Audacity

Last year, after eating Sushi for the first time, yes pretty pathetic I know,  I talked with the Dean of Singapore Cathedral, Kuan Kim Seng, as he outlined two developments that were particularly exciting him in the life of the Cathedral. These were not something mundane and straightforward for his church, like church planting in Vietnam or providing schools across his city, but something really big. The first of these was taking five youth pastors and sending them to train for six months with Bill Wilson and Metro Ministries in New York City; on their return they were to start a new Saturday morning ‘Sunday School’ for 1000 young people. At the same time he was taking 400 people from the largest of his nine Sunday congregations and starting a brand new Saturday evening congregation. As he described these huge projects I knew I was talking with a man who believed the future belonged to God and for whom to believe audacious things for God’s kingdom was nothing particularly remarkable. I asked him if these two significant developments appeared in any of the Cathedral’s recent strategic planning and he replied ‘no, God sometimes surprises us!’ And you might think that sometimes Singapore Cathedral surprises God.

In the early chapters of John’s gospel you see Jesus, while he still can, attempting to go under the radar: humbly being baptised by John with the rest, trying to avoid a miracle with water at a wedding, talking one on one with the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus, gathering a few disciples. But soon the highly visible and audacious starts breaking in – a healing in Jerusalem, 5000 fed, Lazarus looking pretty well for a dead man, and perhaps most unsubtle of all, turning over the tables of the bureau de change in the Temple. Audacity is a Jesus characteristic. In Dean Kim Seng it has also become a kingdom priority and a leadership characteristic.

At the Willow Creek leadership conference in 2011, Stephen Furtick, senior pastor of Elevation Church, Charlotte NC, talked about daring to believe God for the impossible and the audacity it takes to get started. Then he delivered to assembled pastors an enormous kick up the backside: ‘if the size of your vision isn’t intimidating there’s a good chance that it’s insulting to God.’ The boldness of these two leaders has remained with me since, a holy nudge, so that when the task ahead seems immense I simply need to ask ‘is God scared yet?’