garycombs.org

Inviting the Kingdom to come

"Thy Kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10 KJV).

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches" (Matthew 13:31-32 NIV).

The message that Jesus preached more than any other was the message of the Kingdom. In Matthew's gospel it was the "Kingdom of heaven." In Mark and Luke it was the "Kingdom of God." Both are references to the same. The first spoke more to a Jewish audience and the second to the rest of the world. Jesus brought us the message of the Kingdom and He gives us this message to proclaim.

Jesus spoke of a Kingdom that was near, here, and coming. Essentially, the Kingdom came with the coming of the King. So, where is the Kingdom? Is it near? Is it here? Or is it coming? Well, it depends. It depends on Jesus. Where is Jesus in your life? Because wherever Jesus is King the Kingdom has come. You can't have a kingdom without a king. Is Jesus King in your life? If He is, then the Kingdom has come to you.

Jesus talked about the Kingdom being like a seed that grows into a tree. We have always used a tree as our church logo. Our current logo attempts to illustrate our vision statement: "Growing a Family of Christ Followers." The logo is a family throwing up their hands in praise, but they are also representative of a tree producing its leaf in season.

This weekend we're taking the church family downtown to run a booth at the Wilson Whirlygig Festival. What we're doing is part of our calling to be messengers and ambassadors of King Jesus. Since Jesus is King in our hearts, wherever we go, the Kingdom goes.

This weekend we're inviting the Kingdom to come to downtown Wilson.

College roomates and gospel partners

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:3-6 (NIV).

I got a call from my old college roomate, Mark Brantley, this week. He was back in the States after several years working in Russia and the Ukraine for our Father.

"Hey Gary!" He said, as I opened my cell phone to the unknown number on my caller ID.

"Mark!" I replied, immediately recognizing his voice. We were roomates our sophomore year at Radford University. Even though over 30 years had passed, I still knew that Southhampton County, Virginia accent of his.

"I want to come spend the night with you and Robin and catch up." He continued.

"Come on down. We'd love to see you." I replied. "As long as you don't mind going to my small group that night."

"Great. I'd love to go to your group." He answered.

This wasn't the first time I'd asked him to go somewhere with me. In fact, when he came to our small group on Wednesday night, I asked him to give his testimony. He told us how I'd asked him to go to a Campus Crusade meeting one night during our Sophomore year. He agreed on the condition that I'd go to a coffee house with him later (Mark wasn't a believer yet and he and I were negotiating... you know... I'll go to your boring Christian thing if you'll go to my fun party thing.).

Mark went on to share with our group how he came to Christ that night. Mark told us how God had saved him. He told us many powerful things about his journey. And finally, how God had called him to reach out to the people of Ukraine and Russia.

As Mark talked, tears began to form in my eyes and my throat choked up. I was moved. I sat there in that living room listening to what God had done in my brother's life and thanking God for the privilege of allowing us to cross paths as boys and now again as men.

I thank God for Mark. I praise God with joy because of the partnership He has given us through Christ.  You can't imagine how sweet this partnership is... unless you've experienced it.

Orange aprons and the metrics of success

I spent over a decade working in the corporate world before becoming a pastor, so I still like to stay informed. I recently read an article in Fortune magazine entitled, "Home Depot's Total Rehab" that I found facinating. The article's subtitle says, "First the customers revolted, then housing went into freefall. Time to slash and burn -- unless you're CEO Frank Blake, who thinks an army of orange aprons will save the day."

"Orange aprons?" How can they save the day? Well, they can if they are worn by enthusiastic and motivated employees who make customers feel great about shopping at Home Depot. And that's the point of this article. According to cofounder, Marcus Blank, "It was a religion at Home Depot that customers had to be happy."

But after years of success, Home Depot had lost it's "religion." They hired a former GE executive as CEO to "bring scale and organization" to a company that had outgrown its entrepreneurial roots.

He introduced a new set of metrics for success. He led them to improve infrastructure and data systems. He centralized buying and merchandising. He slashed in-store payroll to lower expenses. Store managers were suddenly measured on a bewildering array of metrics, such as hourly labor rate. But none of these metrics related to customer service.

For several years the new strategy worked. Earnings per share more than doubled, driven by cost savings and centralized operations. But then, things began to turn downward. Customers, disatisfied with poor service, began to revolt (For evidence, type "I hate Home Depot" into Google). Employees, demoralized by the cutting of hours and the lack of emphasis on in-store leadership, began to leave. Home Depot was in trouble.

Now, a new CEO is trying to lead the company back to its original mission. He has cut labor in the central office in order to put dollars back into more "aprons" on the salesfloor. He often visits stores wearing an orange apron himself. He wants Home Depot to get its "customers come first" religion back. He wants to change the metrics for success back to customer service, professional advice, and in-store sales.

As I read this article I thought, "What are the metrics for success for our church?" It's so easy to get caught up in building our own infrastructure. We look at attendance and giving. We count how many attend small groups. We try to save money by cutting costs and being frugal.

All these metrics are OK I suppose, but are they the true metrics for success?  I'm thinking that a better metric might be, "How many people are we leading to follow Christ in such a committed way that they are surrendering their lives to His service?"

In other words, how many people at WCC are wearing "orange aprons?"

Together at Catalyst

Robin and I are in Atlanta this week with several WCC members at the Catalyst Conference. The theme this year is "Together." We've certainly experienced a lot of togetherness these last two days. There was the 7 hour road trip, the hotel (with the funny smell and not enough sheets or towels), the rain, the traffic, the crowd... well, you get the idea. It took a lot of work to just be together at this conference.

We've heard some great speakers and experienced some great worship together. Tonight, we sat in rocking chairs at the local Cracker Barrel and "unpacked" our day together. I asked every member of our team to share their biggest "takeaway" of the day. Wow, what a rich conversation we had as each person, often with tear filled eyes, talked about how God had touched them.

Together. That's the way God works through us. Life is just better together.

WCC's first CD almost complete

We just finished our final touches on the studio recording for our first worship CD. My son, Stephen, has done a fantastic job as the producer on this project. He has spent 2 to 3 nights a week for the last 3 months at the Barton College studio. He actually wrote 12 of the 13 songs on the CD. I'm really proud of him and his Stedfast worship team. They have all worked very hard.

They even asked me to lay down one of my songs as a bonus track. So, last week I was in there recording a song I wrote some years ago called "Show Me Thy Ways."

Now, we send the CD off to be mastered and reproduced. We're planning to have them ready for purchase by December 1st.

I am praying that these songs will be a blessing to the Body of Christ.