Super Star Pastor?

Our church recently re-launched an online church (www.graceonline.church). There were many that asked me why we needed to invest time and resources into this tool. I had to pray through and answer those questions myself before re-launching. Behind this wrestling is a core principle that should guide all pastors, but sadly does not at times. The principle is found in a key text of scripture: John 12:32.

In this passage Jesus was literally referring to His crucifixion, but the parallel to Numbers 21:9 is evident to most. When you link the passages together you get a wonderful picture to guide us in pastoral ministry. Our goal is to lift up and glorify Christ alone; not ourselves, our local gatherings, a well-known leader, or a popular movement. I see too many pastors in our world today that promote their name, their local church, and their resources in a way that glorifies them. Admittedly, I struggle with this temptation at my core because I am a prideful man. So, before re-launching our online church I had to remind myself of this principle.

Because I took time to do this, we decided that we would re-launch as an online venue and not an online church. Our goal is to lift up Christ in this venue and allow Him to draw people to Himself. This venue is designed to gather people who work in retail, the medical field, restaurants, shift work, are engaged in travel ball, or for health reasons can’t travel to a location. Moreover, the team I’m working with understands that as we get to know our online audience our goal is to connect them to a local fellowship. Since we are about lifting up the name of Christ we do not feel we are in competition with other churches that share this goal. There are many “one another’s” in scripture that are best lived out in a local fellowship and we don’t want anyone to miss out on the fullness that God has for them.

Please pray for our new venue and connect with us online. If you are a church that shares our goal of lifting up the name of Jesus we want to connect with you. We may have a future congregant we want to send your way. If you are a Pastor who needs encouragement, please connect with us so we can pray for you and encourage you.

By the way, because LifeChurch gives away all their recourses for free we were able to launch online and I want to say thank you to that church for sharing this heart to glorify Christ Alone by sharing their resources! If you are someone who can’t make it to church on Sunday, come visit us and experience the love of Christ each week at Grace Online. May the Lord teach us all that Jesus is the only Superstar with elevating!