If our church disappeared, would Taylor notice?

If you and your church were to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone? And if the community did even notice would they say ‘we are really glad they are gone’, or ‘we are really going to miss them’? – Tim Keller

I love this quote. In my mind, on the other end of this seesaw sits something I heard David Platt say, our particular churches and our denominations could be wiped from the history books and God would still glorify Himself. Mr. Platt’s point was that God doesn’t need you or me. He doesn’t need your church or my church and yet in His kindness and grace He chooses to use weak, foolish, sinful people like you and me. That being said, there are plenty of churches who would be doing us all a favor by disappearing. I digress.

Thankfully, I know the answer to Tim Keller’s questions. Christ Fellowship Church has been given an incredible and humble pastor who tirelessly pursues our community. Who has so many irons in our community’s fires that he could easily choose one of them and it become a full-time job on its own. A pastor who for example was recently deemed volunteer of the year by our own Taylor Police Department. He received his commendation without ever mentioning it to anyone.

I’m not saying this so you would all congratulate him and heap praises and measureless compliments upon him. Thankfully and unlike many, he does not want that. I am saying this so you would all, like myself, look-up to him as a fatherly and brotherly example, as an authority and a tried and true leader, and as an elder and your pastor. My hope (as is his I’m sure) is that Christ Fellowship Church would begin to emulate her pastor’s humility, teachability, leadership, courage, and obedience as we are transformed by the gospel he so faithfully proclaims. Let us follow him wholly as he follows wholly after Christ. And let us do this with joy.

Sovereign God answer this prayer. As we humiliate ourselves, lift us up. Let it be so for Your glory and Your namesake in our communities and beyond. Amen.