In my ministry as an NCD coach and national partner, I am regularly struck by the extent of God's grace. Mostly this relates to seeing churches move from a position of very poor health to a place where hope is rekindled and extinction is now completely out of the question. But also where average churches begin to experience abundantly more than they could ask or imagine.
Though there is another more specific way that I often see God's grace extend beyond our efforts.
I have the opportunity to work with some very very healthy churches. In those environments, it is apparent to me that while the quality and character of the leaders is of a very high standard, there is clearly significant headroom for growth in the fruit of the Spirit.
In some of these churches, it is apparent that the senior pastor (and elders) have areas of love that are still significantly underdeveloped. However, this is often compensated for by others in the leadership team who 'fill the gap'. While this gap-filling is partly the outworking of gift-based ministry and can therefore be praised, it is still never-the-less a compensation that would be far less necessary if the pastor were to take serious steps to grow in areas that may well be decades-old fields of immature fruit.
For example, even in a very healthy church, you can find in the context of their NCD minimum factor issues, a tendency for the pastor to work without clear day-to-day or long-term project boundaries. This often leads to a seriously overworked personal assistant and other ministry workers normalising fatigue as a part of noble 'cross-bearing' ministry. Apart from having no particular connection to the 'easy yoke of Christ' (The other beam of wood that Jesus chooses to carry - Matthew 11:28-30) this scenario can often be linked back to a fundamental lack of self-control on the part of the pastor. When such a leader begins to take seriously Jesus' directive to move personally toward increasing fruitfulness (John 15), and take the necessary practical steps for doing so, the ripple effect across a church can be stunning!
Despite this though (or should I say, in generous imbalanced proportion to this), God pours out his grace in bringing growth and life to their church. Though I'm sure if given the option, he would like to pour out his grace (in even greater measure) on those who are not going to leak it all over the place in unfruitful ways.
As the pastor of a 4 month old church plant, this issue of personal character and fruitfulness goes well beyond my wider ministry and moves very close to home. It is frightening how fast a new church comes to look like yourself.
But as the leaders of our new church seek to grow up, we are already very aware of the next generation of leaders and their character development. It is an absolute delight to minister in a place where even the children understand at a very early age that 'love is the greatest of these' (1 Corinthians 13). For them it is as normal for them to openly speak about their lowest and highest fruit of the spirit areas as it is to play with a Nintendo DS. What's more, they can already see the benefits of embracing God's grace and, motivated and empowered by it, taking practical steps to grow in their least developed areas.
I look forward to the day when we can speak to them about how us leaders of yesteryear used to try to do ministry and grow churches without much concern for our own fruit of the Spirit, and they will laugh.
What a beautiful day that will be!
Blessings
AJ