Somewhere between feeling like a hip and cutting edge church planter a few years ago and where I sit right now, I lost my mojo. I could go back and search along the history of the past few years to find it, but I am not sure it was all that I felt it was anyway.
The fact of the matter is, church planting feels fresh . . . Church planting is new, exciting, adventurous, and full of clear steps of faith. But the natural progression of things (if the Lord blesses) requires a church planter to adapt into a pastor. The primary difference between these two functions, pertain to organization, training others, and letting go of doing it all.
And so a phrase that I have borrowed from the author Eugene Peterson, has become my new catch phrase in my internal dialogue. I want to have a “long obedience in the same direction”.
Mojo will not take a person very far. It is easily lost, and it is too often tied to circumstances, fads, emotions, and feelings.
For this reason, I am glad that ReCAST church is not dependent on my mojo. It has always been about the Word of God! My sense of what is cool, what is hip, or what is exciting, must constantly be filtered through the grid of the Word of God. And to be quite honest, the only thing of value that I can offer to my people is a connection with God through his self-disclosure found in the Bible.
Churches built on the mojo of an individual are often very cutting edge, very hip, very cool, and also very dependent on the whims of a flimsy and frail human leader.
The Word of God is my anchor. It is my content, my passion, my source of strength, my place of counsel, my fountain of peace, and my hope for my church . . . not because the Bible is God, but because the Bible connects us to Him.
As I look back at the past 5 years as a church planter, I have come to realize, that my mojo is not worth going back for. And not only that, it may have been better to not start out with it in the first place. I have found a lot of shedding happening in my life. And losing my mojo could be a devastating thing, if my mojo really mattered.
