This is going to sound completely self-centred, but given what I know about myself, and my own struggles with confidence, last night’s one-year anniversary at Community of Hope was incredibly special and meaningful to me for a number of reasons. Let me tell you about it.
- We had our Awana leadership walkthrough before the Vision meeting. I had almost the entire staff out there, including the new team members who have been signing up to work with us! So I took everyone on a guided tour through all the spaces, and then let the teams look at them and discuss setups and how they can move forward. Just being in such a leadership position was something that I never could envision myself doing, but there I was.
- I was approached by someone completely unexpected to wash my feet. A young man, Colin, who play electric guitar on worship team, approached me. As far as I knew the extent of our relationship was the church and the fact that I tried to recruit him into Awana leadership, but he turned me down. When we got to work, he told me that he deeply admired me because of my attitude at church. He said whenever he came to church in a miserable mood, he would see me circulating, or doing something, or talking to someone with a big grin on my face. That, or he’d hear me laugh somewhere – I’ve got a pretty loud laugh. It was enough to break him out of whatever funk he’d be in, and say to himself, “If he can do it, so can I.” But he didn’t stop with just me. After we finished, Pastor Phil had kind of an open time for people to “out” men who had affected them or served them, and Colin stood up and told everyone what he just told me! I was quite taken by the honour he showed me, as it seemed to unexpected and genuine.
- Once that time of kind of “public outings” we called it was finished, a man who recently joined our church, Ed, approached me privately. I have seen such a willingness to stretch himself in the service of God in him, as he has joined Awana as a leader. He’s needed rides to get to various events for Awana, and I have picked him up more times than not. He just told me to my face how much he appreciated that about me, and how glad he is that he is coming to our church. Then he gave me a hug.
- Later, after the dinner, Pastor Phil asked people to come up and share how they had changed. Of course, I had to spoil things and come up and take a quick pot-shot at him (heh, “I learned, if Phil can plant a church, ANYONE can plant a church!” laughter ensued…) but what really caused me excitement was watching my wife stand up and say some really important things to everyone about God’s work in our church. She is so good in front of people! Incredible even. What a gift God has given me for a partner in life and ministry!
- Finally, during our table communion time, I found myself waiting for someone else to pray over the elements and distribute them. Nobody was doing it so I finally stepped in. But then, once we were done, Sue from the table behind us tapped on my shoulder and said, “Nobody at our table knows how to pray over the bread and grape juice!” She wanted me to pray for them. I went over there and prayed with them, and felt strongly at that moment how much of a leader I have become here at Community of Hope.
Without even realizing it, God has been positioning me. He’s brought me to where I am, almost unrecognized, to show me a picture of what I could be and will be if I only let him lead me there. I am really blown away by how far he has brought me. I never thought for a second last night was what was in store for me – I was just looking forward to the food (I LOOOVE potlucks!)
Phil said in his opening devotional that he had planned to do some commissioning of leaders last night. Things went a little longer than he wanted, so he never got to it, but this morning, I defnitely feel like God did some commissioning regardless of how much we had time for. Last night made me intensely aware that God is doing something with me, and he is doing it a whole lot faster and in ways that I may not even be noticing.
Then again, this isn’t the first time he’s done this to me. You’d think I’d start to expect it after a while.
Tags: awana, blessing, commissioning, community of hope, leadership, pot luck, servant leadership, wife
