So often people come up and say, " Hi , I want to be like you!" or "I wish I had your life?" My reply is quite serious and stern as I say, "You don't want to drink from this cup!" Why in the world would anyone want my life? Jesus said to His father, "If this cup may pass", in other words I really don't want to drink this but if I have to! On the outside it must look pretty good though I would love to lose 100 pounds, yes, 100! I make no excuses but the stress and the tests caused me and note I said caused me to binge eat and put on a couple extra pounds. My faith makes my life look easy, very easy! Last week a member called after we had a great bible study and said, Pastor I want your anointing!" I looked at the phone and said, "Are you crazy? You don't want this!" My anointing comes from the process of making oil. The olive is crushed and the precious oil comes oozing out! The anointing comes only after great trials and tribulations have occurred. Many want the anointing but few wants to pay the cost for it.
This blog is a tribute to a person I will call a friend though we have never sat down and talked face to face. Two years ago I stumbled upon this fascinating young pastor by the name of Shaun King. He was planting a church in downtown Atlanta and he was certainly on the cutting edge so much so that I sowed an offering into his launch. I began to follow Shaun on Facebook and twitter and was just in awe of what God was doing in and through him. Shaun was on fire when the record breaking floods hit Atlanta, Shaun and Courageous church was there leading the way. At Hebron, we even contributed clothes and toiletries to the recovery efforts and bought them downtown to the Courageous office. It appeared that everything Shaun touched was simply gold! The earthquake hit Haiti and Shaun and Courageous was there. We purchased 2 tents through his organization. He always speaks of his family and his wife, Rai and it appeared that his life was perfect and God was positioning him to explode and certainly be noted in the 100 fastest growing congregations in the country. Shaun was and is a major speaker at all the major church planter and church growth conferences. He appeared to have arrived as we would say. I was so proud of Shaun for the barriers he was breaking and occasionally, I would send him a note to say just that!
Several months ago Shaun announced that he had preached his last series at Courageous and announced a new format for doing church that he felt God so ordained. This was Shaun King and if Shaun said it would work...hell, I believed and trusted him. He had a track record of making it happen. He has the Midas touch! It was a bold and way out of the box initiative. As the weeks went by I noticed his tweets weren't as jolly and chipper and then it happened! He tweeted he was going through the worse time in his life. Trusted members of his congregation and board decided to resign and leave the church. My church will be five years old in December so people resigning and leaving was nothing new but I could tell this really hit my friend hard. What most lay members don't understand is when you leave, a real shepherd or pastor, it hurts! He may never say anything to you but if he has ministered and poured into you, he has invested into you and it hurts to see you go! I could tell he was devastated by his tweets. I reached out to him via texting and he said he was having a rough go at it! I told I was too and we somehow made it through that day. I remember texting him the next day asking, "You yet holding on?" he said he was good and life went on.
August was a challenging month for me and from what I am hearing for a lot of other people too particularly clergy! We lost Pastor Zachery Tims who I had some acquaintance with. Honestly, I prayed God give me an out because this just seems not to be working. Everything that could go wrong or break, did! But God! My faith withheld the test and the trials and people are still being saved and lives changed regardless of how I felt! So needless to say when I read Shaun's post about stepping down as pastor, I was shocked, hurt and mad! I text him and asked him was he serious and he said, "Yes!" I did not need to go into details, he did a great job telling us in his own words at www.shauninthecity.com! Man, Shaun's out! Wow! On the outside Shaun you looked and performed like Superman. You took on gaints and won...now you out? Hummmmm! You know it doesn't have to make sense to me as long as you have peace and know this is what God has told you to do. God has amazing things in store for you brother! He must have really spoke to you on Mt. Rainier! Keep pressing and living for God! Your anointing is not gone! I know we haven't heard the last of you yet! Godspeed and favor! Your brother and admirer! And to my readers, Shaun and I share the exact same birthday and yes, I am the oldest yet Shaun doesn't recognize it! Lol...
