Competetion amoung churches can be VERY unhealthy, but it happens A LOT. Many pastors get VERY jealous and discouraged of other churches that are successful...
Pastor Bob Combs is a mentor of mine...I did an internship with him over 10 years ago and have stayed in touch. One of his many (please don't tell him I said many...it may go to his head!) nuggets of truth was that church leaders need to not worry about competition...instead they need to use each other. At the time Pastor Bob was pastoring a church of 500ish people and a neighboring church was about 10,000...He told me that he decided to not worry about how much bigger they were and to use them. If they had conferences he went or sent his guys...he used them as a resource instead of worrying about competing with them...WE'RE IN THE SAME GAME HERE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
That lesson has really stuck with me...the bottom line is...our pride should NEVER get in the way of what is best for the Kingdom! We need to look past ourselves and be willing to learn from other people who are doing things better than we are...Here in our area we have one of those churches too...Granger Community Church...the church is dynamic, relevant, growing church that is reaching people for Christ. They have thousands of people and are impacting our community. I LOVE THOSE GUYS! They do TONS of training seminars and I finally have the opportunity to go tomorrow to one on empowering volunteers. I want to use Granger to train me and the leaders of our church...Think about it...I can go there and learn and I don't have to pay for airplane tickets, hotels, or car rental...people will come from all over the country to learn from these guys, so why wouldn't I!?!?!
So my encouragement is this...LEADERS...if you have a church or business that is doing things better than you are and they're close to you...GO LEARN FROM THEM!! And stop worrying about how much bigger they are than you! You'll be glad you went...
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