As I spoke to the students and potential church planters at Liberty University I was reminded of a tough lesson that I had learned from my own church planting journey.
Never Lose the Joy of One!
When we started Lifepoint we started it with the idea that if we only reached one person that it would be worth it. The truth is that by God’s Grace we have seen hundreds come to know Jesus in our 4 years! Somewhere along the journey I lost the joy of one. There was a short period where I was too focused on the bottom line rather than the people that the bottom line represented. Rather than getting excited about the 2 or 3 people that met Jesus I was bummed that there wasn’t 10.
It is easy to get drunk on the numbers. I am not an advocate that numbers don’t matter. I actually believe the opposite. I believe a church should count the numbers. I believe God is about the numbers. Jesus tells a story about how a shepherd noticed that one of his sheep was missing. The only way he knew that was by counting the numbers. It’s okay to count the numbers, just don’t worship them.
I got the joy back! I repented to God for making this thing about me! I began to celebrate every single person that was meeting Jesus. I got a perspective check by realizing that if Heaven rejoices over one person who turns to God that I should as well. One matters. They always have and always will. Lifepoint will be a church that never loses the joy of ONE!