The Well Palmdale, CA

So Today I had an interesting conversation.  I happened upon a guy who lives down below.  He asked what I did and I said that I am the pastor of a new mission church in the AV called The Well.  As I'm describing what I do (maybe within the first 3-4 seconds of what I was saying), he started talking on his phone.  I stood around trying to look like I was doing something else.  When he was done, he apologized and asked again what I did all the while looking at a wall...not me or anything around me.  I described it and then he asked a little bit about what Lutherans believe and what the difference is between different Lutherans. 

Anyways, I said a few sentances of clarification and then still without making eye-contact he said, "I go to a non-denominational church" (which typically means closet Baptist).  He continued, "It's great...It's huge...I do a lot there...It's called _______.  I love it there.  It's so big.  It's really big.  We do such a great job of outreach.  We're really really big.  Have you heard of it?"  I hadn't.  He went on (still looking at the wall) and he told me again about how big and wonderful his church is.  Just to let you know, his church isn't up here...it's down below, so don't get any ideas.  His phone rang, and I had to go, so we parted ways. 

What struck me was that I felt that he didn't care about me at all, but he still wanted to brag about his church.  To be honest...I can't stand church bragging.  I like Jesus bragging and God bragging (we should even do some more Holy Spirit bragging...He's God, too), but not church bragging.  I really felt like this guy was an elk trying to show off his giant antlers...I mean really really big, giant, huge antlers.  Now, don't get me wrong...I think that we should, of course, be absolutely invested in where we call our church home.  It should be a family.  It should mean a lot to us.  But we should never try and compare any two churches.  I think that this is not a conversation about the theological differences of denominations...those are good and necessary conversations, but comparing congregations is absurd.  God has put different congregations, with different pastors, in different places, to serve different people.  We are not restaurants.  You can compare the Lemon Leaf with Chili's (the Lemon Leaf is WAY better by the way).  We can't compare the kingdom of God with the kingdom of God.  

I hope that each of you is excited about The Well (I know I really am excited and I love each of you like family).  I hope that you love telling others about it, too.  Just please don't brag about it.  We're not huge...we're not perfect...we don't do things perfectly...and we never set out to put another church "out of business" so that we can have a monopoly on the market because we've got a great sales pitch and we're so wonderful.  I hope you're excited because of what Christ is doing through us...through you...to serve God here in the AV.  It's about Jesus and what He's doing...not about how cool and great The Well is.  We don't do anything because it's cool...we do it because Christ has put it upon our hearts.  If we wanted to be great and cool I thinkt that everyone would have a Laz-E-Boy, a personal flat screen, a personal masseuse, a waitress getting you all the BBQ you could eat (for free, of course), and we'd probably set up a Ferris Wheel in the parking lot. 

Sorry for the rant, but I think this is vital for us, as a church, to know.  The Well is here for Christ...and to share the good news of salvation through Him to those who don't know it.  Please....brag about Him...He deserves it.  He's big...really really big.     

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