Thanks for sharing....For me, these are the times that I often wrestle with God. lol. Capable of understanding that God is speaking to me in someway to either slow down, shift course, etc., but also being stubborn enough to think that God just hasn't comprehended MY vision and what I'm seeing. As you can imagine, after a short time of ignoring the nudge from God, my plans tend to spiral out of control and fizzle out. It's a constant internal struggle of mine to embrace the nudge and be willing to say "God, you're right" in that very moment because I agree with you...the not knowing and the uncomfortable feelings can be somewhat scary and bring about some anxiety.
At our youth service this past Wednesday, we discussed the story of Jonah. I hadn't really clued in to the bigger message for some reason until I connected it to a passage from a book that I am currently reading....Purpose over preference. My preference tends to be whatever is least disruptive and convenient, but God's purpose for me requires disturbance and stretching and many other things that make me uncomfortable. So, my conclusion to your message this morning combined with the rest of the week and how God is obviously speaking to me is that God's distrubance isn't about making me frustrated or uncomfortable just because...it's about making me uncomfortable for a bigger purpose than what I see. At the end of the day, His ways are so much greater than mine!
This is so good, Jon! Thank you for sharing your heart and your experience. We have been feeling this disturbance for a long time. Your words of wisdom to pay attention to the feeling and press in through intentional prayer for God's instruction and direction are exactly what I needed to hear. I pray, but sometimes, I don't linger long enough for His response. I have questions and feel inadequate for the things I know He has called me to and we struggle to know what our next steps are as pastors and leaders in our community and conference. In many ways, we have been pushing ourselves away from these tables because of the mounting disturbance we have with church growth models and current approaches to ministry. Yet, we don't have answers to why we are so concerned, and can't say that our way is better because it's not. Thank you for the encouragement to press into the heart of the Father for answers and direction and to trust His leadership for whatever is coming.
Praying for you guys. You are doing one of the most difficult “jobs” in the world. Give yourselves plenty of grace!! I’m here for you guys if you ever need to chat!
A Great podcast challenging me in many areas, the desire to take control and work it out from a systems thinking perspective wages war… Yet as you say God has given us brains to work things out… There is a strong desire to say Lord what does this mean or what are you planning here, it is my observation that the Lord stays remarkable quiet, until I start to humble and silence myself, then if I am listening he acts … The last 6 months have been a challenge all I can do is trust and know what he is doing in my life is for a reason!!
Thank you for sharing this. As a pastor and leader, I’ve had moments where I felt lost and initially took that as a sign of spiritual weakness. But over time, as I stayed faithful to my calling, I’ve realized that, like you said, those seasons are actually invitations to deeper dependence on God. These days, I have to intentionally work at being vulnerable, especially with the people I lead—my team. It’s encouraging to hear you say that sometimes you’ve had to admit to your team that you don’t know what you're doing. Wow, that really brings me a lot of relief, knowing that in ministry, feeling this way is part of the journey.
Thank you, Jon. You are always blessing me dear friend.
Jon, the courage to be honest with ourselves and our Heavenly Father is what the kingdom of Jesus is. Breaking out of the prison of the fear of failure and the fear of rejection. We cannot be truly led by the Holy Spirit if we limit Him to do so within the boundaries of our fears and insecurities. It doesn’t mean we become foolish and acting with false bravado, but it’s fully engaging trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts and not being limited by subtle and deceptive fears which many times we think we’re being wise when we’re actually just living in our understanding or comfort zone. I’ve been blessed lately by the wording these scriptures, notice the phrases; “with sincere hearts fully trusting him.”
“And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”
Hebrews 10:21-22 NLT
Fully trusting God’s nature of love with honest and sincere hearts is place where fear looses its grip on us and opens the door to being able to step out in faith and be truly led by the Holy Spirit. It seems that’s the place you’re now beginning to walk into “releading” Victory- which is a monumental step in the “right” direction!
I’d say you’re right where God wants you Pastor Jon.
Back in 1970, Howard Conatser was a Southern Baptist pastor in a robust church in Dallas. God began stirring him. He was miserable doing what he had always done that had made his church successful. He got to the point that he told God “If this is all there is, I am going to step out of the pulpit and go into the public relations business”. God filled him with the Holy Spirit and filled up his empty heart to the brim. At that point, he said he didn’t know what he was doing either. But, God did! Day by day, week by week, he waited on God and God would show him, and us, the way He wanted us to go. It was all done in “decency and good order”, but with the power of the Holy Spirit.
I so appreciate you being transparent and vulnerable and leading with candor!!
I find small steps work the best for me. If something isn’t working then there are always other options. The Lord is speaking to you, Jon, and you are listening.
Just because other church’s are doing the same thing doesn’t mean that all churches have do it the same way. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Love the vulnerability Jon. You are correct that vulnerability follows leadership. Question, is a step in this process going to be to allow others and yourself to be wrong? The staff member with the idea to try something and then have it not work can shut them down from future ideas. I love the story about Thomas Edison when asked about his thousands of failures with the light bulb his response was he just figured out thousands of ways it would not work. If we are vulnerable to allowing ourselves to fail our teams will have that same vulnerability and opportunity. I am not suggesting trying anything and everything but sometimes you have to take a chance on something and be willing for it not to work.
Man you’re so right Tim. I think that’s the tension we feel, is that fear of failure. So I would think one of the steps to overcoming that is allowing the possibility of mistakes.
Great stuff, Jon. I feel a similar “stirring” in my context, but have second—well, actually—TWENTIETH-guessed myself due to the pervasiveness of tried-and-true “success” templates. Thanks for inspiring us to think & act courageously!
Pastor Jon - I’m an excited member of Victory Grapevine. I’m not called to re-lead but God sometimes calls me to re-do. This message applies to areas of my personal life and is affirming and encouraging. We’re following your lead as our Pastor, but - no pressure! We are also standing with you to go where Holy Spirit leads.
Thank you, Pastor, for sharing your life with us in such incredible vulnerability! That's courageous right there!! I think you've already arrived at the third step of the process that you were discussing with us.
I've been camping out lately in the life of Moses, particularly the first portion of Exodus. As I listened to you talking this morning, there is so much that is so closely revelatory in those chapters that it could fill an entire book, lol!
But I never noticed before how incredibly similar Exodus 14:13-14 was to 2 Chronicles 20:17, wow!! Even though every battle, God gives us a unique strategy, He always fights for us, if we surrender it to Him.
Thank you again, for sharing, we are all cheering you on, (but please don't feel pressured to perform anything, why??? Because "the battle belongs to the Lord." 😊)
Wow, wow, wow Pastor Jon, all I can say is thank you. Yes, we are excited and rallying around you to see what will happen next! Your vulnerability is so refreshing and your heart to lead with God is beautiful. My husband and I left church service last week excited to see what’s next!
He and I are stepping into a season where we have no idea what God wants to do and it is taking courage to take the next step. Our calling has been marriage ministry for years and we’ve led marriages on a small scale but it seems as if God has a bigger plan and we are stepping into His plan. We don’t know where He is leading us or our church, but we are really glad we chose to return to Victory this year. We’d left last year after two years at Victory to see if God had a place for us elsewhere bc we just couldn’t find a place where we fit at Victory. The first week back you told the church that you’d stepped down from your other career bc God had helped you realize you were spread too thin. My heart leapt that week bc I’d seen it but I don’t know you at all so I kept it to myself and we left the church. My husband told me in December ‘23 that he sensed God calling us back to Victory, so back we came. Since then, we’ve been able to see that God is moving and stirring and your leadership is amazing. Thank you for being vulnerable with us (your flock) and teaching from your heart. We’re excited to be a part of whatever it is God wants to do to draw our Church closer to Him!
Thanks for sharing....For me, these are the times that I often wrestle with God. lol. Capable of understanding that God is speaking to me in someway to either slow down, shift course, etc., but also being stubborn enough to think that God just hasn't comprehended MY vision and what I'm seeing. As you can imagine, after a short time of ignoring the nudge from God, my plans tend to spiral out of control and fizzle out. It's a constant internal struggle of mine to embrace the nudge and be willing to say "God, you're right" in that very moment because I agree with you...the not knowing and the uncomfortable feelings can be somewhat scary and bring about some anxiety.
At our youth service this past Wednesday, we discussed the story of Jonah. I hadn't really clued in to the bigger message for some reason until I connected it to a passage from a book that I am currently reading....Purpose over preference. My preference tends to be whatever is least disruptive and convenient, but God's purpose for me requires disturbance and stretching and many other things that make me uncomfortable. So, my conclusion to your message this morning combined with the rest of the week and how God is obviously speaking to me is that God's distrubance isn't about making me frustrated or uncomfortable just because...it's about making me uncomfortable for a bigger purpose than what I see. At the end of the day, His ways are so much greater than mine!
Let's go!!!
This is so good, Jon! Thank you for sharing your heart and your experience. We have been feeling this disturbance for a long time. Your words of wisdom to pay attention to the feeling and press in through intentional prayer for God's instruction and direction are exactly what I needed to hear. I pray, but sometimes, I don't linger long enough for His response. I have questions and feel inadequate for the things I know He has called me to and we struggle to know what our next steps are as pastors and leaders in our community and conference. In many ways, we have been pushing ourselves away from these tables because of the mounting disturbance we have with church growth models and current approaches to ministry. Yet, we don't have answers to why we are so concerned, and can't say that our way is better because it's not. Thank you for the encouragement to press into the heart of the Father for answers and direction and to trust His leadership for whatever is coming.
Praying for you guys. You are doing one of the most difficult “jobs” in the world. Give yourselves plenty of grace!! I’m here for you guys if you ever need to chat!
Hi Pastor Jon,
A Great podcast challenging me in many areas, the desire to take control and work it out from a systems thinking perspective wages war… Yet as you say God has given us brains to work things out… There is a strong desire to say Lord what does this mean or what are you planning here, it is my observation that the Lord stays remarkable quiet, until I start to humble and silence myself, then if I am listening he acts … The last 6 months have been a challenge all I can do is trust and know what he is doing in my life is for a reason!!
Blessings
—Steve
Thank you for sharing this. As a pastor and leader, I’ve had moments where I felt lost and initially took that as a sign of spiritual weakness. But over time, as I stayed faithful to my calling, I’ve realized that, like you said, those seasons are actually invitations to deeper dependence on God. These days, I have to intentionally work at being vulnerable, especially with the people I lead—my team. It’s encouraging to hear you say that sometimes you’ve had to admit to your team that you don’t know what you're doing. Wow, that really brings me a lot of relief, knowing that in ministry, feeling this way is part of the journey.
Thank you, Jon. You are always blessing me dear friend.
Jon, the courage to be honest with ourselves and our Heavenly Father is what the kingdom of Jesus is. Breaking out of the prison of the fear of failure and the fear of rejection. We cannot be truly led by the Holy Spirit if we limit Him to do so within the boundaries of our fears and insecurities. It doesn’t mean we become foolish and acting with false bravado, but it’s fully engaging trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts and not being limited by subtle and deceptive fears which many times we think we’re being wise when we’re actually just living in our understanding or comfort zone. I’ve been blessed lately by the wording these scriptures, notice the phrases; “with sincere hearts fully trusting him.”
“And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”
Hebrews 10:21-22 NLT
Fully trusting God’s nature of love with honest and sincere hearts is place where fear looses its grip on us and opens the door to being able to step out in faith and be truly led by the Holy Spirit. It seems that’s the place you’re now beginning to walk into “releading” Victory- which is a monumental step in the “right” direction!
I’d say you’re right where God wants you Pastor Jon.
Back in 1970, Howard Conatser was a Southern Baptist pastor in a robust church in Dallas. God began stirring him. He was miserable doing what he had always done that had made his church successful. He got to the point that he told God “If this is all there is, I am going to step out of the pulpit and go into the public relations business”. God filled him with the Holy Spirit and filled up his empty heart to the brim. At that point, he said he didn’t know what he was doing either. But, God did! Day by day, week by week, he waited on God and God would show him, and us, the way He wanted us to go. It was all done in “decency and good order”, but with the power of the Holy Spirit.
I so appreciate you being transparent and vulnerable and leading with candor!!
Love you brother!
that’s amazing! Love that story Skip
I find small steps work the best for me. If something isn’t working then there are always other options. The Lord is speaking to you, Jon, and you are listening.
Just because other church’s are doing the same thing doesn’t mean that all churches have do it the same way. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Love the vulnerability Jon. You are correct that vulnerability follows leadership. Question, is a step in this process going to be to allow others and yourself to be wrong? The staff member with the idea to try something and then have it not work can shut them down from future ideas. I love the story about Thomas Edison when asked about his thousands of failures with the light bulb his response was he just figured out thousands of ways it would not work. If we are vulnerable to allowing ourselves to fail our teams will have that same vulnerability and opportunity. I am not suggesting trying anything and everything but sometimes you have to take a chance on something and be willing for it not to work.
Man you’re so right Tim. I think that’s the tension we feel, is that fear of failure. So I would think one of the steps to overcoming that is allowing the possibility of mistakes.
Great stuff, Jon. I feel a similar “stirring” in my context, but have second—well, actually—TWENTIETH-guessed myself due to the pervasiveness of tried-and-true “success” templates. Thanks for inspiring us to think & act courageously!
Hey great to hear from you Chris! Welcome to the club. You’re a great leader, and an even better pastor!
Pastor Jon - I’m an excited member of Victory Grapevine. I’m not called to re-lead but God sometimes calls me to re-do. This message applies to areas of my personal life and is affirming and encouraging. We’re following your lead as our Pastor, but - no pressure! We are also standing with you to go where Holy Spirit leads.
Amen Patricia! Well, lets just see what the Lord wants to do.
Thank you, Pastor, for sharing your life with us in such incredible vulnerability! That's courageous right there!! I think you've already arrived at the third step of the process that you were discussing with us.
I've been camping out lately in the life of Moses, particularly the first portion of Exodus. As I listened to you talking this morning, there is so much that is so closely revelatory in those chapters that it could fill an entire book, lol!
But I never noticed before how incredibly similar Exodus 14:13-14 was to 2 Chronicles 20:17, wow!! Even though every battle, God gives us a unique strategy, He always fights for us, if we surrender it to Him.
Thank you again, for sharing, we are all cheering you on, (but please don't feel pressured to perform anything, why??? Because "the battle belongs to the Lord." 😊)
Blessings,
Love it
Wow, wow, wow Pastor Jon, all I can say is thank you. Yes, we are excited and rallying around you to see what will happen next! Your vulnerability is so refreshing and your heart to lead with God is beautiful. My husband and I left church service last week excited to see what’s next!
He and I are stepping into a season where we have no idea what God wants to do and it is taking courage to take the next step. Our calling has been marriage ministry for years and we’ve led marriages on a small scale but it seems as if God has a bigger plan and we are stepping into His plan. We don’t know where He is leading us or our church, but we are really glad we chose to return to Victory this year. We’d left last year after two years at Victory to see if God had a place for us elsewhere bc we just couldn’t find a place where we fit at Victory. The first week back you told the church that you’d stepped down from your other career bc God had helped you realize you were spread too thin. My heart leapt that week bc I’d seen it but I don’t know you at all so I kept it to myself and we left the church. My husband told me in December ‘23 that he sensed God calling us back to Victory, so back we came. Since then, we’ve been able to see that God is moving and stirring and your leadership is amazing. Thank you for being vulnerable with us (your flock) and teaching from your heart. We’re excited to be a part of whatever it is God wants to do to draw our Church closer to Him!
That's so great Chandra. So glad you guys came back! Let's see what God does!