God began to deal with one of my friends recently about the motivations of his heart. My friend, who is a senior pastor, had been praying that God would bless his church in a big way. Something like this:

“God, may we reach our city with the love of Christ. May tens of thousands come to Christ through our ministry. May millions of dollars be given to this community through our ministry. May governments and businesses and educational systems be turned inside out for the glory of God through this ministry-”

And my friend felt like the Lord responded to him with a challenging thought:

“What if I do everything you’re asking me to do in your city, but I do it through someone else’s ministry? Would you still pray as passionately? Would you be okay with that?”

I’m not sure I’m entirely ready to wrestle with my own motivations at that level. This is pretty advanced stuff. But ultimately, I’d like to get to a place where my heart rejoices with the same intensity because another church in town baptized 100 people as it does when Elevation baptizes 100 people.

I’m not there yet. And let me throw in a caveat: it’s right for me to give most of my focus, attention, emotion and spiritual energy to the work God has called me to do-just like it’s right for me to love my kids more than I love anyone else’s kids. That’s only natural.

I guess I just want to get to the point where at the end of the day, my main concern is that the CAPITAL C CHURCH wins…no matter which lower case c church is putting the points on the board.