It was an honor this morning to be with some new friends at the Evangelical Christian Credit Union, who invited me to address a group of Christian leaders gathering for an early morning breakfast. It was great to meet Jac La Tour, Mark Johnson and many others. What an awesome group of banking professionals. Their heart for Christ and for ministry was so obvious. It takes a Kingdom mentality to invite someone who is not currently a member of your Credit Union to address your Credit Union-sponsored event. They have a Kingdom perspective! If you are looking for a banking solution, I would recommend you contact them.
They had asked me to take 20 minutes or so to share with the group how our approach to ministry and leadership at Fairhaven Church has changed in the midst of the recession. Hmmm... an interesting question. After several weeks to reflect and pray about that, here is what I came up with:
Just a couple of weeks ago, I finished teaching an undergraduate class on business leadership, which was 90% theory, which actually was a good thing. Because with all that is happening in our society right now, I’m not sure I really wanted to be too practical.
If you read the papers, follow the news, or surf the internet, you’re bound to come to the same conclusion as I have: these are very challenging and difficult times in which to be a leader. I wouldn’t trade places with President Obama for anything in the world. The country is in recession. People have lost jobs, wealth and homes. The future is uncertain, the world seems as dangerous as ever, and those we look to in government - experts, and economists- offer no real consensus on what to do.
In the middle of this chaos, we as Christian leaders are trying to lead our churches, parachurch organizations, and Christian businesses.
I’ve served at Fairhaven Church as an Executive Pastor for almost seven years now and in that time God has shown us unusual favor. He has blessed us in so many ways. We have great leadership in place with our pastor and Board. We’ve grown by probably 40% in the last few years. Even in the midst of the recession, our giving has exceeded our expectations. Our ministries are growing and there is an excitement in our organization that is palpable. We’re expanding our campus through an $8 million building project and rather than fulfilling the horror stories I heard from so many other pastors about building programs, this project has infused our church family with enthusiasm. So from an organizational perspective, we are really experiencing the grace and the favor of God.
But in spite of the great things going on in our church—in our organization, there are still lots of hurting people around us and among us: Moms and Dads who’ve lost their jobs, folks in the financial sector whose livelihood has been pulled out from under them, people in our neighborhoods who have been forced for the first time ever to come to our church and ask for help... to read the rest of the talk: Download Talk - ECCU beakfast