There are times when God moves.
I mean, He REALLY moves.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 was the date.
Over 140+ people gathered to talk from our 500+ congregation.
It was a Forefront Family moment.
They didn’t have to come.
They came because they cared.
And it meant the world to me, the staff, and our leadership.
We talked about some pretty difficult things. It was an honest discussion. And most churches don’t like to do these kinds of things. But I love to embrace the “faux pas.” We talked about finances. Discussed how Forefront reaches a ton of people far from God and how it’s the believers in our community who are to teach them, help them and continue to practice their spiritual disciplines in order to move the body forward.
The hard part was to discuss that before that meeting- I informed them we had not paid 5 of our staff people. Because the tithes and money collected was not enough to pay everyone. I brought to their attention that my wife texted me earlier that day, “I left the store in tears because we had no money to buy groceries and I had to put it on our credit card.” The room- silent. I told them about how our Children’s Mininstry Pastor came to me almost cringing because she needed $20 to buy pre-school supplies. Silence.
I used the word difficult earlier. It doesn’t even begin to describe it. But, as those things were mentioned, we watched what I can only compare to a Pentacost-type movement sweep through the room. We watched as a physical, emotional, and spiritual wave slowly moved over the room. It was clearly God’s Spirit at work.
As we opened the room up for Q&A (scary to think what might happen in a meeting like that, but we are family and it’s appropriate), it was great. The family began to repent, say the hard things, convict and hold accountable others, share stories, express their love and thanks for the staff. It was incredible. One thing that blew me away was the a comment made and the response from the entire room. Someone said, “Jason, we just want to say thank you to you and the staff for bringing this to our attention. We need to be reminded of the need and if we don’t know, we cannot take care of our church and our leaders we love.” The response… the loudest applause and confirming body language of the night. It brought me to tears.
It truly was a defining moment and talking about this even here probably isn’t considered the most “cool, hip, or exciting” thing to do. Forefront has been looked at since it’s launch as a model on how to do church planting and reach people who are far from God. It could “hurt our image” in many people’s eyes to know we struggle, hurt, and have times of trouble. I could care less about our rep’ in the church world for talking about things like this. Because our people are the best Christ-lovers I’ve ever seen.
They answered the call of God that night. They raised support, covered the pay checks of the staff, repented to their leaders for not doing what God has called them to do, and asked for accountability. They even heard the need for our staff to be poured into and heard we were going to cancel our trip to Catalyst Conference in ATL because we didn’t have the funds to pay for gas or a hotel… those funds came in too. Forefront Church rocks my socks off.
To all of you church leaders who might think it’s only cool to talk about missions, baptisms, and awesome new series and that people will run when you talk about finances- quit disobeying God and having a lack of faith in Him as a leader. God wants you to stand in Him. In the good times and bad, in Him.
Today is my one year anniversary as the Lead Pastor, Evangelist, Minister (whatever you would like to call me) of Forefront Church. We’ve seen a lot in this year, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Thank you God for making me the man I need to humbly be in You.
Jason *over and out*
(Forefront Family: The video link of the evening meeting will passed around through our Gel Groups with a password protected link. Since some details of family meetings stay within the family, we felt this was the best approach. So talk with your Gel Group Leader starting Monday for the info).
