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Last night, I was sharing with our staff some of the things I have been wrestling with the last week or so. Last week while I was sitting at the UNLEASH Conference – I felt like God just kept whispering the word urgency in my ear all day long. I have had several sleepless nights and several early quiet mornings just hashing out what God has been trying to tell me. As I said above – this is something I have been wrestling with – asking a lot of questions about myself, my leadership, our staff, and this church.

With that being said, I have come to one conclusion [nothing earth shattering for most of you] – the church, in general, has become overwhelmingly lackadaisical or extremely lazy – however you choose to word it!! I think pastors, church planters, and church staff’s are the most guilty of this [I won't even begin to talk about those that attend church - that's a completely different conversation for another time]. I think we, as in the pastor, church planter or staff, work hard to get the church built. We put in processes and strategies to reach people, then once we begin to see some people coming – we click on the cruise control and begin to coast. This is why you see so many churches explode out of the gates to only plateau and eventually begin to decline – and by decline I don’t just mean numerically – I mean decline with their passion to reach the lost – decline with their momentum – decline with their energy, creativity, and innovation – decline with their urgency to see to it that the vision God has given them has been brought to fruition.

In the early days – time was of the essence – you were always deliberate to make sure every minute was used wisely – you never shut it off. Your mind was always racing and thinking of how we can get to the next level – how can we reach more people – what isn’t working – what can we get better at? You see this transition in a lot of church plants after the first few years. You get some people – you get some money – everyone is full-time – you get comfortable and you flat-out get LAZY and you lose your sense of URGENCY!! Your mindset changes from what can we do to reach more people – to what can we do to make sure the ones we have are happy – they stay happy – and what can we do to make sure they keep giving to pay my salary!

Now, you find yourself excusing everything away – you begin excusing your downfalls, leadership mistakes – staffing issues, lack of vision, because all you see is your minor successes! You have lost your edge – you have lost “the eye of the tiger” – you have lost your urgency!! I believe Perry Noble and Steven Furtick are doing the best job in the country of defending this type of mentality from creeping into their churches or in the heads of their staff!  That’s why I love learning from these guys!!

I talk to church planters and pastors every week – I hear so many guys tell me – without me even asking why things have become less urgent in their churches. They tell me that they are waiting to implement the new vision?- they are waiting until the fall or the new year or the next big holiday – then they are going to kick it into another gear. I hear guys tell me that they are waiting for their people to begin giving more money – they are waiting for their building to get built – they are waiting for more staff and more volunteers!

NO – you have simply lost your sense of URGENCY – because tomorrow depends on today! What are you doing today – to see to it that tomorrow is better than today!! Because when you were starting that church – you didn’t have any of the things above and yet you still figured it out – you still got it done – you didn’t let anyone or anything hold you back – now you are sitting in your office – looking around – thinking you have arrived and that you are “doing it” while there are still thousands of people in your communities and mine that do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ!!

Maybe your vision isn’t as big as ours – I always laugh when I hear that statement – I thought the vision for starting a church was to reach people that were far from God? – however you choose to word your vision – I hope the goal of starting your church was to reach the lost, the hurting, the confused, the doubter, the seeker – we have plenty of daycare centers in our country – I pray you didn’t start a church to babysit! Anyways, if God has given you a passion to reach lost people – then you should NEVER be content. It should never be enough – there is always more people to reach – there is always a new method or a new idea to reach more people – the excuses just aren’t good enough – where is your urgency?

I believe we have become way too comfortable – way too relaxed – I believe too many church staff’s think they have job security just because they work for a church. I am not saying that we need to work 80 hrs. a week, neglect our families, and work our staff into the ground. I do think that we need to be accountable for every minute we have – I do think we need to be disciplined with how we live our life and what we do with our time. I do think we need to act with a sense of urgency.

For us church planters and pastors, we are building a foundation [1 Corinthians 3:9-11], we are building the DNA of this church – hopefully God is that foundation and the question is what are we building on it? Are we building a sense of laziness, a lackadaisical attitude, a sense that we will get it done tomorrow – pushing everything off or are we building a foundation of urgency? Paul says, in 1 Timothy 4:10, that for this we labor and strive - those two words don’t define laziness – there is a sense of urgency that defines the laborer [Read John 9:4 as well]!

Luke 10:2 – talks about the harvest being plentiful, but the workers are few. I honestly don’t believe this verse just means we need more Christ-followers. When you talk about harvesters you are literally talking about people of urgency – people who rise early and work in the fields until sundown, people that are trying to harvest the crop because they realize their life depends on it – it’s a lifestyle – a way of life! They work without excuses because they realize that night is only hours away and so much has to be done today – they realize that winter is just around the corner and the crop has to be harvested before then – they work with urgency!

I honestly believe the workers are missing in so many churches today and too often it stems down from those sitting behind the desks and calling the shots. What are you striving and laboring to see happen in your lifetime? What has God called you to do through your church? What vision has God given you for changing your community? What has God called you to with your life – in your family – with your spouse? Be urgent about it – see to it that it happens – stop waiting and start acting – NOW!! Tomorrow is coming and what have you done today – to see to it – that tomorrow is better than today?

I think there is so much more to be said about this – I honestly believe if Pine Ridge Church becomes a place of urgency – I believe we will not only turn this city upside down, but we have a chance to change the world!