A 7-Eleven Vision for Church Planting
“What’s your vision for the orphanage and for Thailand?” I asked the pastor of the orphanage.
“You know, whenever I think about you Koreans and South Korea, I get mixed feelings.”
I was starting to think that I shouldn’t have asked this question in the first place.
The pastor continued, “On the one hand, I’m astounded as to the spiritual transformation God can accomplish in a single country over a short period of time. But on the other hand, I’m upset because 100 years ago, Korea and Thailand were basically the same country—rural, economically challenged, and spiritually lost.”
After giving a sigh of relief, I paused, wondering whether I should interject, but then the pastor continued.
“Have you noticed that there are 7-Elevens pretty much on every street corner in Thailand?” asked the pastor.
I nodded.
“I have this dream that God would do such a transformational work in Thailand that, instead of 7-Elevens on every street corner, we had churches. And I want that work to start here in the orphanage with these children,” explained the pastor.
As I walked away from that conversation, I thought to myself, now that’s ambitious.
The Paradox of Ambition and Faith
What does an entrepreneur dreaming up a new solution for the next greatest app have in common with that pastor in Thailand dreaming about planting churches on every street corner?
In both situations we are talking about highly ambitious individuals whose vision of the future is driven by an image of faith.
Herein lies a paradox for most Christians—ambition and faith.
A paradox is “something that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible.” When examining the Scriptures, ambition and faith seem to be two opposite things, but as we will see here, they’re actually two sides of the same coin.
Ambition has “a particular goal or aim”; it is commonly used to refer to the future hope that drives individuals to obtain more, achieve more, and get things accomplished.
When we look at the New Testament, ambition (Greek = erithiah) is used in connection with the word “selfish” in Galatians 5:20 and, as a result, is categorized as one of the works of the flesh: “For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want” (Gal 5:17).
In this passage ambition stands in direct contrast to the fruit of the Spirit.
So spiritual leaders who call themselves Christian have an obligation to crucify “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Other instances of ambition are used in a similar manner:
- In Romans 2:8, ambition is used as a qualifier for the type of people who are going to receive “wrath and indignation” in God’s judgment.
- In James 3:14–16, ambition results in boasting and lying and serves as a precursor to disorder and evil.
- In Philippians 1:15–17, ambition is used in the context of proclaiming the gospel (Paul is saying that there are those who preach and proclaim Christ out of rivalry (same Greek word as ambition), which is not a sincere form of preaching Christ since the proper way to preach and proclaim Christ is out of love).
Another way ambition is used in the New Testament is with the Greek word orego.
- In 1 Timothy 3:1, orego is translated as “aspire” and is positively used in conjunction with the noble desire to be a leader in the church: “This saying is trustworthy: ‘If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.’”
- In 1 Timothy 6:10, this word is translated as “craving” and is used in a negative light to crave after the love of money, which is the root of all kinds of evil.
- In the New Testament chapter of faith, Hebrews 11, orego is translated as “desire.” “But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one” (Heb 11:16). In this verse ambition and faith get tied together, become two sides of the same coin, and the paradox gets solved.
Let’s now take a moment to define faith.
Faith (Greek = pistis) is a more commonly used word in the New Testament with more than 233 instances of it. There are even more if you look at the root word of faith.
- It’s used to refer to the faith that is required for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 9:2).
- For the sanctification of an individual (Acts 26:18).
- As the individual’s faith that Jesus uses to heal (Mark 5:34).
- As the faith that is required to move mountains (Luke 17:6).
- A life of faith is also used as a prerequisite for church leadership (Acts 6:5).
- And it is something that needs constant re-strengthening (Acts 14:22).
Ultimately, a life built on faith stands in contrast to a life built on the law, and this is demonstrated through the life of Abraham.
Abraham “did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Rom 4:20–21).
As much as faith is defined as a “strong belief or trust in someone or something,” spiritual leaders define faith differently as “a strong belief and confidence in the God who can do something.” For spiritual leaders faith is less about the what, and it’s more about the who.
This is seen when you read through the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.
For every one of those spiritual leaders in Hebrews 11, they had such a great and grand understanding of God that they did not have to see the future to believe in it: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb 11:8). They believed in the God who could bring those promises to pass, so they acted on that faith. That’s why you’ll see the phrase “by faith” repeated over and over again in Hebrews 11.
Faith results in action.
On the one hand, spiritual leaders have figured out that faith is not genuine unless you act on it. On the other hand, for nonspiritual leaders, ambition drives them to achieve their own goal according to a strong belief, or faith, in themselves and their own ability to pull it off.
Essentially, strong spiritual leaders have figured out that holy ambition can actually drive them toward a God-honoring and God-glorifying goal.
As a result, for the businessman or woman who is a spiritual leader, ambition might be to run a successful company in order to fund new church plants. For the church planter who is a spiritual leader, ambition might be to reach the lost in their neighborhood.
In either case the only difference is that the spiritual leaders’ faith is not in their own ability to get it done, while they do exhibit confidence; their faith is in the God who can get it done according to His ability.
Join me next week as I add a third variable to this discussion: timing. What relationship does ambition and faith have with timing?
*This was a modified excerpt from my book, Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd ed).