Humble Beginnings
Dec/082
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor at National Community Church in Washington, DC. NCC has experienced explosive growth and is one of the pioneers in the multi-site model (one church, many locations).
But listen to what Mark says about how NCC began…
"For about six months we commuted into the city, but the most memorable commute was my first weekend as pastor of NCC. The blizzard of '96 swept through DC and left record snowfalls. And we barely made it to church. There is a little hill in Kingstowne where I actually had to get out and push our car. We eventually made it, but we were the only ones who showed up. Not exactly a storybook beginning."
Can you imagine pouring every ounce of energy you had into a new church plant, only to have no one show up for your first service? I would have probably experienced a nervous breakdown right there in the snow.
And in his latest book, Mark notes that, while people did start attending NCC, they didn't come in huge numbers at first. Attendance was so sparse during the early days at NCC, Mark said that he closed his eyes during worship "because it was too depressing to open them."
NCC had a pretty inauspicious start. Now God is using this church to take the gospel right up to Capitol Hill. Thousands of people are coming to Christ through NCC's ministry.
God knew what he had in store for NCC. But Mark and the others who helped launch NCC had no clue. All they knew is that God had called them to do this. As tempting as it was, they didn't allow a very humble beginning to keep them from pursuing God's call on their lives.
Feeling frustrated in your kingdom work? Keep going. God honors faithfulness during tough times. You never know what God has in store for you if you stick it out.
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11:34 am on December 18th, 2008
That was inspiring and motivational- but I can't help but focus on the part where he was depressed about attendance during worship. That makes him come across a little shallow- as if somehow God can only be worshiped in larger numbers. Hopefully that wasn't his outlook in the beginning.
11:50 am on December 18th, 2008
No, Mark doesn't at all strike me as strictly a "numbers guy." But at the same time, I understand how numbers can affect your mentality.
As a pastor, you believe in your church so much that you think everyone should be a part of it. When so few respond, I think it can have a natural negative effect on a leader. Not because he's focused on "numbers," but because he's focused on the people around him who need to come and experience Jesus.
That's my take, anyway.