Honor The Past, Pursue The Fututre

In 1993 I found myself facing a different challenge after almost 20 years of ministry, mostly church planting. The Lord had led me to return to my home town and become pastor of my home church. I had never pastored a church I didn't start. I would be taking the helm of a church that was 85 years old! I was used to being the pioneer, recruiting the young zealots and leading the charge to "take this city for God"! Now I would be working with a group of people who had no youth group, no children's ministry and mostly older people. I believe the call to go there was because the Lord needed some "foundational work" done there in an effort to revive the weakening congregation.



I had some understanding of moving to a city, not knowing anyone, or very few, and casting a vision for birthing something new. I had never spoken against another church, but there was the unspoken implication that if the other churches were doing the job, we wouldn't need to plant a new church. Now I would be the old, "other church"! I didn't know what to do. I was out of my comfort zone. I have met Pastors who have said to me, "it would scare me to death to move to a new place and start a new church". I thought, "it would scare me to death to take a church with all it's weaknesses and negative traditions and try to do something new with that"! However, I was now the pastor of a church that had been considered by some, a dying chruch. There had to be change! There had to be a new direction that would seem attrative enough to young people who had the energy to come help us in this resurrection. (I had always said that I like church planting over taking over an existing church because I felt it easier to birth something new, than to raise the dead.)

Herein lies the tension, while I was having to seek to reach a new generation, I still had to be the pastor of an older generation who had been faithful for years and who had paid a great price to give us our launch pad.

As I sought the Lord, I heard very clearly, "Honor the past, pursue the future"! That was it! While I had a burden and vision for the future and a new generation, I had to honor those upon whose shoulders we would stand to build the future. Here is a warning for all new generation, movers and shakers. Be very, very careful how you handle your spiritual fathers and those who have paved the way for you. It would be very easy to believe that because God has given you a vision that you are free from honoring the past. Not true! God is a generational God. One of Absalom's mistakes was his despising his Father and feeling justified in bypassing him to build his own kingdom. It cost him his life.



I am not saying that we should be shackled to the past or in bondage to men. I am saying that we need to be careful in honoring our past and seeking to remain connected when possible in order to have an exponential increase of Kingdom influence.