It’s fourth down and long. Time is running out. The game is on the line. The hush of the crowd is deafening, and everyone is on the edge of their seats. The quarterback takes the snap, feels the blitz breaking through his off ensive line and looks down field for an open receiver. He lets the football fly. It lands perfectly between the two defenders surrounding his receiver. And somehow, by some amazing miracle, the receiver catches it and takes off in a dead sprint for the goal line.

    The crowd jumps to their feet as they realize their team has won!  As the receiver crosses the goal line and scores the winning touchdown, thousands of fans scream with all their might in amazement and jubilation.  The story of this victory will be retold hundreds of times around water coolers!  Cameras capture the moment for the highlight reels! This is truly one for the ages! Everyone loves a long-bomb!

    We love to hear the stories of churches that start in faith, and within a few short months are living the long-bomb. We love to hear to the stories of thousands in weekend attendance in the first year. We dream of what it would be like to be apart of something God visits that way. We all dream of being the long-bomb!  We love to watch those churches, study their tactics, and learn from them. We want to hear what they did, how they did it, and when they did it. We long to grab a hold of that little nugget that will let us become like them. Something about the overnight success story inspires us to want to do what they did. We long for our church to look like theirs. We aspire to walk in their footsteps, and experience what they experienced.

    But their story is not my story. And the reality for most pastors today is that their story doesn’t look like the long-bomb, so many of us feel pressure to live up to the long-bomb story.

    What if it doesn’t have to be this way? What if there is more than one way to win? What if the long-bomb isn’t the only play God is using today? What if God’s strategy to impact the nations centers on more than just the long-bomb churches? What if there’s hope for the rest of us? After all, we know the game is not won or lost by the long-bomb play alone.

 
Welcome to the up-the-middle reality of ministry,
 
 Matt Keller