Ernest Smith

This weekend, Pastor Greg Surratt invited me up on stage at Seacoast Church to commission us to go plant a church in Denver, Colorado.  For more information on our announcement to plant a church, check out my earlier post.  This commissioning from pastor Greg showed me two things.

          1.       Pastor Greg is a godly leader that I desire to be like. 

Over the last year, I have met many church planters who did not have a good experience as they left their current church to go plant a church.  Many times their senior leader was not supportive and did not bless the church planter as they left.

As I heard these stories, I knew this was not going to be my experience at Seacoast.  Pastor Greg is the real deal.  He is a man who truly wants God’s Kingdom to come and not his own.  He wants to support the dreams and calling of others in his life.  He is a man who is an authentic representation of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul makes a statement that I believe Pastor Greg could say…“Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”. 

The second thing the commissioning showed me was…

          2.       God’s grace has brought me a long way.

There are too many times in my life where I focus more on how far I need to go, rather than how far I have come.   This weekend was not one of those times.

For a moment of time, I was able to reflect back on how far God has brought me.  Seacoast was the first church I felt comfortable at.  It was the first church that explained to me the truth about Jesus Christ.

It was at Seacoast that I came to love the Word of God and serving His people.  It was at Seacoast that I have seen God throw off many chains in my life.  It was at Seacoast that I have come to discover my gifting and ministry.

I still have a long way to go, but this weekend, I was able to pause long enough to see that God’s grace has brought me a long way.

Take time today to remember how far God has brought you.  You may still have a ways to go, but don’t forget how far you’ve come.