Apprentice 2 Jesus

I was reading an interview with a pastor named Bob Roberts. A comment he made struck home with me, so here it is:

How did church planting become important to you?

Years ago, I was at a point of growing our church big. I was concerned about how fast we could get there. We relocated, and the church started going to pot; it was doing badly. I was embarrassed; I was humiliated. But I’d made a public commitment that I would stay at the church forever, because I heard Rick Warren say that! That’s a fun thing to say when things are going good. But when the church is going in the crapper, when you’ve got First Baptist of Israel in the middle of the desert, you want out of there. And I wanted out bad.

I was walking in a pasture behind my house one day. A pastor not far from me had had affairs with five women; he crashed and burned. Another guy north of me had a megachurch, but he was going to the pen for embezzlement. I told God, “God, I’ve got my pants on. I’ve got my hands out of the offering plate. You’ve got these guys over here doing all this stuff. Why aren’t you blessing me?”

All of a sudden this little question came to my mind: When will Jesus be enough for you? Sometimes, I think that’s when I became a Christian. I just began to weep, because I realized he wasn’t. I was miserable because of our attendance the day before. That’s wrong. I mean, if I’ve got the Holy Spirit, if I’ve got the Word of God, why can’t I be content? Why is my joy based on having to grow my church as big as Rick Warren’s or Bill Hybels’s?

So I began to think: What does it mean for Christ to be enough? From this point forward, instead of seeking to be the biggest church in the area, we decided we were going to church the area. That’s when we started planting churches.

When will Christ be enough for me?