GlocalNet

Yesterday a friend tweeted me that I was in the top 200 Christian blogs in the world!  I asked him if I was #200!  I was 189 - since when did being the top 189 mean anything!!!!  But it was nice, I don’t blog consistently enough or honestly have enough time to blog like I’d like to.  I enjoy blogging - even more than writing books.  You write about what has just happened or what you’re learning in real-time or what you are passionate about.  Someone showed me the list - they even had my name wrong, called me by my brother’s name, Mark! - it led to other lists - top this church and that church - and to my surprise our church was on some of those lists. 

The same day I won my #189 rank - woo hoooo!!!!! - was the same day I was with 75 US church planters and 13 global pastors.  These global pastors started their churches that have grown by literally tens of thousands - some hundreds of thousands - they represent 25,000 churches that have evolved from those 13 initial churches and over 3 million believers.  Some of these men have been beaten within an inch of their life and imprisoned - some have lost friends.  They are in very difficult places in the world.  Most of them didn’t start out as pastors but as everything from bankers, doctors, police chiefs and professors and lots of other jobs – and they wound up accepting Christ - and then were called into ministry and wound up starting churches.  Now that’s a stat that’s pretty incredible.  How does God rank things?  I read how things were ranked on the largest churches, the most this and that, etc. Here’s how we might read in eternity God’s rank.

1.  The “being like a little child rank” - you know the story - Jesus said unless you become like a little child you will not enter the kingdom.  The idea is simplicity of life and faith.

2.  The “humble himself” rank - last night Kirk Freeman, a church planter who went to San Antonio and has done a fantastic job said “God wants humility more than anything else in leaders.”  When I look at these global pastors - they are the most humble and unassuming men you would ever meet.  Most pastors don’t realize who they are.  They make no lists here in the states - but frankly have done more to reach their nations and surrounding nations than any American pastor I know.

3.  The “servant of all” rank.  Last night we had a prayer time for our church planters.  We have a current cohort of church planters going through the teachings, and we also invited every church planter that has ever been involved in NorthWood - over half of them have come and it’s been a blast.  But instead of the “sermon” taking center stage - I had the global pastors line the front of the room, and told the young pastors whoever wants; these men will lay hands on you and pray for you.  It took a good while but man was it worth it.  To see those pastors pouring themselves into young guys was very moving.

4.  The “PRAYER” rank.  One of the men said last night what has set the global church apart is that the pastors and people know the power of prayer. They don’t mind praying all night long and waiting on God.  Prayer is not a duty, an obligation, a ritual - but a power source that must be tapped into that unites us with God in such a way that his power flows.

5.  The “abandonment” rank.  Jesus said unless a man denies himself daily and takes up his cross - he cannot follow him.  I looked at some of the church planters last night that I’ve known over the years - and the sacrifices they have made to start churches, to move to other cities, to take second jobs, is incredible. 

You might be a young pastor or a pastor who’s been at it a long time that no one knows - rest assured - God knows.  One thing I’m convinced of, there is too much religious fame and fortune in the Western world - until that dies - we will not see the same kinds of moves of God like we are seeing around the world.

NEVER FORGET - GOD IS NUMBER 1