Yesterday I began blogging about several mistakes that Perry Noble, Pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC said he made while growing his church from 8 people to reaching thousands. He listed five key mistakes and yesterday I blogged about 3. Today I will finish with the last 2. Here they are.
Mistake #4: God would say something hard and he wouldn't say it. In other words, God would lay something on Perry's heart that he knew was right and that he knew needed to be said but he was hesitant in saying it. Believe me, I know how this feels. There have been numerous times over the last 7 years that God has dealt with me about specific issues, but because I was afraid of making someone mad or because I feared that someone would leave I did not say it. This is one of those mistakes I really regret. When God speaks into the heart and life of a spiritual leader, I believe He does it for a purpose. Most of the time His purpose is centered around wanting His leader to deliver a specific message at a specific time for a specific reason. When, as leaders, we abdicate that responsibility, not only does it disappoint God, it also takes away potential blessings. You see, God wants the very best for His people and while His message doesn't always provide the listener with a warm fuzzy feeling, what it will provide is a peace and assurance in their lives that only comes from being obedient. When God wants a leader to share a hard truth with a group of followers, not sharing it is one of the biggest mistakes we could make. I was glad to hear that such a great leader like Perry struggled with this too.
Mistake #5: I didn't preach on money. Now you would think that a church that has done as much as NewSpring in such a short amount of time would have heard money sermons out the wazoo. Not so. Perry said that he hardly ever preached about money when he first started. I can relate. I don't know what it is when it comes to money. I mean preachers will stand up and speak about almost any topic in the Bible with passion and fervor but when it comes to money we treat it like the plague. I have made that mistake but do not want to continue to make it. I want people to hear me say loud and clear that when it comes to money, God expects us to be generous. After all, He was generous enough to allow His Son to die an excruciating, humiliating death so that we could receive a gift we didn't earn and definitely don't deserve. Not only that, when we we give generously, the Bible makes it clear that we'll reap what we sow. Not talking about money is a mistake! Money needs to be talked about and I plan on talking about it more and more. And here is the bottom line. If that makes you mad or frustrated, it's probably because you're not giving.
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