Yesterday…

I’m on the first stop on my initial fundraising/recruiting trip to the USA. I had a couple of awesome meetings yesterday with three pastors from Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, USA (one of the fastest growing churches in the country). Jet lag made it a bit more difficult to to engage but I was excited to learn!

The first was with Jerry McSwain, one of the Small Group Pastors at the church. His views about what church should look like are a bit different than mine, but it was a very helpful meeting. I’m learning that if I’ll let go of my preconceived ideas, it’ll be easier to think outside of the box. Plus, he said some things that really challenged me. And if I had just shut down when I realized his view of what a church should be was different than mine, I would have missed out on God shaking me up a bit.

Then I met with Mac Lake & Jon Hohm, the Leadership Development Pastor & the Youth Pastor. Mac explained both their leadership development mindset and their model for accomplishing it. He walked me through the genesis (origin) and development of their current model, which helped me to better understand the thinking behind it. I like the fact that they’re always tweaking things to make them better rather than leaving well enough alone.

All in all, it was painfully obvious that we have a long way to go… but it was encouraging to talk with others that have travelled this path before.