Leading People To Be Real Christ Followers In Life...Together (1)

As many of you have probably picked up over the last week or so's worth of posts, I've started attending LifePoint Church in Ozark, MO. They are a Southern Baptist Church who is also a part of Acts 29. A strange combination in many respects but one that I think is working well.

Anyway, I wanted to blog about their mission statement. The more I'm around this church, the more I'm beginning to like. God is faithful and has done amazing things since my departure from Upward. REALLY cool stuff going on and more sharing about that in the upcoming months.

We'll take this one/few words at a time over the next days.

LEADING
Everything rises and falls on leadership and that is absolutely true. However, many people think that this means our human leadership. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Everything rises and falls on Jesus' leadership. If He is the head of the church, limitless potential exists. If He is not the head of the church, we labor only in our human frailty and all is in vein.

Lane Harrison, Lead Pastor, gets this. He is a man sold out to God and is as close to the real deal as I have come across in a while. He is honest, a man of character, forthright, loyal, open, transparent, vulnerable, confident, outspoken, but also a good listener.

The more I have gotten to know him, the more I begin to understand why LifePoint has been successful over the last three years and why it's future is very bright. He has his flaws, we all do, but he is a leader sold out to God first, his family second, his church next. He is passionate about developing leaders in his church and creating an ethos where leaders are identified, trained, matured, and empowered to carry on the ministry of the church.

He gets it. He's not afraid on confrontation. Conflict doesn't bother him. Truth and integrity matter. All delivered in a very pastoral way.

After spending time tonight with him in a community group, I am more convinced of his pastoral heart and his love for his people.

Everything will rise and fall on leadership. Is Jesus - the real Jesus - leading the leader of your organization? Or is your leader concerned more about image than substance, legalism than grace, his own glory rather than the glory of God? Is your leader sold out on the Bible? And does your leader know the Bible?

LifePoint's does. Not perfect. But real. And he embodies the first part of their mission statement: "Leading"