Fascinating Leadership

Yesterday at 5PM was the groundbreaking for Faith Center's new building.  A multi-thousand seat auditorium.  It was impressive in many ways.

Here's a few.

• Every Pastor and Leader in the Church turned a shovel of Dirt
• Every Person who attended (and there were several hundred) received a souvenir acknowledgement that "I was there".
• Several community leaders came to speak at the event.  TV stations were there. That might be normal.  But what was abnormal was how they raved in testimony to the positive influence faith center has in the community.  Alderman, county officials and a judge who said he deals with people in criminal court and he said that what Faith Center does in the community was far more important than anyone understands.  People need Jesus to make it.  These were not members of the church.  They were members of the community who see what Faith Center does as a church and thru it's community faith based ministries like Life Center right down in the hard parts of Rockford.
• Then, at  the end, Pastor Don Lyon, 75 yrs old, walks to a waiting skid steer loader, The music on the PA rises, he crawls into the cab, fires it up, pulls ahead and after everyone had a chance to turn dirt with a shovel, pulls out like a pro and scoops up a big bobcat style load of dirt and sod. What a class act.  I know it was practiced.  I know it was drama.  But it was really impressive. 
• Then he raised the scoop way up in the air after dumping the load and descended from the cab of the unit in victory.  WOW!

I have to admit I have been less faith-filled about this project than many others are.  I've been part of too many too soon Church expansions that end up ministering to a half filled auditorium.  It's hard to have much of a move of the spirit when everyone is disconnected sitting all over an empty auditorium.  Or if you take down all the chairs it looks silly.  Like, what did you plan to do with all that empty space when you built this edifice?

During the regular evening service people ran to the front to place money in a huge urn that always stands at the front of the podium for the purposes of the building fund. During the worship and without any prompting or encouragement without a word spoken, one person started, then another and soon there was a rush. There was a rush of understanding.  It seemed like if you wanted to get in on this, now was the time. 

There will be no problem in finding the money to do all this.  It's already there.  How much was raised last night I'll never know but it was thousands and thousands of dollars.  I remember a few months ago when the building fund had several tens of thousands of dollars in it.  An African pastor needed money to build a home for lost young people displaced by war and disease on his continent.  Pastor Lyon cleaned out the coffers to give it all to this man. 

Not a wise thing if you are about to embark on a building program.  But it's that kind of faith act that results in what I saw.  A man who pastors a large PH church in Tulsa OK insists that the church give almost half it's income away every year to missions and other things outside the operating budget of the church.  When you give into that offering you know that it's not going to buy the bigger car or house for the pastor or his family.

I have been to Pastor Lyon's house. It's very nice.  But it's just a house.  Not ostentatious.  Just a house.  He could convince people that more opulence might be appropriate.  But he's like my PH fellow in Tulsa  he has his priorities in order.

The man who spoke last night said, "I looked at this huge building project and asked myself, how in the world will they ever get this done by next spring, and how will they ever pay for it?"  Then he said, "Wait, that's Apostle Lyon and for him to accomplish this with his level of faith is no problem". 

Not since the days of Pastor Dan Rothwell in Fargo who in every church he ever built and with the expansion of every building he ever built was paid for by the time it was completed have I seen such great faith. Pastor Lyon has that same level of faith and authority in the spirit. 

I'm amazed and inspired.

Lead on Apostle Lyon.  I'm still going to school to apprehend that level of faith.