Letter to The Well

Looking into the Mirror of Revelation

Welcome this week, and to those of you joining us via video across our campuses, welcome to you as well. If you have your Bibles, open them to the book of Revelation. Remember, it is singular—Revelation, not plural. Turn to chapter two, or if you have a notes page in your Bible, you can turn there. We are going to do something unique this weekend and explore a question that has been weighing heavily on my heart.

This entire series has been remarkable, deeply practical, and in many ways, a surprising journey. When you set out to teach Revelation, people wonder how practical it is really going to be. But then you start diving into these seven churches and these letters that Jesus had John write, and you quickly realize these were real people in real local churches dealing with real issues very similar to our own. In many ways, this series has held up a mirror to us. Sitting under the word and teaching through it week in and week out has been profoundly convicting. That is the beauty of God’s Word—it does a surgical work in our souls.

As we walked through these seven churches, we gave each of them a descriptive title. The church at Ephesus was the adulterous church. Smyrna was the suffering church. Pergamum was the immoral church. Thyatira was the compromising church. Sardis was the neglectful church. Philadelphia was the faithful church. And Laodicea was the self-sufficient church.

Every single one of those letters started the exact same way: “To the angel of the church in… write.” The Greek word for angel is angelos, which means messenger. Many scholars take the view that these letters were delivered directly to the messengers, the pastors and elders of those local bodies.

The Weight of Pastoral Ministry

I have been thinking about that from a pastoral perspective. What would it have been like as a pastor of one of those churches to receive a letter dictated by Jesus Himself, and then have to stand before your congregation and read it out loud? “Hey everyone, I want you to know exactly what Jesus thinks about us.”

If you were the pastor at Philadelphia, that would have been an incredible Sunday. You could stand up and say, “God is great, you guys are doing awesome, look at what Jesus says!” But if you were the pastor at Laodicea, you would probably want to call in sick that day and crawl under a table.

Thinking about those messengers made me reflect deeply on my role here at The Well. I found myself asking a simple, sober question: What would the letter to The Well look like? If Jesus were to write a letter to our church right now, laying out His commendations and His concerns, what would He say?

The author of Hebrews gives a strong charge regarding spiritual leaders, reminding the church to submit to those who keep watch over their souls because they will give an account.

Hebrews 13:17 (NASB)

Obey your leaders and submit [to them], for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

I think about that passage all the time. I tell people often: do not get into pastoral ministry because you are looking for a career. It is not a career; it is a calling. There is an immense weight that comes with pastoral leadership—the sobering recognition that at the end of my life, I will stand before Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, and give an account for my stewardship of His local body.

The apostle Paul talked about this unique burden in his second letter to the Corinthians. After listing all his physical sufferings—shipwrecks, beatings, hunger, exposure—he spoke of the daily pressure and deep concern he carried for all the churches.

2 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB)

Apart from [such] external things, there is the daily pressure on me [of] concern for all the churches.

So today, I want to share what I believe the Lord has placed on my heart. If Jesus were evaluating The Well Community Church, what would His commendations and concerns be?

Commendations: What Jesus Would Affirm

The good news is that while The Well is certainly not perfect, we are not Laodicea either. There are incredible, God-honoring things happening in our body that deserve commendation.

First, by the grace of God, we have been a faithful, healthy church for fifteen years. We have had our setbacks and challenges, no question, but it has been a vibrant, solid ministry built on the foundation of the gospel.

Second, we have remained a deeply biblical church. If you want to learn the Scriptures, you can learn them here. Whether it is through our Biblical Studies Residency, Women’s Equipping, Life Groups, or gathering together on the weekend to walk verse-by-verse through a text of Scripture, we take the Word of God seriously.

Third, over the last couple of years, we have experienced a significant movement from mere head knowledge toward genuine heart transformation. There is a healthy integration happening. We are inviting people into spiritual formation environments like Re:generation and Re|Engage. Even our Life Groups have shifted away from surface-level fill-in-the-blank questions to authentic communities where people walk in the light, confess sin, and let the gospel transform them.

Fourth, we have remained rooted in our founding identity. Fifteen years ago, when we were preaching in board shorts and flip-flops to college students, we named this church The Well. It wasn’t named after a local watering hole; it was named after the encounter in John 4 where Jesus extended grace to a broken Samaritan woman and called her into life and maturity.

John 4:1-42 (NASB)

Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, ’If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ She said to Him, ’Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? ‘You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.’ He said to her, ‘Go, call your husband and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ’You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.’ The woman said to Him, ’Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ‘Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you [people] say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ’Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ’You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ’But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ‘God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am [He].’ At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, ‘What do You seek?’ or, ‘Why do You speak with her?’ So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, ‘Come, see a man who told me all the things that I [have] done; this is not the Christ, is it?’ They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples were saying to one another, ‘No one brought Him [anything] to eat, did he?’ Jesus said to them, ’My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. ’Do you not say, ’There are yet four months, and [then] comes the harvest ’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. ’Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ’For in this [case] the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ‘I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.’ From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all the things that I [have] done.’ So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’

If we excluded people from worship because of their past, not one of us would be sitting in this room. We are a community of broken people who have invited Jesus to make us whole, and we have kept that mission clear: helping people connect to God and to each other in every neighborhood.

Fifth, we have an unprecedented focus on the next generation. At our very first Easter gathering fifteen years ago, we invited all the kids up for an Easter story to show that we were more than just a college church, and exactly four kids showed up. Today, across our campuses, we have hundreds of children, an entire elementary school building filled with kids fourth grade and under, and over four hundred students meeting at WSM on Wednesday nights. Our college and young adult ministries are thriving with incredible momentum.

Finally, we have remained financially conservative and debt-free. Because of the wise stewardship of our elders, we do not pass the plate two or three times or pressure people to give. God has provided for us faithfully. And through all of this, our people understand that the church is not just this building—it is you being equipped on the weekend and sent out into businesses, city council, the mayor’s office, non-profits, and schools across our city to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Celebrating Transformation

Because life change happens outside these walls through the power of the gospel, we want to pause and celebrate that transformation. Today we are baptizing brothers and sisters whose lives have been radically changed by Christ. These are not people with one-in-a-million sensational stories; these are everyday people—just like you, your coworkers, and your neighbors—who have encountered the living Christ.

Let me pray for us as we celebrate these baptisms.

Father, thank You for the privilege of being Your church and celebrating life change. There is so much as we look around that we commend to Your grace. You are good, You are faithful, and Your hand has been upon us. Be glorified in these baptisms and in the continued transformation of Your people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Concerns: Blind Spots and Hard Truths

If a pastor is a shepherd, one of his primary callings is to be gut-level honest with the sheep. If you ask for feedback and someone only tells you what is going well, that is not truly helpful. We need to identify our blind spots.

Because we are broken people with a sin nature, we carry issues that need addressing. If Jesus were to speak straight to us, here are the concerns I believe He would raise.

1. Information over Transformation

Because we teach the Bible so thoroughly, we are constantly in danger of valuing information over transformation. We want to study, know, and listen, but we resist allowing the Word of God to penetrate our hearts and change us. Some of us live like Spock—purely cerebral, living “above the line” and avoiding emotion and vulnerability. But the gospel is deeper than mere intellect. When stories of life change become about “those people” rather than what God is actively doing in our own hearts, we have missed the point.

2. A Consumer Culture in Worship

When a church focuses heavily on teaching, it easily breeds consumerism. People come to consume a product and leave. That is why we changed our language from “services” to “gatherings”—because coming to a service implies you expect goods and services to be provided for you.

Consumerism shows up when people consistently arrive fifteen minutes late and then slip out to their cars the moment the sermon ends. It reveals that we are either too busy to give God an hour, or we only came for the content and missed the sacred value of gathering with the body of Christ. If you only want content, you can listen to a podcast. The gathering exists for the messy, beautiful fellowship of the church.

This consumer mindset also stifles our worship. Instead of genuinely pouring our hearts out to God, we stand back and critique the music: “I don’t like this song,” or “The band wasn’t great today.” We treat worship like a performance rather than an offering. But Jesus reminded us that our response in love and worship reflects our awareness of how much we have been forgiven.

Luke 7:47 (NASB)

‘For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.’

When you truly grasp the depth of the cross and live downwind of your own brokenness, you cannot help but worship the Lord, regardless of whether you like the particular song.

3. A Shallow Culture of Prayer

If Jesus evaluated our church, would He find a praying church? I am not talking about saying a quick grace before a meal. I mean an abiding, vibrant, deep relationship of prayer.

I will confess to you that as an active, hard-driving guy, sitting still does not come easily to me. In many ways, our church has taken on my personality—quick to launch, quick to build, but sometimes slow to pray. We can easily trust God at a hundred miles an hour while neglecting the quiet posture of listening to His voice. If we are honest, our prayer lives are an area where we desperately need growth.

4. Too Few Doing the Work

The old adage that twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work is probably an optimistic estimate for us. When consumerism takes root, we wait for someone else to do the heavy lifting. We start to professionalize ministry, expecting the church to operate like a hotel staff that cleans our room and handles our luggage.

Kids ministry, student ministry, parking teams, and hospitality happen because ordinary men and women step up and say, “I can do that.” Life is busy, families have full schedules, but the church cannot function when only a tiny fraction of the body is actively serving.

5. Relational Disconnection

This is perhaps the most convicting observation: we are a friendly church, but we are not deeply connected. We are cordial, but we are not warm.

A woman recently told me that she left our church because she simply never felt embraced or welcomed. She joined a Life Group and attended gatherings, but nobody truly saw her or drew near to her. That is not an isolated story.

Part of this is practical. The average person at The Well attends a gathering once every three weeks. Between multiple campuses and multiple gathering times, it can take months to cross paths with someone sitting in the exact same row. But church is meant to be a family, not an event you drop into once a month. In a culture where commitment is fragile and people bail the moment relationships get messy, we have to fight to be a true family.

6. Lack of Diversity and Spiritual Busyness

If you look at Fresno County, our community is ethnically rich: eight percent African American, thirteen percent Asian, thirty percent Caucasian, and forty-seven percent Hispanic. Yet when you look around our rooms, we do not yet reflect the ethnic diversity of our city. In eternity, we will worship with every tribe, tongue, and nation. We should desire our church family to reflect the image of God in all its diversity right now.

Furthermore, our lives are filled to the brim with busyness. We are getting promotions, shuttling kids to practices, and dialing in our hobbies, but our personal intimacy with Jesus is often the first thing sacrificed. We are physically wealthy, but relationally and spiritually depleted.

7. Guarding Our Generosity

While we are financially healthy and debt-free, our overall culture of generosity has room to grow. When we announced that our church was completely out of debt, giving immediately dropped. People thought, “Great, they don’t need my help anymore.” But biblical generosity is not just about meeting an organizational budget; it is a spiritual discipline that aligns our hearts with the heart of God.

He Who Has an Ear

At the conclusion of each letter to the seven churches in Revelation, the Spirit gave the same timeless invitation.

Revelation 2:7 (NASB)

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Some of these commendations describe you well; some of these concerns may cut close to home.

I want to invite all of us—starting with myself—to take these truths into a time of honest self-evaluation before the Lord. Let’s shine light into our dark corners. We do not need to become arrogant over our commendations, nor do we need to despair over our concerns. Instead, let’s allow the Spirit of God to bring a refreshing reboot to our church so that we can honor Jesus more fully.

United in One Purpose

The apostle Paul offered a beautiful vision for the unity and health of the local body in his letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 2:1-2 (NASB)

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Paul tells us that since we have encouragement in Christ, comfort from His love, fellowship with the Spirit, and deep affection and mercy, we should make his joy complete by living in true unity of mind, spirit, and purpose.

It is one of the highest honors of my life to pastor The Well Community Church. I love this body deeply, and my prayer is that we will never rest on past victories. The best years of this church are still ahead of us if we will remain humble, teachable, and fully surrendered to Jesus.

Let’s pray together.

Father in heaven, thank You for the privilege of being part of a healthy, vibrant church family. We set our eyes squarely on Jesus. We give You glory for every good thing You have built among us over these past fifteen years. But Lord, we also bring our blind spots and shortcomings into Your light. Where we have grown complacent, consumeristic, or disconnected, grant us the grace of true repentance. Teach us to pray, teach us to love, and teach us to serve one another as family. May The Well shine brightly as a faithful reflection of Jesus to our city. We pray all this in His matchless name. Amen.