Just five days ago I ran the Las Vegas Half Marathon. It was a blast. But I have to admit, I have been BAD this week. You see, for about 6 months leading up to the race I ate right. I didn’t drink more than 2 sodas a week. I ran at least every other day, if not more. I exercised. I was careful how I ate. My life was all about my goal of finishing the race in under two hours.
I have been bad…because since the race was over, I have had TONS of soda and my diet overall has been terrible. I didn’t even exercise this week…until this morning. And this morning, I FELT IT. MAN I had a hard time! It has only been 5 days since I last ran…
And that sad part about me being lazy this week is that really my goal has nothing to do with the half marathon. Really my goal is to run a full marathon. The half marathon that I ran on Sunday should just be another step in my training for the real goal. It shouldn’t be such a big feat in my life that I stop for five full days to gloat on my accomplishment. I should have woke up on Monday morning and continued my training for the real goal.
Starting a new church is just like that. Let me explain:
When you first show up on the scene you are jazzed about your goal. You probably even have a fancy mission statement that you live and breathe…something like “to conquer the world for Christ.” And then you start experiencing some success. You see hearts being renewed, families with broken relationships being mended, and people giving their lives to Jesus. And it feels soooooo good to reach that goal.
But then you get satisfied a little bit. The goal has sort of been reached and now you can take it easy for a little while. So you stop exercising. You stop living in the mindset that you did before…the mindset that screams “HEY, people are going to HELL if I don’t DO SOMETHING about it.” And the vision slowly perishes.
That is exactly why we are so intentional, daily at The Connection Church about connecting with God, connecting with others, and making sure that others are also connecting with God. The fact is that people here in Kyle will live in an eternity apart from Christ if we don’t do something about it. Sure there are about 450 people coming to our services on Sundays already and that is pretty amazing in itself. But what about the other 30,000 plus people who live just in our immediate scope of ministry? Over 70% of those people do not currently attend a church. That means we have a LONG way to go.
God has been good at TCC. We have certainly see lives changed in crazy and incredible ways. But I want to make it EXTREMELY hard to get to hell from Kyle, Texas. So that means as a church we will continue to train and focus daily.
We’ll always focus on those who have never come yet. We’ll always pray for that neighbor whose eternity you aren’t sure about.
I can’t believe I was such a bum this week with my running. But I praise God that even as I ran this past Sunday morning, my mind was on the people in our area who haven’t heard about our God. WE WON’T STOP FOR NOTHING at TCC. What about you? Are you being intentional or just wandering along each day?
