Patrick Grach - thoughts on life and leadership

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

I thought I'd post an email I just sent out to our leadership team at The LifeHouse. Okay, it's a little like giving you the inner workings, but I'm confident anyone reading this will understand why I'd post this email. This is honestly how I communicate with and feel about our team.

Hey Team!

“Have I told you lately that I…”

…think you ROCK! What did you expect, some sappy love song?

When I look around at what God is doing IN and THROUGH our lives, I’m frankly shocked! I’ll put it on my blog, but last night was a highlight for me. It might be a little selfish, but hearing all 16 people who were baptized sharing about what God has done and is doing in their lives is awesome, and to think that we had a part to play in their life-transformation. WOW! Literally, that’s why I get out of bed in the morning. Reminds me of these comments by the Apostle Paul (click hyperlink to go to Bible verses). Here’s two blog posts that I read this morning that may have grabbed some of the sentiment we might feel at times (although I neither condone nor use some of the words written): “A lot of the time we’re scared” (and check out “Every church was a seed”).

Something I’ve thought often, and it came up again last night, we must celebrate as often as possible. There’s enough stuff in this world to keep us down, so any chance we get, let’s celebrate the wins of our life, the church, and others that we love. Find reasons to celebrate!

Another thing, I thought yesterday and think just about every Sunday, as I watch people coming through the doors of Eastern Elementary: in the words of Mark Batterson, “the reward of successful hard work is more work.” As we are faithful with little, God entrusts more to us. Every one that comes to The LifeHouse is our responsibility, our “brothers and sisters”, and we must lead with integrity, wisdom, pure motives, and clear vision. This is our accountability! “To whom much is given, much is required” (1 Cor 4:1-2 and Luke 12:48). It keeps me in regular prayer (see Psalm 127:1-3), forces me to be constantly learning and growing (remember Maxwell’s teaching on the “Law of the Lid”), and daily humbles me to allow God to stretch me beyond my comfort zone. I realize that the moment I get comfortable, I cease to grow. When we stop growing we die. The church will not die, and we must be continually motivated to expand the Kingdom of God “to the ends of the earth” and to reach every soul in our “Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.”