the fact that I will have tons of fellowship and interaction with other believers through the campus ministry, my family will not. The church needs to be an extension of my training up my children into who God wants them to be and it should exemplify what God wants his church to be. I want my children to follow Christ with all of their being and to believe that the body assembled is important to the world. Many people think that the church is irrelevant; that is the result of many churches being irrelevant. I want my kids to see God's glory shining through His collected people. A healthy church helps in doing that.

Combining my desire to introduce students to a healthy church environment and my responsibility to raise my family in the Lord, I am left with deciding that I will do what the Lord wants rather than to please potential partners who need to believe in me and my ministry.

This is the biggest example of this temptation in my life, but it is cropping up all the time. I have decided to take the stubborn road of just doing what I think is best in regards to my ministry and my life rather than doing what I think will make me most appealing to others for raising money. It does become somewhat more difficult in that fundraising is part of my ministry. The partners I find through fundraising are people I want to diligently pray for and minister to if they need it. I will not be able to do the ministry without them. But I need to just focus on God and what he wants of me. If I do something to please men rather than God, I begin to place my trust in men and my witty wisdom. If I follow Him, He will provide.

It's not about pleasing myself or others; it's about pleasing God.

Rich Mullins wrote in his song, My One Thing:

Save me from those things that might distract me
Please take them away and purify my heart
I don't want to lose the eternal for the things that are passing
'Cause what will I have when the world is gone
If it isn't for the love that goes on and on with
My one thing
You're my one thing
And the pure in heart shall see God