It's Pretty Simple

Our community suffered a great loss this week as Freedom Church lost their senior pastor, Brother Wendell Thomas. I only had the pleasure of meeting him on a few occasions during my limited time here, but always found him to be a very pleasant and positive man. As people have continued to mourn, my eyes have been opened to his incredible influence and legacy.

I heard a brief anecdote today at his funeral that made me laugh while also reminding me of what is most important. A local pastor had asked Wendell what they were doing since the church was growing. I assume he was looking for some philosophy of church development or ground-breaking technique. Apparently Wendell simply responded, "We love Jesus and we love people." The other pastor followed up by asking, "Is that it?!" Wendell's response was simple without being ridiculing. He apparently replied, "Well, what else is there?"

This speaks of a man that knew what God had asked us to do: love the King and love other people. There were no fancy strategies or complicated techniques. It was simply a matter of following what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments. How much better would our communities be if Christ-followers chose to follow this model in all that they did? How many more thriving churches would there be if they kept their focus on these two principles?

Thank you Brother Wendell for your faithful testimony. It's a powerful reminder of where our focus needs to be.