Tip of the Iceberg

As I followed God's call to serve Him at Calvary Community Church, there were many unknowns. I explored as much about the church as I could from the East, but there were many things I simply had to accept at face value. I could only see the tip of the iceberg. While an iceberg is often a negative reference in terms of impending danger, I am using it in the general way. I find iceberg's fascinating. They have a small tip that protrudes above the surface of the water. This tip can misrepresent what lies deep below the surface. Often the vast majority of the iceberg, its shape, and composition cannot be seen from the surface level.

Projects, people, opportunities, and organizations, like icebergs, can be looked at intensely for long periods of time and you may only see the surface reality. What you discover when you start analyzing what's below the surface can often change your assessment.

Even though the whole process and dialogue about my coming to Calvary was as thorough as it could be, it still only provided a "tip of the iceberg" perspective. The elders, staff, and search team attempted to be as informative and as open as they could be about who Calvary was, where it had come from, and how it was positioned for the future. But, until a leader is on site, actively engaged in leadership,  he or she cannot know what lies below the surface. How deep is the organization? How healthy are the ministries? How motivated and mobilized are the people? How aligned are the various groups within the body? All these kinds of questions can only be answered at a surface level until a leader has settled into the saddle a bit.

After six weeks of service here, I am so excited to report that Calvary Community Church just gets better the deeper below the surface I go. Is it a perfect place with no problems or issues? No (after all I am here and I brought my own set of issues and problems with me). But, the health, strength, depth, passion, focus, unity, energy, breadth, and heart of Calvary below the surface is even greater than what I discovered above the surface. My early assessments of the "tip of the iceberg" have proven to be confirmed by the rest of the iceberg below the surface!

So what? What difference does it make?

Since the Church has a basic health deep down, that means we will not need to spend a great deal of energy realigning, reestablishing, reorganizing, reframing, or restarting stuff. We can jump in together and see people come to Jesus, see them get grounded and growing, see them live lives pleasing to the Lord, and see them telling others about Jesus. To me it means God is about to take Calvary into a wonderful season of ministry to the people of the Conejo valley and the world - no time wasted on major organizational adjustments! God is about to do some great stuff and we get to be a part of it! It means that together we get to see real lives changed through power of Jesus Christ!