Considering the Past
I spent the past four weeks talking about four principles or thoughts I had prior to becoming pastor of GraceLife Church.1You can see these sermons and transcripts at the following links: #1, #2, #3, and #4. I’ve now celebrated four years as pastor and am moving into the fifth year. This sermon is a bonus thought—a thought toward the future, but also in consideration of where we’ve been, not just in the past fours years but since the beginning of this church.
Let’s consider a few important dates (years) in the history of GraceLife Church:
- 1903: A.L. Stough founded the church2Alfred Lewis Stough organized the church because there was no Baptist church in Pineville at the time. There was one in the nearby town of Flint Hill, but in 1903 people didn’t crank up their automobiles to drive such a distance (churches were more consolidated back then).
- 1950: New sanctuary opened (now the youth house)
- 1963: Adult education wings opened
- 1974: Second (current) sanctuary opened
- 1990: Children’s wing opened
- 2008: Gathering Center opened
- 2014: Stough Memorial Baptist Church was renamed GraceLife Church
- 2018: “Grow with Us” campaign (raising funds for a new building, to be an elementary school)
- 2020: COVID-19 and pastoral search
All of the above endeavors were undertaken with certain elements of the future in mind. There was a pursuit of something—for example, an improved place of fellowship or greater capacity for numeric growth (with the building of a new sanctuary).
For the year 1903, we know what some of the pursuit was, because we have evidence from the Biblical Recorder newspaper. The church’s founder, A.L. Stough, had subscribed for his 55th renewal to the newspaper, and he wrote in to the paper saying:
At the close of an interesting series of meetings last month, the First Baptist church3Besides First Baptist, the church was later also referred to as Pineville Baptist Church and then Stough Memorial Baptist Church before it was renamed GraceLife Church. Thus, it has had at least four names. was organized with 29 members; at the same time or at the close of the organization, seven were received for baptism. We now have a membership of forty. More [are] ready for baptism. We expect a goodly number to unite with us by letter.4This language (sometimes still used today) refers to documentation when transferring your membership from one church to another. We occasionally get such letters at the church office saying that so-and-so has moved and is now at another church.) I have been preaching here less than one year under the appointment of the North Carolina State Board. The presbytery5I.e., the group of elders or preachers at the church. Apparently, several ordained ministers were part of the small congregation, and although he was the founding pastor, Stough didn’t do the majority of the preaching. consisted of Rev. J. W. Little, M. W. Gordon, and the writer [Stough]. Bro. J. W. Little did the balance of the preaching.6It is unclear whether J. W. Little continued to do the balance of the preaching or whether Stough is referring to only the meetings of the past month. He preaches from all of his heart and soul. He fights the evils of the times. He fires red-hot shot[s] right and left. Such preaching should, and in a great measure, does insure success. Up to the first of the present year, the Baptists had no house of worship and no church organization in Pineville, N.C. About ten months ago the writer [Stough] started with a subscription of one dollar to build a house of worship; without an agent to collect funds and without a treasurer or building committee. We need money to plaster and paint the house. How many of my North Carolina friends will send me one dollar? This is my first appeal for money through a newspaper during my fifty-five years of preaching. During all of this time I was [a] pastor of some church.7“News Notes,” Biblical Recorder, October 28, 1903, 4.
So, when Stough founded this church in 1903, there was no building. Stough purchased a building from Harrison United Methodist Church, which is down the road from GraceLife (I’m not sure if Harrison UMC was in its current location back then); they put the building on logs and rolled it into Pineville. But it still needed to be plastered and painted, so Stough was asking people to give a dollar to contribute to that work.
Of interest, the Dover Yarn Mill was already established in Pineville in 1903. According to some newspaper articles in 1902, the mill had 200 employees. So I imagine that part of Stough’s goals/vision/desire was for the church’s existing 29–40 members to bring in others from the area. If most of the 40 worked at the mill, that would have left at least 160 prospects somewhere in the town.8There were, of course, many agricultural workers in Pineville at the time, but “Dover Yarn Mills was the town’s key industry and primary builder and employer.” See “Pineville Mill Village Historic District,” North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (National Register of Historic Places), August 8, 2011, 27, https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/MK1252.pdf.
A lot of history happened between 1903 and 1950. Although it was a significant period in the church, we don’t know a lot about it. The next pastor after Stough was probably J.L. Bennett. In 1907 there’s a report again in the Biblical Recorder, and he mentions J. Bennett pastoring five churches. One of those was Pineville Baptist Church. I’m fairly sure at that time he was also pastoring Flint Hill Baptist and the Baptist church in Pleasant Valley (which I think is the Indian Land, SC, area). That likely meant 10 sermons a year if you’re rotating between churches (circuit pastoring).9Pastors today, especially with YouTube and recorded sermons and such, it’s one and done—everyone’s seen it already, so you have to come up with something new when you go to a different church. That was a different day, though.
Here’s what Bennett wrote about this church in Pineville in 1907:
I held a meeting of seven days at Pineville, N. C, the third Sunday in July … This church is weak, having been organized only about five years, by our much esteemed and aged brother, A. L,. Stough, who lives in Pineville. The outlook is good there.10J.L. Bennett, “Five Good Meetings,” Biblical Recorder, September 25, 1907 (News of the Week), 13.
Think about these words: “The church is weak … The outlook is good.” How can he say such a thing?
God’s Desires Trumps Man’s Plans
Proverbs 16 says:
The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps. (v. 9)
My guess is, in 1903 and 1907, the verse before that gave some comfort as well:
Better is a little with righteousness
Than great income with injustice. (Proverbs 16:8)
The church is weak. The outlook is good.
Now look at Proverbs 27:
Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth. (v. 1)
We make plans, we have visions, we have things that we want for the future. But ultimately, it’s the Lord who directs our steps. And we’re not to boast about tomorrow because we don’t know what it’s going to bring. But in taking those ideas, the foolish response would be to do nothing, to expect nothing, and to hope for nothing. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so I guess I’ll do nothing, expect nothing, and hope for nothing. No. That attitude looks more like faithlessness than faithfulness.
The plans of man being thwarted—even thwarted by God—has always been the history of the world and His people:
- We thought we were going to do something; God did something else; or
- We thought God was going to do something; He did something else
That’s always been the history of the church. If you’ve studied the book of Acts, you’ve seen the pattern—and it’s familiar, because we think this way too: We think we know the people and the places and the prosperity in which God will do His “greatest work.” And it is often not the case.
The plans of man being thwarted—even thwarted by God—has always been the history of the world and His people.
Think about the places in Acts:
- They thought the kingdom was coming to Israel; it came instead to Rome.11 See Acts 1:8 (as explained in past sermons, “the remotest part of the earth” is a reference to the city of Rome).
- They thought the center of religious life would be Jerusalem; instead it was Antioch (that’s where the church was strongest).
Think about the people in Acts:
- There’s a lot of promise in that young man named Stephen. He’ll be a force for the church for years, many probably thought at the time. And he was, if he died.12His full story can be found in Acts 6:8–7:60.
- It seemed the leader of the church would be Peter; instead it was Paul—a murderer, a terrorist (before his conversion).
We think we know about places and people. We also think we know what prosperity from the Lord looks like. Let’s consider prosperity in the book of Acts.
The apostle Paul was successful in the Christian life. But here’s what his prosperity looked like: “… the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me” (Acts 20:23). Paul had a “Holy Spirit testimony”—but Jesus’s calling on his life was this: “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).
If you read through the book of Acts and his letters, you’ll see that Paul constantly thought he was going to minister in one place, but then either through the working of Satan or the working of the Spirit, he found himself somewhere else. He was doing his best, and then you have people like those in Corinth saying, “Paul, you said you were going to be here—can we even trust anything you say anymore?”13See 1 Corinthians 16:5–7 compared with 2 Corinthians 1–2.
My Plans
Over the past four sermons, I’ve shared some thoughts on pastoring a free grace church in general. Now let me share some of my plans—the plans I had heading into pastoring GraceLife Church specifically. There’s nothing outlandish here. They probably would have applied anywhere else that I was pastoring. But since it’s my first pastorate, these were some things I needed to think through.
3 Areas of Focus
Here are the first three things that I saw to be areas of focus:
- Sunday morning preaching. It’s hard to be a pastor and have that not be an area of focus, although our founding pastor, A.L. Sough, seemed to have a different philosophy. More about that in a moment.
- A pastor’s study. I didn’t want a pastor’s office. I wanted a pastor’s study.
- Staff growth. I wanted to grow a staff capable of ministering in other areas. Like Stough in 1903 and probably others along the way—including whoever was in charge of the new sanctuary in 1950 and the “Grow with Us” campaign in 2018—the idea is that you grow a staff that can minister to—and prepare to be—a larger church.
None of the above things should surprise because they tie in to what our church bylaws say a pastor should be. Not that we get our direction from the bylaws, but the idea is based on Scripture. Here’s an excerpt from our bylaws:
The Lead Pastor’s time is to be given to his primary function as a teaching and equipping Pastor. Though the Lead Pastor can and will share in other functions of the Pastors (i.e., administration, counseling, visitation, etc.), his primary use of both time and energy is to be devoted to the Word of God. Therefore, we see the need for a plurality of Pastors and Elders with complementary gifts that together undertake all the various areas and aspects of the ministry.
Ministry Targets
Next, here are some specific ideas or targets that I had for ministry at GraceLife. (I didn’t put timelines on these things.) All of these flow from the previous three areas of focus I mentioned.
Youth Ministry
GraceLife has a specific focus on youth ministry, and when I became pastor we had people in place who were directors of our youth. So the question was, what does a successful youth ministry look like? My objectives involved thinking in terms of what grade students were in and where they’re headed. They could tackle the following topics/ideas at each grade level:
6th grade: Identity and the gospel
7th grade: Truth and Scripture
8th grade: Ethics and friends
9th grade: Culture and apologetics
10th grade: Old Testament and New Testament
11th grade: Systematic theology
12th grade: Service and life prep
Most of the above is unachieved, though we have been working in these areas. Even if we had hit the ground running in 2020, though, that’s a plan for seven ages/stages, and such a plan takes time to implement.
Whole Church
Let’s think about the church as a whole. The content of teaching isn’t that different for youth than it is for the adults. The youth are quite capable.14I speak from experience since I teach the youth Bible Fellowship on Sunday mornings (after the sermon). The pace and some of the goals are just different (because I’m helping them think through the process, not just giving an information dump).
The above goals for 7th through 12th grades were also good goals for adults. The idea is that adults would be able to effectively minister in the church because they knew their identity in the gospel, and they knew the truth. Knowing what truth is, they recognize it in the Scripture, and having a foundation of Scripture, they can then begin to talk about right and wrong (i.e., ethics), and then choose friends on that basis. Then, as their friends expand and they come to know people who aren’t their friends, they’re engaging the culture, and if they’re going to engage the culture, they’re going to have to be able to defend their faith (with something we call apologetics), but with that confidence, hopefully it drives them further back into the Bible. They become students of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and with a biblical foundation, you begin to build a systematic theology. Then you can serve and prepare for whatever life brings next.
Someone may argue that this isn’t the best order, and I’m open to that. Also, these goals or targets for ministry require certain systems in place that we don’t have yet at GraceLife. Still, these are good goals, and as pastor, my role is to step back and ask, “How much of this is the youth getting? How much of it are we adults getting?”
At the least, I’ve tried to tie in these topics (identity, gospel, truth, etc.) within sermons, and Bible Fellowship15The time immediately after the sermon in which people break up into groups primarily to discuss the sermon (and its application). was built so we could begin to think through some of these things together in another context besides listening to a sermon.
My Worries
Here were some of my worries on taking the job of pastor.
- Unrealistic responsibilities or expectations from myself.
- Placing my calling over Christ. This was and still is my biggest worry, and it’s a concern that all people face who go into ministry, whether in a paid role or just in regular service to Christ. I worry that I’ll place my calling as a pastor over Christ. What I mean by this is attempting to cover more in public ministry than I can in private growth. This results in drawing from a dry well.
- Unrealistic responsibilities or expectations from others. The idea of wanting a do-all pastor—metaphors abound, e.g., the pastor is a counselor, a shepherd, a preacher, a teacher, a friend, a hospital visitor, a treasurer, a fundraiser … There can be all sorts of expectations of a pastor, which may be reasonable in one season but not in others.
- Measurables. How do you measure success? In the business world, it’s by “ROI” (return on investment) or “KPIs” (key performance indicators). And those concepts function well in the business world, but they don’t quite line up in church settings. Some people will tell you they do, and I’m not saying there are no returns on investment or no key performance indicators in a ministry context—there are, but they’re not the same. How about applying some ROI and KPI to the ministry of Jesus and the apostle Paul?
- Consider the moment when Jesus is teaching, and He turns around and everybody starts walking away. He then turns to His disciples and asks if they’re going to leave too.16See John 6:59–67. (You can’t exactly say, “Well, you could have preached a little bit better, Jesus!”) What KPIs would you have used in that moment? How about the ROI? It turned out to be eternal.
- Consider the apostle Paul and how you measure the success of his life. He gets to the end of his life, and he writes to Timothy and tells him he’s lonely—that everyone’s deserted him. So he asks him to bring him his favorite coat and books … and then Paul gets killed.
- I won’t put up with much. I was worried about this aspect of myself. I know I am demanding. As pastor, those in my congregation can only know me so well. And one of my goals for 2025 is probably some more personal interaction. I know I can’t be pastor of GraceLife Church without being gracious, and I think most of my interactions have been, but sometimes the shepherd has to fight off wolves, and then the grace is measured by how gracious you are to the flock as a whole and not the wolf. I knew going into this pastor role that there were some things that we would be tested on, because I’ve read the Scriptures. I’ve read Paul’s warning in Acts 20 saying that wolves will come in,17See especially Acts 20:28–31. and as a pastor you can’t tolerate such things. So I was worried about what happens if I have to confront sin, and it’s someone who’s popular or has a lot of money or has been here a long time—someone who’s seen as friendly and positive. I would be naïve to assume that that wouldn’t happen.18These were operational concerns and questions about authority and positions of leadership without regard to any individuals who currently or formerly filled these positions.
- Buy-in from existing leaders. This is a challenge in any organization—a church or business. There are existing elders, deacons, staff, and heads of ministry. Would they buy in to the same philosophy of ministry on discipline and guidance? Would we have the same commitment to prayer? Would they be willing to be led by the youngest elder? (This is still true.) There were also questions about the school and who controls it, who leads it.
- How Baptist are we? Most guests ask—and if they attend our GraceLife Essentials class, they end up asking in that class—“What are y’all?!” (In other words, what denomination are we?) What’s meant by the term Baptist anyway? I bet the term meant something different in 1903 (post–Civil War in the South) than it does today.
Those were some of the worries I had. But if you know me well, you know I don’t worry that much. So here are some reasons why I would still consider accepting this pastor role, in spite of these concerns.
Why I Would Consider Being Pastor
My number-one reason for accepting this role as pastor was (still is) that I am burdened for the church—the church at large, but particularly this church of GraceLife—and its people to contextualize their individual faith within a community of believers and an outside culture.
My family was another reason. I thought it was a good opportunity to serve alongside my wife, Elizabeth (there are risks and rewards there, some on the part of the congregation). It was also a chance to be pastor where my boys go to church (they had veto power—I wanted the family to be “all in”).
Third, I have a personal calling to speak (preach).
Lastly, the fourth and biggest reason was the desire of the congregation to have me serve. Am I called of God to be a pastor? Well, I don’t know, let’s see what the church does, I thought at the time; and the moment the church calls me to be a pastor, then I am.
I don’t wake up in the morning and think, I’m a pastor. It’s work that I love, but it’s not my core identity. I was not going to seek a job at some other church. I became a pastor because those at GraceLife asked me to be.
Historical Perspective
Let’s get some historical perspective (to the extent that we can). In 1903, an almost-80-year-old man founded this church that is now GraceLife. He served as a chaplain in the Battle of Gettysburg; I wish I could ask him which was harder.
A.L. Stough’s goal of founding an existing church in Pineville with no building probably took a much different mission and vision than we have. The church is weak … the outlook is good. That statement was probably true in 1903 just like it was in 1907. There have been several past visions and missions within our congregation. Some current members were probably around when some of these phrases were used here—I was not here for all of them but ran across some of them from historical research:
- “Every Member in Ministry”
- “Building a People Who Reveal a Great God”
- “Making Disciples Who Make Disciples”
- (Vision statement) “To create an environment of grace where people are brought into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ”
These were all good things. But there was a problem with them. Upon taking this job as pastor, one of my concerns was that there was a devotion within this church but something of a weariness.
“Even youths grow weary and tired,” Isaiah 40:30 tells us. And Paul told us we’d grow weary, so he said, “Do not grow weary of doing good.”192 Thessalonians 3:13
When I came on board, in some areas, there may have been a lack of commitment, not to Christ but perhaps to the church and to church service, and perhaps that was tied to vision, or due to planning all those things and then the world shuts down (due to COVID-19).
Maintaining Vision
We have to maintain some vision.
A few years ago (due to no success or maneuvering of my own) I had a chance to sit down with a great leader—Horst Schulze. He’s the founder of a little hotel chain called the Ritz Carlton. Sitting in his living room, he talked about crafting vision. He does this kind of training all over the world. He says that a vision must be beautiful. Strategies change, tactics change, people change. That’s why we can say things like, “The church is weak; the outlook is good,” because our vision as Christians is the most beautiful; it is why the theologians of old have pointed us toward our final destination, calling it a beautiful vision, a vision of beauty, because it’s a vision of God Himself.
Mr. Schulze also says that reasons for why all these things may or may not take place provide excuses, and when you provide excuses, you’re not providing promotion, recognition, money, or satisfaction.
You have to choose your focus. And one of the telling things that he said that day (he says it in his book and his seminars as well):
Once you have accepted the role as a leader, you have no more right to make excuses. Your role is to establish a vision that’s good for all concerned and to take the people to that point.20From my meeting with Mr. Schulze in 2019. Also stated in his book Excellence Wins and his master class, both available here.
It’s hard to have a vision for a church without having a personal vision, a personal mission. I’ll share with you what mine is and has been since I said “yes” to GraceLife’s call to me to serve as pastor:
To aid others in an increased awareness of the goodness and greatness of God, the richness of life, and the beauty and power of the Scriptures.
I think I’m carrying this mission out, but I never needed a church to do that in. That was my mission and vision for my life before being a pastor.
What about vision for the church?
The difficulty for a church is we’re not a textile mill. If we were, we would be able to say something like, “We offer the world’s finest yarn.” And that’s a good vision for a textile mill.
What are we going to be—“the best church in town,” constantly in competition, comparing ourselves to others who are supposed to be fellow sojourners?
Maybe we’re “a church increasingly conforming to the image of Christ.”
Maybe we’re “a church fulfilling the Great Commands and the Great Commission.”
All of those things are good.
What I do know is what I want the result to look like: “a church marked by the eager reception and regular engagement of God’s Word.” Why? Because I believe that the power of the Word of God takes care of everything else—it gives us everything we need. When we have the Word of God, it equips us for all good works. And I have a sneaking suspicion that if we’re doing all good works, then the return on investment and key performance indicators will be pretty good.
Desired result for GraceLife: “a church marked by the eager reception and regular engagement of God’s Word” … because I believe the power of the Word of God takes care of everything else.
How to Prepare for the Future
How do we prepare for the future?
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18)
Let’s go back to our list of significant years in the history of GraceLife, from 1903 through the present.
- First, make a gratitude list. Don’t think about the future without doing this exercise first. Write down all of the things you’ve been given and for which you’re grateful.
- Now, write “2025.” Write down five goals for GraceLife for 2025 (Lord willing that we get there). Imagine someone one day doing a similar review of this church’s history as I’ve done, and 2025 is one of the dates on the board/screen. What would be next to it?21You can also personalize this exercise and do it for your own life or family, or for your own church if you don’t attend GraceLife.