This week, I was talking with pastor Steve Ayers, lead pastor of Hillvue Heights, our "mother" church. Pastor Steve's guidance and mentoring (along with all the other incredible pastors at Hillvue) have been invaluable to me as Highland Hills Church has navigated the sometimes turbulent waters of our first year. More often than not, my pastors/mentors/leaders pour some pretty amazing truths into me, and my conversation with Pastor Steve in this day was no different.
During the course of our conversation, he said something to me that resonated to my core. He told me that I need to see Highland Hills Church as a lost person would see it. Now, I realize how simple and common-sensical that sounds at first glance. Matter of fact, when he first said it, it didn't really stick out that much at all. However, as we hung up the phone the Holy Spirit kept bringing those words back to my mind, "See HHCC as a lost person would see it". I realized, perhaps for the first time, that I haven't done a very good job of that.
At all.
If any of you reading this are pastors, you know that Sunday mornings can be crazy hectic! As worship pastor AND preaching pastor of a fledgling church, Sunday mornings are doubly wild for me! Right, wrong, or indifferent, my mind is constantly running from one thing to the next. How am I going to transition to the main point of the sermon? Is my guitar in tune? Where is the drummer? How is the children's ministry today? Are we grippin' and grinnin' at the front door? Does everyone have a bulletin? Do we have enough 9-volt batteries? Are the bathrooms clean? What announcements need to be made? Is that a first-time visitor over there? Seriously, WHERE IS THE DRUMMER??
Like the ol' proverbial ton of bricks, I suddenly realized how unimportant ALL of that stuff would be to someone who may have stumbled through our doors, desperately seeking love and hope in a world that offers none. A drowning man could care less if he is rescued by an inflatable raft or a Carnival cruise ship!
Much like Hillvue, reaching the lost for Jesus will always define who we are at Highland Hills Church. And in order to reach the lost, we must be committed to seeing our church the way a lost person would. Lucky for me (and our church), we all know what it was like to be lost! And we know the single most important factor in connecting with Christ is experiencing His love. I have always found it interesting when the Pharisees asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, He didn't say "quote a bunch of scripture and judge your neighbor"; instead He told us to love God first, then love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And we all have neighbors that are lost. Its up to us to love them, and in doing so, see what they see, hear what they hear, and feel what they feel. It just might make an eternal difference!
Chad
