11 Reasons Why It's Time to Begin This Transition

what i want to do today and you might want to get out of pencil on this i want to give you the reasons behind why i announced it now uh and i'm going to give you 11 reasons 11 reasons why i am announcing this now rather than later if i don't get any of the other questions answered i really want you to be clear on this and then i want to talk to you about what to expect in the days ahead what you can expect that i know will happen in in the days of heaven as you heard the message this weekend on on timing i have learned that god's timing is as important in what we do as much as what we do it's when we do it and so over the years i have learned to be increasingly sensitive uh to the holy spirit's timing and i don't always get it right but i can say this i now believe i get it right more than i get it wrong okay nobody gets it right all the time but i do believe that after walking with the lord for 51 years and and being at saddleback 41 and a half years i get it right more than i don't uh in in timing and so i want to give you 11 reasons why i decided to announce uh the beginning of a search for my replacement now uh and tell everybody about it now instead of like keeping it a secret for a while okay here are the here are 11 reasons number one i have always trusted the maturity uh of our members uh they have handled enormous change over 40 years with grace and wit and and and charm and patience uh imagine somebody who was a member of this church when we had only 50 people or imagine somebody who was a member of this church when we only had 800 people or 2 000 people or whatever the amount of change that the members of this church have gone through uh even in the last year think of all the change you've gone through since you've been on staff you know this is a church that does not stand still there are external changes like covet which was one of the biggest changes in our history obviously and they're internal changes and there are the only thing that stays the same the only thing that stays the same in uh at saddleback church is our commitment to the great commandment in the great commission we are committed to jesus christ and we are committed to his five purposes that has never changed in 42 years but everything else has changed the style of music has changed five times in the history of saddleback church staff history i have over a thousand staff former staff who've been on staff at saddleback church now serving elsewhere i consider them like missionaries as you know i've got a a facebook page for former staff just because they're not here doesn't mean i don't love them i do love them i'm grateful for any time that they were here but those people i care about doesn't mean they're serving here but i still care about them and want to know about their kids and their families and stuff like that but i i our church has handled an enormous amount of change so i knew that they could handle this one and this is a big one this is a big change but i trust the maturity of our members the second reason is i respect art members and i respect you so i don't keep secrets okay i wasn't going to keep it a secret and then at the last minute spring it on everybody i trust you i respect you and so i'm not going to keep secrets from you we are a family we've said that all along we act like a family and you know what families share what they're going through so if i'm going through a problem i'm going to share it with you if i'm going through a difficulty i'm going to share it with you if i'm going through having a tough time with my health i'm going to share it with you if i know god is leading me to move into the next stage of my life i'm going to share it with you i respect you i i trust your maturity like i trust the members maturity and i i respect you so i don't keep secrets okay uh that's why from the very very beginning i wanted you guys involved we haven't even started the search yet okay we haven't even started it yet but i'm telling you about it in advance okay third reason of 11 reasons why now i believe our staff is the healthiest it's ever been right now i think that would be hard to refute i believe our staff is the healthiest it's ever been and that gives me great confidence uh on making a transition in my own life now why is our staff the healthiest you know who we have to thank for that covid covid and zoom and the racial issues that we went through this last year those three things uh not being able to meet together uh uh dealing with something as serious as racial insensitivity and then having the tool of zoom we have this what we've got right now don't underestimate the power of this zoom to build health because for the first time in our history all of our campuses can meet together prior to zoom we didn't have all the campuses and all of our staff able to be at staff meeting they couldn't make every staff meeting but we're all all the campuses are together we have regularity which builds fellowship you know when we remember when we started in covet we had as we had a staff meeting every day if you remember start staff meeting every day then we went to twice a week and then we went to one once a week and we don't miss it that has built the health of our staff but more than just regularity on zoom we get to see each other's faces and that's a big deal you get to see body language of other people you see when we had staff meeting like for instance in the refinery at the lake forest campus most of that staff meeting you sat looking at the back of heads of people you couldn't see their faces you couldn't see their reactions you could only see the back of their heads this zoom actually works better than a a together step because you're looking at the back of the head most of the time and it's usually just a monologue one person is talking and there's no chat chat has been uh great uh the very fact that we've been able to affirm each other as somebody was talking you're able to go that's a good point and and you bring up and we could ask questions and and uh and then even at the end when we would have a discussion i could say well you know uh andrew i saw you said this or meegan i saw you say that talk to us about that and bring it out it actually this tool actually increased fellowship actually increased uh us being able to hear from each other rather than simply hearing from one teacher or or one speaker so the fact that first we we got a tool that allowed us to meet every week allowed us to see each other face to face allowed every campus to be involved allowed us to react with chat allowed us to talk unmute and talk allow different people to pray and we could all pray with and pray for each other these are all big issues but do not underestimate all the time that we spent dealing with racial insensitivity for many of us dealing and confronting uh insensitivity prejudice not being aware of how other people feel that was a first time experience and the gut level of those 17 hours in the first batch and i think about 10 hours in the second batch when we were dealing with asian and hispanic uh issues uh i don't know honestly i don't know any staff in america that probably had those kind of gut level discussions the way we did the way you did i don't know honestly i say it without fear of being contradicted where would you find another staff where we were weeping with each other where we were saying people were saying i had no idea of the pain you were carrying where people spilled their guts could lay their heads down on the table and weep and the rest of us empathized and felt that that built a unity built a harmony built a um a connection that our staff had never had okay very very important so the combination of cohen not being able to see each other the tool of zoom and then dealing with the most fundamental issue identity who am i and race is a part of your identity obviously a big part of your identity and dealing with that and the the camaraderie and the way we supported each other the way you prayed for each other uh the way you owned up to your own insensitivity spoke volumes to me and i just thought these guys are further ahead than anybody i know okay are we where we want to be in being an anti-racist church are we where we want to be as an all-nation congregation are we going to be are we yet the model we want to be nope but guys thank god we're not what we were okay thank god we're not what we were we're getting ready to where we're going to be we've moved forward and and there's no turning back we're never turning back to insensitivity we're going to be a church that empathizes not simply on racial issues but on racial issues on economic issues on poverty on people in pain on mental illness on people struggling with all kinds of different issues and that is uh it was a big big thing that i think god was using that to prepare our church and to show me that our staff i believe i believe you are the healthiest uh staff that we've ever had and i praise you for that we're not worthy we're not worthy we're not worthy so i thank you guys thank you for being you okay i'm proud of you and uh i i trust your maturity and i respect you uh number four the fourth reason i did it now i want everybody praying from the very start if you don't know we're looking for the next senior pastor or lead pastor how in the world can you pray for it so i told you before we even started the search because i know you could handle it but i want you praying this decision obviously is going to affect you so why wouldn't i want you praying about it from the very start that's a very a fourth reason that's really important and anybody you can get else praying for it go right ahead and get them praying too and as i said when you're ready to make a major decision you don't want to just pray about it yourself you want everybody else praying about it too number five the fifth reason i decided now we're not in a crisis okay we're not in a cri we're not you know thanking the lord in spite of the fact that uh you know we didn't meet for over a year our finances stayed strong uh we're we're not in debt we are we are financially strong as well as spiritually strong we're not in a crisis we're not fighting some fire right now i didn't want to announce this in reaction to any problem it's summertime we're about to come out of covid uh it looks like we're going to be able to very soon go without masks uh outside at least and uh that's a big deal these are all positive things so not being in a crisis not reacting to to some pain or something like that i thought the holy spirit led me to go this rick is a good time and uh and we're coming out of of a major pandemic okay number six my own health is one of the eleven factors it's not the only factors but it is a factor uh coming out of covid i realized that my thorn in the flesh that god gave me years and years ago but long for saddleback uh that it was getting worse the degenerative disease the spinal myoclonus it's a rare version of spinal myoclosus i went to to mayo clinic over 30 years ago and they said we may name a syndrome after you because it's it's pretty rare but the bottom line is as i explained sunday when adrenaline hits my system uh that it it it creates a shaking it tremors like parkinson's and now it doesn't happen when i'm moving you see most people won't understand because they've never seen it in me it only happens when i'm trying to go to sleep when i relax and then when i relax my body just starts shaking violently and it keeps me awake and uh many nights a week i'll be up all night i have been living a sleep deprived life most of my life it doesn't show up when i'm speaking because i'm moving and when i'm moving that's releasing uh adrenaline but when you lay quiet and you lay silent and when you try to rest like i can't take a nap uh if you're able to take a nap count your many blessings in the afternoon if you're able to take an upgrade i'm not ever able to take a nap because if i lay down my body will start shaking and it will start these these tremors and i uh uh i think i told you that when i started the church i thought well i could do one service because that raise your adrenaline one time but i could never do two and then three then four then five and six and then even more and my body has paid a tremendous toll uh for preaching multiple services we were only the only time saddleback was in single services were the first six months of the church after six months we went to double services and never went back and it is a it it's been a drain on me well when we did covid i was only preaching one message a week and for a year uh i preached um uh only one service a week you know what happened i started sleeping and i i lost 40 pounds because when you sleep you when you don't sleep you gain weight i lost 40 pounds just because i wasn't i was sleeping well the moment we started services and back to four services on sunday at lake forest i just realized oh my goodness i didn't realize what that was like and and i realized i'm not going to be able to keep this up and so there was a my own uh factor of my own health uh that was number six number seven in the reason was the death of glenn cruin and john baker and rick mucho three of the founding pastors of saddleback church all died within six months of each other that was not only a shock to me it was a wake-up call that we didn't have any process in place that if something were suddenly to happen to me if i got hit by a bus tomorrow there was no process in place there were no instructions nothing in place to to replace me that friends was bad stewardship that's bad planning so while i'm not intending to get hit by a bus tomorrow the bottom line is we needed a process in place and i couldn't just keep on assuming that oh everybody will know what to do if all of a sudden god took me out of the picture as quickly as he took glenn or john or rick mucho so it that was a factor that was uh the the seventh factor in in in saying we really have to have a plan in place we don't know how long it's gonna be but we know we have to have a plan in place eight the eighth reason why i decided this was the time led of the holy spirit is that i know that god has called me to lead the ftt finishing the task coalition that i am to be the spokesperson uh the the face the work will be done by 1600 different agencies and even more than that churches as we move toward the ad2033 goal of a bible a believer and a body of christ in every unreached people group and every unreached place in the world that's an enormous task this last year i was not able to do very much on ftt because i was preoccupied with uh with the church and particularly when i'm preaching uh it involves two days of preaching two days of preparation and a day of rest that doesn't leave much left on that but i know god wants me to lead ftt and has called me to do this and it has been confirmed by christian leaders around the world that they were the ones who who wanted me to lead it and so i i know it's not like i'm going to be doing nothing but it's over number nine the ninth reason i knew this now i know that there are books inside of me that god once written that would require a sabbatical to write and i didn't want to take a sabbatical this close to the end of my ministry i just thought well you know take a sabbatical and then come back and and retire or change jobs uh that just doesn't seem right um there are books in me that i have about six half-written books that i know that god wants to use as much as he used purpose-driven life you know with most of you know this but some of you are new to staff you don't know this when i wrote purpose-driven life uh i took six and a half months off almost seven months to write that book and i would get up at about 4 30 in the morning and i would not shower or shave or eat breakfast i put on some sweatpants and i would go to a little office behind the worship center back in the green room and i would light a candle and i would just start typing and i would type there for hours until about noon and then my add would kick in and i'd go i got to get with people i've got to see somebody i'm i'm not i'm a people person and so david shawn or somebody on her staff would bring me lunch uh i would eat lunch walk around the lake forest campus uh take about an hour a break shower there and then start again about one o'clock and then type till about five come home play with the kids eat dinner and get in bed and i was in bed about eight o'clock every night and i did that for almost seven months to write that book what was it worth it uh yes yes it was worth it during that time during those seven months i was writing a purpose-driven life i only preached two times christmas and easter those were the only two services in seven months so effectively other people were leading the church now while i was gone from i didn't leave any staff meeting during that time while i was gone the the church grew by 800 more people and i thought man i should stay away more often this is good that was a sacrifice for me and it was a sacrifice for the church but it blessed the world as you know now purpose-driven life has passed 50 million copies in english and who knows and how many of the other languages how many millions it's done i know 3 million in spanish but it's in you know dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of language it's the most translated book except for the bible and so that was a good use of my time but it did mean that that i wasn't wasn't leading the church i can't write and and lead at the same time so that was another factor is that i know that there are books in me that god once written uh one of the next one one of them that i want to write is called the hope the resurrection of hope and it's about hope and it's about the 40 days after the resurrection so that's the ninth reason the tenth reason why i decided this was the right time is because i made a public commitment at the first service uh to give this church 40 years of my life i have repeated that commitment hundreds and hundreds of times now again i said for all along this was not a date that the lord gave me it wasn't god's promise to me it was my promise to god it was my promise to saddleback church it was my covenant with the people there at the time i'm not going to leave you i will give you the best years of my life i will give you 40 years of my life and i won't be tempted to go away to lead a seminary or another church or lead a denomination or anything like that i'm just going to stay here and and focus um so that uh that that when we came up to that year we were actually a couple years before we hit the 20th anniver the 40th anniversary k and i started praying and we had already decided long before we hit the 40th anniversary she and i had already decided that we were going to stay past the 40th year we didn't see any reason to but we just did i didn't particularly feel like it was the right time uh that the timing was right so we made a commitment a couple years before the 40th anniversary hit we were going to go past the 40th year but then during covid uh i began to see clear and clear these reasons that i've already given you and as we began to come out of cova they begat to be clearer and clearer and clearer and so uh it wasn't like people didn't know that i hadn't made a 40-year commitment we had made a 40-year commitment and what was the surprise was that i stayed past it i stayed past 40 years we're now in our 42nd year and we don't know how many more months or year or whatever it will take but we're going to trust god's timing now the 11th reason is this and this is a big one we are poised saddleback is poised right now for a new season of growth a new season of growth uh in september for instance at the lake forest there first let me just say this before i even talk about lake forest there is a pent-up demand right now coming out of covid of people who are looking for spiritual roots people got out of the habit of going to church in the last uh year okay yeah they got out of habit but there's also a hunger and i was brought face to face with this a week ago when i was down at the san diego campus because when i was at the san diego campus afterwards i stood around and talked to people and over 20 people came up to me who told me i'm here for the first time i'm here at saddleback church for the very first time over 20 people every single one of those people said what got my attention what got me through coveted with the online services of saddleback church i started watching online through the james series or i started hearing it online through daily hope and the radio stations and daily hope and the online services created a lot of people who were just waiting to come back to church once masks are gone and the threat is is down and as i said over 20 people every single one of them said those saddleback worship services the messages and the music saved me during coven saved my sanity gave me help uh gave me encouragement kept me going they were the bright spot in my week and as soon as the service opened up man i made a beeline for that church we are poised we are poised friends for a next phase of growth this fall i i can feel it i believe me i've been through a lot of different seasons in 42 years we're getting ready for another season of growth i can tell you right now you can bank on it bank on it we're poised for new season growth now in september at the lake forest we're going to open a new worship center people think we're remodeling it's not a remodel it's a totally new worship center at the lake forest campus and it's going to um attract people in the history of our church every time we moved to a new location or every time we built a new building we went up an average of 2 000 in attendance in one month every single time when we open the new worship center at lake forest they're gonna it will do a big grand opening there will be people who will come who've never been in church before it just happens every time we're poised for a new season of growth now that was my 11th but let me give you a number 12. and i'm just throwing this in as a bonus okay and that is we have been enriching the soil for 42 years so fruit is inevitable fruit is inevitable someday i'm going to write a book on the organic church lessons i learned from gardening and i've learned a lot of lessons about weeding and feeding and watering and planting and harvesting and all the different things that it taken most of what i learned about church growth i probably learned in my garden i told kay the other day that the greatest uh reward to me of my garden each year and if you saw my garden it's it's growing real good right now uh of all these different vegetables over 40 different kinds of tomatoes i've planted and all kinds of vegetables and fruit the greatest benefit or blessing to me is not the annual harvest of fruit it's the fact that i know that every year for over 20 years i've been enriching that soil and if you in that means that every year the soil gets richer the soil gets richer the soil which means the richer the soil the more and bigger fruit you're going to have for the last 41 and a half years we've been bearing fruit a very fruitful church but my focus has been on enriching the soil how do we enrich the soil through class 101 201 301 401 through campaigns which i will continue to write i want to write some in the future that aren't we haven't done yet uh campaigns classes cell groups sermon series enriching the soil we have in our church right now a core a solid core you couldn't drive them away okay you just couldn't drive them away and sean wrote are any watermelon k yes i am growing watermelon sean i am growing watermelon so there you go uh bottom line is the soil of saddleback is so rich we're going to bear fruit no matter who's the senior pastor no matter who is the the the lead pastor because you are the enrichment of the soil the members are the enriched soil uh the the bench strength that we have on our staff the depth that we have on our staff means whoever comes in as the lead pastor after me is going to have an easier job in some areas than i had because the soil is rich there was no soil when i got here when kay got here there was no soil but we've been enriching that soil building into people's lives for over four decades and that is going to continue to bear fruit long past uh my ministry and and kay's ministry now oh my goodness it's 148. uh i'm not getting to all your questions but let i i need to ask you tell you about what to expect okay i want you to write these things down because i know what's going to happen in in the days ahead and i just want you to be aware of it when you're aware of it you know it doesn't scare you okay so here's what to expect as we begin the process of finding my replacement finding my successor however long it takes number one expect mixed emotions okay expect mixed emotions i want you to be kind to the members because they and you are going to have all kinds of mixed emotions you might have some anxiety uh you might have some grief you might have maybe some fear uh some sadness uh some happiness for k and me uh there could be a lot of different emotions that happen emotions are meant to be felt okay and so sympathize and empathize with everybody when people are scared work with them when people are fearful or people are anxious work with when people are sad or depressed or or grieving another change nobody likes change really we like what we're comfortable with but our church has been through a lot of change so expect mixed emotions but here's the key trust the sovereignty of god in in the days ahead trust the sovereignty of god i want to remind you that long before god chose me and kay to start this church he already knew who my replacement would be before i even was born and god formed me to plant this church and all these changed lives god already knew who um who's going to replace me so nothing surprises god god never has to say oops or didn't see that coming or whatever so trust the sovereignty of god okay expect mixed emotions okay number two expect some people to leave our church family and some new people to join count on it now why can i say that because that's always been the case no matter what happens that's always been the case in every church you can't keep people who aren't committed to the family and uh it's a waste of time to do that when i step down there will be a few people hopefully not many who were rick warren groupies they came just to hear me okay then they never really were of us in the first place but the people who are committed not simply to me but they're committed to our church family they're gonna stay so expect some people to leave our church family and what do you do love everybody you love everybody what you will find is that immature people leave immaturely mature people leave maturely loud people leave loudly and quiet people lead quietly so people lead when when they leave they're they're revealing their character not you don't take it as a personal affront don't take it as a rejection okay uh you know they're gonna go somewhere else fine god for the last 42 years i've been preaching to a parade hello how are you goodbye hello how are you goodbye hello how are you goodbye literally tens of thousands of people have come through saddleback over 41 and a half years people leave for good reasons they get married they have a baby they move to another place they get a promotion they leave for bad reasons wrong wrong reason it doesn't matter bottom line is you love everybody and realize that new people will come in and while some some leave that's all you can't keep people who aren't committed so don't worry about them a third thing to expect during this period of time expect to be watched and i need to explain this to you expect to be watched you might not realize it because sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees but without a doubt the most watched churched in america is saddleback church no other pastor in saddleback and their retirement gets mentioned as it was this week in the new york times the washington post the la times cnn nbc usa today and on and on and on the number of people media who've asked for an interview is a long long list there is no church that's watched more than saddleback church for right or wrong good or bad we have influence and anything that happens in this church makes news there's not any other church that if the pastor decided to resign or retire retire it's going to make it in the new york times uh so just realize that we are being watched and and we want to be this is an opportunity for us to show christ likeness and love um in in spite of the fact that you know it's nothing we do can be kept a secret it's out there it's already been on cnn it's already been in nbc it's already been on fox uh because saddleback has influenced so many other churches okay number four okay and i hate to have to tell you this but but you just count on it expect a tax expect attacks there will be people who attack our church in this season uh there will be there are rick warren haters and there are mentally ill folks and they are even satan inspired critics who will use my um resignation or my stepping down or my retirement as an excuse to attack our church and they'll say see this is why and and here's here's the point they're going to attribute all kinds of motivation i i know this because i've seen it my entire life we've never had any major decision at saddleback church that wasn't attacked misunderstood uh mislabeled uh wrong motivation attached to it and and all kinds that just count on it friends there are kooky people out there there are haters out there there are folks who struggle with mental illness there are all kinds of different people it's it's gonna come i remember when matthew died when he took his life uh due to his own mental illness the meanness and the vitriol that came out people attributing they they were there were people who say oh matthew was secretly a homosexual and his dad didn't approve of it and so he took his life uh there was uh rick warren was a terrible father and he beat his son and so he took they make up stories they they made upstairs it when i was most hurting they said the most vile and mean-spirited even the newspapers saw this and came out saying the vitriol that's going against k warren and rick warren right now in their death of their son where people were these armchair critics and armchair psychologists and armchair attackers who from a distance will use anything to attack so i'm telling you that there will be people just count on it there will be people who misread the 11 or 12 motivations that i just gave you and they're going to make up something else count on it it will happen so expect mixed emotions expect some people leave the church expect to be watched expect attacks and then finally here's the good one expect the blessing and leadership of the holy spirit expect the blessing and the leadership of the holy spirit during this process now i'm going to give you the verse that's going to be the theme verse for however long god calls kay and me to stay in this position between now and whenever we step down uh from the lead pastor role and the theme verse between now and then is going to be philippians 1 6. philippians 1 6. being confident be confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of christ jesus this church is far far bigger than me it's far bigger than k it outgrew us like 41 years ago okay uh no single person could carry off what we do on a weekly basis it's a team effort it's a symphony and if if all of a sudden first chair trumpets gone well you look for your replacement and even if the conductor is gone you still have the symphony and this church is bigger than me it always has been bigger than me and it's bigger than you too we serve god's purpose in our generation that's it we are better together we are better together it's not any individual this is not a church of prima donnas this is a church of a team it's a church of a family and family members grow old family members move away family members get married family members die but we're still a family we're still a family and so philippians 1 6 i want you to memorize that verse be confident of this that he who began a good work the work that he began in the hearts of kay and me before back in 1979 that work he will carry it on to completion when until we retire no until the day of jesus christ until the day of jesus you are here and i trust you in this transition you you need to realize that you're here at a significant turning point in our church god wants to use you god wants to use you for a smooth transition to the next generation you've heard me say many times the only thing that's going to last is the church that a thousand years or 500 years from today there won't be a microsoft or an apple or starbucks a thousand years a day there won't be a united states of america no no no human built organization lasts you know where's the roman empire where all the other empires that no longer exist what what what will exist is the church it's the only thing that's gonna outlast and guess what it's gonna outlast not just me it's gonna outlast you the church for two thousand years has been one generation handing the baton to the next handing the baton to the next handing the baton to the next we are always the church has always been one generation away from extinction if we don't win the next generation disease to christ and as gen z doesn't reach the generation after them to christ the church is always one generation away from extinction but it's not going to happen it's never going to go extinct why because jesus said i will build my church so keep your eyes on jesus not on me not on the critics not on the attacks not all the people who are misinterpreting what we're trying to do uh keep your eye on jesus and realize that this is a bigger thing than you you are investing your life in something that's gonna outlast it i have invested my life in something that's far gonna outlast me and when i get to heaven i'm gonna meet thousands of people who say i'm in heaven because of saddleback church thank you i want that to be true in your life i'm asking i'm calling for you to give your best for the bride of christ in the days i'm calling on you to give your best for the family of god called saddleback i'm calling on you i'm admonishing you that i need you coming out of kobe to step it up i need you to give more love more prayer more joy more commitment more time more talent more energy give give nothing you sacrifice for christ is done in vain nothing you do for him will ever be wasted we are at a pivotal point and this is not the time to slack back and go oh rick's leaving what are we going to do now now is the time to redouble our effort to get ready for another phase of growth to move not just into a new worship center in at lake forest but to find a worship center for every one of our campuses that's our task that's our job and to start new campuses and to continue reaching out and you were here at this strategic time because obviously god knew you had the talents you had the gifts you have the abilities that were needed to get done what we needed to do so i'm looking at you right now and i'm looking at your face and i'm going will you step up will you say i don't care who our senior pastor is god has called me to this church god has called me to this time god has called me to this task and the purposes of god will last forever many are the plans in a man's heart but it is the lord's purposes that are eternal and as long as we build on his eternal purposes god will keep blessing us god will keep using us so i just need you to say i'm all in rick you are handing us the baton i'm not handing it to you when i leave i'm handing it to you right now during this transition period i'm handing it to you right now and say will you step up whether i'm here for days or months or years or that is irrelevant to what god wants to do with you will you take the baton and go you know what i'm going to have the same time of commitment that rick and kay warren had when they had nothing in this church and now we have a huge church of rarely good enriched soil it is inevitable that we will have fruit i believe in you i trust you i know this is the right time because i know you i i i know your commitment i know your depth i know you're and i feel absolute confident that if i were to drop dead today and i'm not i'm not going to drop dead day but if i were that this church would go on and that our greatest days were ahead of us okay now you know well i'm no hero you have no idea you are a hero you just don't realize it you are a hero the fact that you've helped us to get to where we are today everybody doing their part makes the difference and what i want is i want a staff that is so unified that whoever god calls to be the lead person the lead pastor that that person walks in and goes this is an ideal situation this is incredible i'd give both arms to be pastor of this church now it's 205 and i haven't even answered any of your questions guess what we're going to do that in another session i'm sorry i apologize forgive me for i have sinned uh but we i'll do another session with just but i wanted you to understand most of all why now and what to expect why now what to expect we'll do another staff meeting where i get into all of the the gritty details but i just want you i i'm asking for your commitment to say okay guys we're going to give it all we're coming out of covid uh and we're all not back up at the full i'm not asking for 100 of what you used to have i'm asking for 100 of what you got right now okay if you will give me all you've got of what you've got right now guess what god will take that he'll divide it into multiple loaves and fishes and and we will we'll feed the five thousand and we'll we'll we'll feed the world all right i'm gonna pray for you let me pray uh lord i love our staff i love our team i look at their faces and i just see just potential i see progress i see development i see maturity i see people who've given their hearts to you and are committed not just to you but you are committed to this church family to making sure that the best of our days are the rest of our days that the greatest days of saddleback are ahead of us that all the past was prologue that it was all preparation that the foundation has been laid that the soil has been enriched so much we're bound to have fruit help us to attempt great things for you and expect great things from you help us to move forward in confidence being confident of this that he who began a good work in us you're not going to leave us you're not going to drop us you're going to continue it to the day of jesus christ we pray that is true we pray that promise is true that saddleback keeps growing and reaching and expanding and developing and winning and building and sending people out until the day you come back and then one day we'll all go to heaven together and we'll celebrate all the changed lives that are going to happen in these future days ahead protect this staff dear lord you know that i love them you know that i pray for them every day you you know that i care and that i i want you to protect their finances and protect their health and protect their relationships and protect their bodies protect their minds so that they as women and men may be ministers of jesus christ for the glory of god and the growth of your kingdom fill us all with your holy spirit because we can't do this on our own without you we are nothing and i pray this blessing in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 52,946

Rating: 4.7490773 out of 5

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Id: u_XK-izp6PM

Length: 52min 4sec (3124 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021