One of the things I am most thankful for this year is the friendship I have developed with Senior Pastor Derwin Gray of Transformation Church. I feel Pastor Derwin is America’s leading voice on developing an effective multi-cultural, multi-generational ministry.
As a former NFL player for the Indianapolis Colts, he is a great motivator. Recently, he wrote a challening post on Christian leaders that “drift”. In other words, Christian leaders who start well but do not finish well. I am honored to pass on his thoughts to you. If you are not a regular reader of Pastor Derwin, start today! You can follow him on twitter at @DerwinLGray or his blog by clicking here.
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Have you ever had one of those “Are you kidding?” meetings?
You know, a meeting where you hear about a pastor having an affair? Or, a person who once ran a marriage ministry and simply walked out on their spouse. Or, the star teen who once lead the youth group in high school is now an atheist?
How does this travesty occur?
I think it happens because of what I call, “The DRIFT.” DRIFT is an acronym for –
Distracted from Jesus and His Gospel
We drift from Jesus when we allow the good gifts from Jesus — like a ministry success, a job, or our influence — become more satisfying than Jesus Himself.
We drift from Jesus when we’re not honest with our negative emotions — like anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment.
We drift from Jesus when we fail to grow in our “union life” in Jesus. In Jesus, we’re forever forgiven, declared to be as righteous as Jesus Himself, and loved beyond measure. All because we are “in Christ” and “Christ is in us.”
We drift from Jesus when we try to establish an identity based on anything we do, instead of everything Jesus has done.
Refusing to Repent
As our hearts drift away from Jesus, we refuse to repent (turn from our sin) to Jesus and to the person we’ve offended. This is simply pride. At the root of every sin is pride. And God will crush the pride out us one way or another. He loves us and His glory too much not too.
Intentional Acts of Disobedience
As the drift progresses, we begin to intentionally sin. Instead of sprinting to Jesus to satisfy our needs, we run to other things — like work, porn, people-pleasing, sex, food, self-sufficiency, and lying.
Fake Fellowship
The next phase of the drift leads to fake fellowship (community). We stop being honest with our spouse, our family, our friends, our bosses, our small group community. We become numb and plastic people.
Treasuring Something or Someone More than Jesus
The ugly offspring of The DRIFT produces people who begin to treasure something or someone other than Jesus. The human heart is made for worship. And the person caught in the clutches of The DRIFT, are now worshiping people or things that will ultimately hurt themselves and those they love.
So what do we do if we are experiencing The DRIFT?
CONFESSION. Confess to Jesus that you have pursued lesser and false gods and that you need Him.
COMMUNITY. Confess to your closest brothers and sisters in Christ, and drown yourself in God’s grace as expressed in our union life in Jesus. I recommended reading my book “Hero” to help you through this process.
CONTRIBUTE. Minister to someone who is experiencing The DRIFT. Let them know that you’ve been where they’re going and it’s not worth it.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.* Because of the joy* awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-3 NLT
Marinate on that,
Pastor Derwin
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