Little did I know how profound a grad school class would be in 1998 or that the contents of that class would be the seeds of a church today. I was 28 yrs old and an assistant pastor in a traditional baptist church when I took my third Moody Grad School class. The class was "Church Renewal Principles" and the teacher was Gene Getz. Getz was well know having authored dozens of books. I also knew he was a former prof at Dallas Seminary and then launched a church that was planting churches all over Dallas. The class was fantatstic and the final project was designing a church, using the principles surfaced in the class, that you would envision pastoring. It was a fantastic exercise of vision casting and putting down on paper what would be the core values and imperatives that would drive the church's evangelistic and discipling strategies. I got an A on the paper.....
Fast forward 10 years, now a 38 yr old, still idealistic pastor of a group os visionaries. We began to dream together what a church should look like and I began to teach on the things that I had heard a decade later from Getz. Amazingly, they began to come to the same conclusions that I had come to and we began to unfold a church into reality, that use to be just a write dream! That was nine years ago and we praise God for the work that has been accomplished at NewSong. We celebrated that in our service yesterday and we began our tenth year of ministry....
Yesterday, Gene getz preached at NewSong. I think it was appropriate that the "Prof" who messed with the mind an idealistic young pastor and set me on a journey to lead a church I would like to attend (in a survey of pastors, it was discovered that most pastors would not attend the churches they pastored if they had a choice). Gene was in classic form unfolding what the book of Romans says about the phrase "one another." Now retired from Fellowship Bible Church and devoting his time to writing a study Bible and speaking extensively. He is 75 yrs old but still has fire and passion, in a low key, relaxing, confident way -- vintage Gene!
On Saturday, Getz spoke to 140+ pastors and leaders and again did his magic. We all left in awe in how he finds insights and principles that remain a mystery to most of us! I was so glad to have him in our midst. Simply so he could see the fruit of his ministry. His faithful teaching and writing has had a major impact in the evangelical world. He is a treasure to the church. Our church was not only honored but blessed with his ministry. Thanks Gene -- may God give you many years of multipication!!!