A few weeks ago during our morning worship I shared with the church some things that God has been saying to me about Grace Church. In this article I wanted to revisit what I shared so those of you who were not there would know what God is speaking to me, but also as a reminder for the rest of us.
One of the words that God uses to describe the position of the pastor is shepherd. The shepherd is very important in the life and health of the sheep. The shepherd is responsible for leading the sheep to correct understanding of scripture, deeper spiritual vitality, and service. As a shepherd my responsibility is to lead you to this end, and along the way when necessary point out where we are missing the mark. I have found, in my twenty plus years of pastoral ministry, there are four common areas where problems arise. One, pastors are unable or unwilling to hear from God and therefore they are unable to lead the church accordingly. Two, Pastors hear from God but are unwilling to take the risk necessary to lead the church. Three, the people of the church have a wrong understanding of the role of the pastor (they believe the pastor works for them). Four, the people are unwilling to trust what God is saying and thus to follow Him.
I confess to you that I have been guilty of not taking the risk to lead the church. When I became your pastor over three years ago I knew that God was saying that Grace was ready to move into a deeper place spiritually. The time has come for us to dive in!
I believe that God is asking us to seek Him for deeper spiritual discernment. My prayer for us is that God would open our spiritual eyes that we may see, and our spiritual ears that we may hear. Several occasions those who followed Jesus missed what the Spirit of God was doing simply because they were not spiritually discerning. I believe God is calling us to be spiritually discerning so we do not miss what the Spirit is saying and doing in our city. The number one hindrance to spiritual discernment is carnality. Carnality is best described as seeking self over God. There is more that I would like to share with you on this subject but now is not the time.
I believe that God is calling us to be a church of prayer. We are returning to placing an emphasis on prayer at Grace Church. Without exception through out history when God moved in powerful ways He did so because His people were committed to prayer. If we are to be described by the miraculous then we must pray. What I believe God wants to do through Grace is to see people who are broken, downtrodden, addicted and sick find hope and healing in Jesus. In order to deepen our prayer lives at Grace God is leading us to be apart of two things this spring. The first is 40 days of prayer to seek God for our city. This church wide concerted effort in prayer will begin Feb 16 and continue till Easter Sunday. The second is Find Out Moore. This will be prayer walking your neighborhood doing prayer evangelism.
Prayer will return as being a central part of our worship services. My vision is not limited to placing a specific prayer time back into the order of service. My vision includes that individuals will be prayed over during our worship time. I believe that what God wants to do during this prayer time is to demonstrate His miraculous power.
I am excited about what God is calling us to do.
Pastor Tracy
