In the hopes of getting many people involved, we sought to create some buzz by posting many Facebook messages, and getting our team to do the same.
One of our staff members posted both a picture and a quick thought about it. One of the guys that lives in her dorm posted a response to it on her Facebook Wall... he said it was a stupid idea and it was just a scam to make money. She explained in more detail what we were trying to accomplish, and our heart to be a church that serves. But he then posted a short clip from our initial fundraising video for the church launch (almost two years ago)... one in which I gave the expected budget and asked for people to get involved. She was so upset that she removed his comment from her Wall and continued the conversation with him privately.
It was really frustrating to us... we took out over 3500 EUR from our personal savings (and some donations from three of our close friends in the USA) to make this happen (including our kids' tuition and next month's rent). And here was someone with absolutely no clue trashing what we had put our heart and soul into. Robin made the statement: "We PAY a lot of money just for the privilege of pastoring this church!"
But God reminded me of something my mentor says, "It's the guy with the football that everyone wants to tackle." We have to understand that if we try to get out of the box and shake things up, there WILL be opposition! Small people with small dreams will always try to crush the big dreams of others. That shouldn't ever stop us (or even slow us down) in our pursuit of God's purpose for our lives.
I saw this so clearly a few years ago... in 2 Samuel 5:17 it says that as soon as David saw the realization of his God-given dream of becoming king, their enemies - the Philistines - brought their entire army to wipe him off the face of the planet. There will always be opposition. And the bigger the dream, the greater the opposition.
In the end this whole thing only made us more determined to do what God has called us to do. We don't have time to worry about our critics or what others would say. We need to stay on task: reaching the unreached of Freiburg and helping them find and fulfill their purpose in God's plan.
My encouragement to you today... don't let the opinions of others or their belittling comments derail you from pursuing God and taking risks for Him. There is much to be done and little time to do it!
May God strengthen your heart and bless the effort you put into finding and completing His mission for your life!
