change

Last Sunday we started a new weekend sermon series called NewPointe (it's the name of our new church). It's about transition/change. Dwight, our senior pastor, did an outstanding job laying the groundwork for where we're headed. He motivated us, challenged us, and even ticked us off a little bit--all good things if you ask me.

As I've been contemplating what this all means for me, I happened to listen to the Catalyst Podcast today. They had an interview with Rick Warren. Rick had some amazing truths to share so I hit the pause button, opened up a Word document, and began typing as I listened. I wanted to get some of this in writing so I could share it with some of my friends (like you).

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

It’s interesting…a lot of people think of me as a visionary. I don’t really know that I am as much as I have a lot of faith. I really do trust God and I think that’s my strongest strength is that I can teach guys how to trust God. I have what I call ‘Polaroid vision’ and that is, when I first started dreaming, I couldn’t actually imagine how it would turn out, I just had a set of values that I believe in. The value that people are looking for meaning in life. That fundamentally that doesn’t change. And one of the things that I’ve discovered is that as a leader, we often are looking at what’s changing, and, of course, the world changes every minute—it literally changes every minute, so if you’re going to build a ministry, you have to build it on what doesn’t change.

A leader often takes the exact opposite approach of what everybody else is thinking, for instance, we’re thinking like right now, “How will the world be different in the year 2020?” Or, “How will it be different in 2030?” And I, on the other hand, am going, “Let me tell you what won’t change by the year 2030. What I know won’t change."

See, you can’t predict the future…nobody predicted 9-11, if they think that they know the future, they really don’t, that’s why don’t really believe in long-range planning. But what I do know is that human nature doesn’t change. And I know that in 2030 people will still be lonely. I know that in 2030 people will still have guilt, they’ll still have fear, they’ll still have resentment. I know they’re still going to be trying to make their marriages work. I know that they’ll be looking for a cause greater than themselves to give themselves to. I know that they’ll be dealing with doubt, with anxiety, with worry…And so when you build your church on first ‘what doesn’t change about God,’ and second on ‘what doesn’t change about human behavior…I know that in 2030 people are still going to be wanting authentic relationships. And so, to me, I don’t try to figure out the future and when I was 25 I wasn’t even trying to figure it out. I was just saying, “What do I know won’t change?” And those things are still true today. What changes is the way that we communicate to people. That changes, as I said, almost by the minute.

The part that sticks with me is what he had to say about building a ministry...you know, that we should build it on what doesn't change. Good stuff.