The telios of Don

The View from the Balcony
An awesome family built Chalet type home on top of a hill 15 miles out in the San Tan Mountain Range.

We have been studying the concept of telos, a greek word in scripture that means end, purpose, and consumation. Today I drove to my old ministry location and visited Dwight and Gloria. They were leaders in our church whom I spent a lot of time with, and who have stayed in the Church since I left seven years ago. Dwight bought five acres out in the middle of the mountains and built the house you see on the weekends when they were in their fifties. They were wonderful leaders, prayers, planners, and teachers when we began to get momentum. Now the church is so full of young people, they have very little demand for their gifts.

The Church now has a thousand people, a Christian School, debt free, and Queen Creek has exploded in growth as we knew it would. After we struggled to get attendance from 50 to 200plus, opened the new worship center, and then struggled to grow, I used to say, Lord, what's happening, we built it and they are not coming.

As we shared about those seven years of living and serving, I began to see that God was really using me to prepare the church and the property for this growth curve. My telios, my purpose, was to get the church through the first building program. It took seven years to the very day from my start and my finish on Thankgiving Day 1995 to Thanksgiving Day 2002.

Next week marks seven years at Sun Lakes, and my job did not involve building anything, but changing their vision to include more of a Kingdom vision, and to enjoy their retirement while they continue to serve and grow.