Territorialism

I read a blog post this past week by Mark Batterson by the same title as this one.  You can read it for yourself here.

In the post Mark says "territorialism is caring more about your kingdom than God’s kingdom.  Plain and simple.  It’s selfish spirituality.  It’s caring more about your reputation than God’s reputation."  

I've experienced this first hand a few times.  Several years ago when I was new to the staff of FCBC I had a conversation with a church member who told me when she was in the youth group and would go on retreats that included multiple churches, one of the churches from our area was seen as a "rival" by our church's youth group.

And then there was the time, as a student pastor, I was working with a few other student pastors to create a monthly worship experience for our groups.  We all had small to medium size student ministries so we were coming together to create an experience that had the energy and momentum that a larger group could create.  We had two goals:  create great student worship experiences and develop great student leaders to lead them.

We invited several other students pastors to join us.  One in particular was beyond excited about her group being a part of it.  She saw the value it could have with the students that she led.  But when she told her pastor about the plan he immediately shut it down for their group.  He said "I afraid our students will like one of the other groups better and go to that church."

When I heard that I remember thinking "REALLY?  You're afraid that by doing what's best for the Kingdom of God might have a negative affect on your church?"

I decided then that I would never be that kind of pastor.  I've actually helped people who have attended our church connect with a different church because it was a better fit for them or their family.

I'm so thankful that our church sees the value in partnerships with other churches and other groups.  That our staff and leaders realize it's not about getting a little bit bigger piece of the pie for us but it's about enlarging the Kingdom of God.

If there's a church down the road that I can teach something that I've learned, I'm there.  And if there's a church in our community that can teach us something that can help us reach our mission, I want to know what it is.  And if there's a church that shares our values and wants to partner with us to make a difference in this world then I want to meet them and start a conversation.