What State or Stage are you In?
Hey Gang,
People and churches have a lot in common! We share many of the same stages or phases of life and even death. Let me give you three simple stages of life-to-death of a person or a church.
1. Risk-taker. This is early in the spiritual life or stages of a person or church. At this point we don’t have much and we are willing to let it ride. This is one of the reasons new Christ-followers, like new churches, grow faster than established ones. This leads us to our next state or stage of life.
2. Care-takers. This is the phase where we coast. We have some stuff and we are tired of risking so we take it easy and hedge our bets. People and churches both do this. At this point of life a person or church begins to speak of the past. Remember the good old days? They see nothing great in the future and refuse to push it or risk anything. This leads to stage number three and it is not a good one.
3. Under-taker. At this state or stage, death is close. It is too late to walk by faith or risk. It is time to wait for death. At this point Heaven is the only positive topic to talk about. This happens in a church as well as with the spiritual life of a person. This is a sad state spiritually. This is not about age or aging but one’s spiritual life in the Lord.
My question is, which stage are you in? Which stage is your Church? I know the Lord wants us to be at number one! Risk-taker, water-walker, Spirit-led…. Where are you? It is easy to get complacent and apathetic. It is a killer.
Love ya,
Pastor
3 Comments
I SO want to be a risk-taker. My personal life, I’m afraid, has become the care-taker stage. My kids are grown and gone, my job has settled down, my friends are all settled, and I find my relationship with my Father God is sometimes getting “settled” too. I want more, I want to be moved, I want to witness and feel His fire fall, I want to keep growing. Thank you for challenging me!
I agree! I so want to be the Risk-taker (but is it really a risk if we know the One who guarantees our success?) It’s just the not seeing the result beforehand that keeps me from taking that step and getting out of the boat. God help me to trust you with every area of my life and stop holding back. I so want to know what that looks like in the day-to-day of my life. I want to know that I’m hearing from you so that I can obey without hesitation!
Shalom
I am the Risk-taker. I’m glad there’s others within the body of the church who are Care-takers,and the Under-takers because someone has to slow me down when I’m to far out day dreaming and not letting God lead. We need those to manage what God is leading.