To the Church Which Seeks Seekers

Each week this month, BuildingChurchLeaders.com is considering how different expressions of Christianity can more faithfully embody the calling God has placed on them. These letters are patterned off the words of Jesus in Revelation 2–3. While they lack the authority of Scripture, they contain many convicting insights brought in the spirit of humility and love for the church. This letter, written by John Ortberg, is addressed to the churches that he knows best: those in the seeker movement.

These are the words of the Seeker after lost sheep and lost coins and prodigal sons and daughters:

I love your heart for lost people.

I love the way you think and risk and give and stop at nothing to let all persons know they matter to me.

I love the way you have reclaimed the task of evangelism for the church.

That’s just the heart of a shepherd searching for lost sheep; a father longing for his lost son.

I love your heart.

I love your devotion to community.

I love to see you gathered in homes to pray and learn and grow.

I love how you want everyone to discover the gifts I’ve given them.

I love your activistic spirit; I love to see your service to the church, to the city, to the whole world.

I love your passion, your creativity, your desire to see the church flourish and prevail.

But I give you two warnings:

First, never stop dreaming big dreams.

The day you get content and sit on your laurels or begin to look backward is the day the dream begins to die.

I have such plans for you, if you will only trust me, and not stop dreaming.

Second, stay humble.

Remember that I have said: not by might, not by power, but by my spirit.

Remember as you enjoy this season of extraordinary fruitfulness, I also work in hidden and obscure places as well.

Remember that my work is not ultimately about method or technique.

Remember to cherish deep thought and careful study as well as bold action.

Remember that what you do you do through my strength and in my name.

Stay humble.

To the one who overcomes, I will give a place in that community where finally all seeking will be done; where all lost sheep and lost coins and lost people will finally, fully be found.