Two years ago the University of Tennessee football team had reached a tough spot. Phillip Fulmer, coach for 16 years, had experienced an unbelievable career including a national championship, two SEC championships, and was within a stone’s throw of becoming the all-time winningest coach in school history. But his program was struggling. Struggling badly. And thus, he was fired in the middle of the season.

The very next game was against a sub-par Wyoming team that should have presented no problem. The verdict? An embarrassing loss, on homecoming, that sent the team to its second losing record in three years. Why did this terrible loss happen? I think the answer is simple.

Trust in leadership was shot.

Any organization will be all but done for if there is no trust in leadership. For a church, it is even more important. The staff and especially the pastor must be trusted or you can guarantee the momentum will be lost. As a result, we aggressively defend our leadership and unity at OneLife.

The dream of reaching people who are far from God is too real and too urgent to do anything else. If someone doesn’t trust our leadership, that is totally fine. We will help them find a church where they can. Not because our way is the right way. But because our way is our way that God has clearly given.

I count myself as one of the most blessed people I know because I am surrounded by a staff and church that does in fact trust its leadership. This month is Pastor Appreciation Month and I have been blown away – to the point of tears – nearly every day this week as another card, another gift, another hand written note has shown up. It has reminded me of the unusual unity our church is experiencing. OneLife, we must protect that. Trust me. Trust our staff. And let’s watch God do some amazing things in our city.

The next two items on the Gauge are “We are Laser Focused” and “We are Meticulous.”

A story this morning on Good Morning America talked about how the new, energy efficient windows do a great job reflecting the sun’s rays. In fact, too good of a job! They act like magnifying glasses, reflecting the sun in beams nearly as intense as lasers. The focused sun light is so strong that it is melting the vinyl siding on neighboring houses!

That’s some intense focus. And that’s what we strive for at OneLife.

When we got started, we only did Sunday mornings. No small groups, no youth ministry, no big missions push. Just worship and the Gospel. Many told me that was too simple, but man am I glad we were laser focused. Now we remain laser focused though our ability to do more has indeed expanded. But it has expanded as far as it probably ever will. Now we simply focus on Sunday mornings and OneLife Communities. That’s it. Everything we will ever do from this point forward (missions, community outreach, etc.) will be funneled through one of these two avenues.

Why do we stay so focused? Because of number 6 on The Gauge. We are meticulous.

Colosians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” When it comes to doing things for God, we want to make sure the details matter. Everything we do will be intentional and excellent. It simply isn’t possible to do that when a church or organization isn’t laser focused. That means some won’t like what we do. They will say we should offer more. Others will say we are too nit-picky or too worried about “the show.” And hey, they might be right. Because when it comes to the God who puts on a show every night when the stars are shining and the God who knows every nit-picky detail about his creation – down to numbering the hairs on their head – the least we can do is our best to give that back to Him.

So we unapologetically remind our staff, volunteers, and partners that what makes OneLife unique is that we are laser focused and meticulous in all that we do. The same approach can make us dangerous in our personal lives, too. How are you laser focused and meticulous in what God has called YOU to do? Focus makes you powerful. Being meticulous makes you unstoppable.

Let’s go do it!

Rick Warren tweeted something interesting last week: “Anything that grows too fast never lasts.”

At first, that irritated me. Then I realized he was probably right.

God’s Word is full of analogies. Jesus taught with them in his parables. So looking to God’s creation it is clear that this is indeed a godly principle. Cancer grows too fast. Weeds grow too fast. Populations grow too fast and endanger other populations. On and on the list goes. Even businesses growing too fast is a problem. Just Google “grow too fast” and see all the examples.

The only problem is this…what is “too” fast? I don’t know. When it comes to the Church, the magnitude of lostness would seem to echo the country song “Too much fun, what’s that mean? It’s like too much money there’s no such thing! Like a girl too pretty, with too much class. Being too lucky, a car too fast…” Ok…you get the point. Can a church really grow “too” fast if it is reaching lost people?

I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so…

But here’s what I do know. We are running a marathon. If OneLife is going to put a dent in the lostness of our community, it’s going to take time. It means we must value rest and not be a bunch of sprinters. Our volunteers must rest. Our staff must rest. And our church must rest.

We are in it for the long haul. So that’s why I may be inclined to believe what Pastor Rick had to say in that tweet. 30 years after planting his church, they are tens-of-thousands strong and have sent tens-of-thousands of missionaries from their church to the four corners of the earth. They have made huge progress at battling the lostness in Saddleback Valley. But it didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t a sprint. It was a marathon.

For OneLife, we must not let our foot off the gast. Ever. But we also need to remember – it’s not a sprint. Let’s allow God to grow us at HIS pace, not our own. Because our pace may be one that is too fast and one that – on our own – is guaranteed to never last.

The third thing on The Gauge – OneLife’s non-negotiables – is that we will not be anonymous.

Throughout Scripture, God calls many people by name. Whether it was the disciples to join his ministry, Lazarus to come out of the grave, or Mary when she didn’t recognize Jesus after his resurrection, it seems important to God that we be known. As a result, we want to ensure that people coming to OneLife aren’t just another number. But just as God desires to know them deeply and intimately, we want them to feel known and not be anonymous.

This plays out practically in a couple of different ways. First, it is incredibly important and valuable to us that people get involved! If you are just showing up on Sundays then you are missing a huge point. Join a volunteer team. Get plugged in to a Community. Do something so that you cannot be anonymous and so you can know others and be known. This is also how we care for people. Time and time again people are in need but we never know it because they are not plugged in to the church in a way that someone can notice their need. So they fall through the cracks, all because they remained anonymous. The flip side is that when tragedy has struck a OneLifer who is not anonymous, we’ve seen real ministry happen. Whether it was the death of a baby, a spouse had a heart attack, a family that is falling apart, a single mom who lost her job, and on and on the list goes, we’ve seen some unbelievable stuff in just our first year. But we were able to minister effectively and quickly when people were not anonymous.

The second way that plays out is we simply don’t allow anonymity when it comes to the “structure” of our church. In other words, anonymous notes in the offering – they get trashed by our counting team without ever making it to a staff member’s desk. The “someone told me” comments don’t get heard until “someone” is willing to own them. Why? Because the urgency of the Gospel does not allow us time to deal with people or situations that lack so much confidence they won’t put their name to it. And when they do, we remember number 5 on The Gauge: we are laser focused! Life-change is what we are all about and when that’s the main thing, we must be more concerned about reaching than we are about keeping. But more on that one is to come later this week

So up next…Number 4. We are running a marathon. Check back in Thursday for more!

Number 2 on The Gauge – the driving principles for everything we do at OneLife – is “we sacrifice freely.” The premise is simple. Jesus gave his everything for me. He left heaven…why would anyone do that?! But he did, lived a life on earth as a poor man, then died the most gruesome death you could imagine.

He sacrificed freely. As a follower of Christ, I should do the same. As his bride, the Church should, too. Not because we have to, but because it’s my natural response of worship when I reflect on who God is and what He has done for me.

Come early on Sunday to volunteer? No problem considering where Jesus went for me. 10 percent of my financial “increase”? That’s nothing compared to the 100 percent He gave for me. All of my preferences aren’t met? That’s cool – Jesus got pretty uncomfortable on my behalf. Submit to the authority of a church and its leadership? Gladly. I submit to Jesus so of course I love what He loves.

We want to be a church that sacrifices freely filled with people who sacrifice freely. We will sacrifice our time, preferences, comfort, and finances to do whatever it takes to reach people for Jesus. It’s the least we can do.

After all, He sacrificed freely for me.