This past week I had an amazing meeting with Pastor Wayne Lanier and Pastor Bob Thyer regarding the Pastoral Care ministries at the church. The potential for what we talked about is nothing short of revolutionary for the way we do church.

Celebration has always done an incredible job of drawing a crowd which in my opinion is essential to the missional focus of the church. Because we have been growing and are believing God to continue to grow the church we have most recently placed great significance on raising up leaders at every level of the church in order to continue to fuel the churches mission.

Here’s the lynch pin though.. That’s all well and good, but it’s only half the picture. Through the discussions with Bob and Wayne we came up with the revelation that it is just as important to raise the level of love and care at every level of the church too. Hmm.. How could I have been so blind for so long. Stovall has preached about love and care many times, and I’ve known for sometime that a weakness in our campus strategy has been, "How do we effectively help lost hurting people become whole in spirit, soul, and body." We’ve done many good things, especially in the area of raising the love level, but we have never had a solid strategy for proactive pastoral care network wide.

I really think it is a God moment for the church. Not long ago all staff network wide began going through Care Force Life Keys Facilitator training. It was meant to remind all staff members they they are ministers first because we all sometimes get bogged down in the tasks that are before us.

The meeting caused me to really think about how we can stop reacting to pastoral care situations and get proactive about continuing to instill that Care mindset in everyone – The congregation, the volunteers, the staff, so that we can better minister to the community and the congregation.

Pastor Stovall has spent a lot of time sharing his heart for the lost, the hurting, and the next generation.

I’ve also recently began reading Marc Driscoll’s book "Radical Reformission" which served to reinforce what we are doing. Focusing on the area around us as a mission field while balancing a heart for the church, the culture, and the gospel which are all essential ingredients to being a Life Giving God First Church.

All that being said, my heart is pumping that we might actually begin to have a plan to fill a void which has plagued me for all too long. I see incredible progress not only in our outreach, assimilation, and discipleship processes, but you can now add to that care..

May God give us the energy, leaders, and direction to pull this off. I really believe it beats in the heart of God.. May we truly be a hospital for the lost and hurting people of all backgrounds for our community here in the greater Jacksonville area!

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