ANAHEIM HILLS — A small group from Life Baptist church met during the week, but the members have no memory of seeing each other because they were staring at their smartphones the entire time.

“I thought everyone else was keeping up the discussion,” says one woman who successfully ‘Liked’ fifty-five posts and finished two games of Words With Friends during the 90-minute gathering. “I guess no one was.”

Members were so engrossed in texting, posting and Tweeting that it did not occur to them that nobody was talking, let alone leading the meeting. Silence descended on the room as members sat tapping screens, occasionally giggling and typing messages.

“I went into the kitchen at one point to get snacks, and it did seem awfully quiet,” says one man. “Everyone had their heads down. I thought we were praying.”

One man had just bought a new app and was eager to try it out.

“I was tearing it up on Tiny Wings and thought everyone would understand,” he says. “I remember walking into a door, but I’m not sure what building it was — maybe small group or Bed, Bath and Beyond. I don’t have a visual for it anymore.”

Some people even texted and messaged each other while in the same room.“I was having a great conversation with Karen on Facebook and didn’t notice that she was sitting three feet away from me,” says one woman. “She messaged me, ‘Oh, I’m in small group,’ and I messaged her back, ‘Really? Me too!’”

Only later did members confirm that a meeting had taken place by piecing together tweets, texts and Facebook posts.

“It says on Facebook that I checked in at their house, so I must have been there,” says one woman. “Facebook doesn’t lie.”

Others looked at their timelines and Twitter feeds and saw posts like “Heading to small group” and “Picking up chips and salsa” at around the same time. But none have any memory of what happened after that.

“I think I ate a plate of something, but I was pretty engrossed in Fruit Ninja, so I didn’t really notice,” says one man. “It may have been brownie bites.”

One woman and her husband arrived home afterward, sat in their garage, looked at each other and said, “Did we just go to small group?”

“It was a little eerie,” says the wife. “The only thing I can recall is seeing my iPhone screen. Which, by the way, have you checked out this app?”

Members group-texted each other afterward and pledged to actually look at each other next time they meet.

“We felt kind of bad,” says one man. “I told them if I forget to pay attention next time, just Facetime me.”

—via LarkNews.com
H/T to @DrKPrather on Twitter

—————————————————————————-

*Rolling on the floor laughing

As a veteran of ministry I know full-well the draw of it and obsession with it. I know how it can consume you, titillate you, massage your ego and vie for your undivided attention. It is an attractive mistress that swishes and sashays in front of you, and when it beats those long eyelashes and delivers its bedroom eyes…forget about it. You’re toast.

A whole movement of God among men began with the disconsolate look upon a wife’s face—a wife who had lost her husband to his good work. The other woman.

Brethren, as Paul would say, these things ought not be! The same apostle would point in the direction of the minister’s wife and tell the man of the cloth (or whatever the case might be) to be diligent to love her. Don’t just say the words. Don’t assume she already knows. Love her.

Love her so she knows she is your cherished and treasured woman and there are no seconds. Love her so she feels so settled about you in her heart that she wouldn’t just be shocked if news of an affair came out, but that she knows it would never happen. Ever.

I say these things because I know there are wives of ministers out there who simply do not know where they fit in their husband’s life anymore, let alone if they even do. They are so used to the ignored phone calls, the glazed looks, the distracted looks, the preoccupied looks, the elsewhere looks. She knows she has dropped in his personal rankings. She sees how everyone else asks for and gets his time, how he seems so much more patient with them than he is with her. She watches how he lights up in certain settings in ways she used to remember, long ago, he did for her.

But that is a far-gone memory.

So she puts on her Sunday face and bravely does the church thing, all the while mourning, grieving and seething inside. She has to endure all the women who receive from her man’s ministry say things like, “Your husband is just the greatest!” or “You are so lucky to be married to him!”

Yes. Lucky.

If you say so.

I thank God that I have been unemployed from ministry for the past two years. You’ll never guess what my wife told me the other day. No, she didn’t say I sure hope you get a job soon. She didn’t prod me to see if I had any indication for our future. Husbands, she said something that both tore my heart out and healed it in one fell swoop.

She said, “I can tell you love being with me again.”

Busted.

All those things I mentioned earlier? I’ve done those things to her. She has felt them. And, God bless her, she has come through it all, inattentive selfish jerk that I could be at times, with grace and beauty. She is one of the strongest women I know. But she still has wounds, and scars, and tender bruises from the neglect of our “ministry years.”

Don’t get me (or her) wrong: ministry is a sacred trust and the greatest blessing one could imagine, but it is heavy machinery that one should stay away from if their inner self is impaired or under the influence of the intoxicating drug of self-identity or selfish gain. Yes, you have a charge to shepherd the flock, but you didn’t put on a tux, write your vows, or fight to keep your virginity and save yourself for them all the way to the altar before God and a solemn company of witnesses when you got the gig.

She is your first ministry. You made uncommonly sacred vows to her. Leave her on the sidelines or in the back of your mind and you’ll regret it. I wish I knew more about Mrs. Spurgeon or Mrs. Lloyd-Jones or Mrs. Murray or Mrs. Whoever. We hear so much — and make so much — of the guy that we never consider the girl.

God doesn’t. He makes so much of the girl that He carefully selected her and prepares her to be a bride for His Son. The Son adores His bride. He is enraptured by her. Loves being with her! And she radiates because He died to be with her. For all eternity, everybody will know Mrs. Jesus. She’ll be seated right up there next to Him.

The past two years have not been easy. As I write this, I am in yet another stint in the hospital with a life-threatening infection (my fifth month to date). Some might see a wilderness or hopeless desert, but you wouldn’t know it by our marriage. We are as giddy as newlyweds and as deeply satisfied as an old married couple who still hold hands and have pet names for each other.

God help me to never let ministry mess with my Mrs. and me again.

Though a lot to take on in one message, Noble tackled adultery, friends with benefits, pornography and homosexualityas the four common sins that Christians have come to tolerate.

“In America, it’s cool to be tolerant,” he told thousands at the S.C. megachurch on Sunday. But “Jesus literally tells the church there are certain things that you are to not tolerate in the church.”

The message was meant to cause discomfort among Christians. Some even got up and left in the middle of the message in earlier services on Sunday, Noble told attendees at the evening service.

But his goal wasn’t so much to condemn Christians as it was to encourage them and help them break free from sexual sins.

“What you and I pursue will ultimately determine what we do and who we become,” he stated.

For those pursuing sexual immorality, they have ultimately turned their back on Jesus, he said repeatedly.

He called it a “spiritual impossibility” to pursue adultery and Jesus at the same time.

“Just admit that you’re not following Christ,” Noble said. “Just admit that an orgasm is more important to you than Jesus.”

While men made of the majority of those committing adultery in the past, Noble has found that more married women are having affairs. And the Internet is a big factor.

Facebook has become a big culprit, he noted. He recently spoke to a counselor who said every affair he has dealt with in the past six months began on Facebook.

“I’m not anti-Facebook,” Noble said. “But some of you have started online flirting, connecting with old flames, having intimate conversations.”

Noble bluntly told them, “Go home tonight and delete your Facebook account.”

The NewSpring pastor had harsh words for singles as well.

He told singles that are having sex that they too are turning their back on Jesus.

“If you’re doing that … just don’t say you love Jesus,” he said. “Don’t show up to church during a worship song and raise your hands when you had your hands all over a girl this weekend. Stop it.”

His advice to singles having sex: don’t date somebody for a year because it leads to sex every time you date.

“You can’t renew your mind while you’re dating. You’re going to have to fight this.”

Addressing the pervasive struggle with pornography, Noble told the church crowd that they can’t pray it away.

Making himself transparent, Noble said he battled with porn addiction for more than a decade. His addiction began after he was first exposed to it in elementary school.

He admitted that even after becoming a Christian, he still struggled. He received Christ in 1990 but didn’t break his addiction until 1999.

“You don’t pray this away,” he stressed. “You confess and you repent.”

Homosexuality was the last sexual sin he addressed.

He apologized to homosexuals for the way the church has treated them. “It’s so sad that the church has used the name of the one who died for your sins to persecute you. Doesn’t make sense.”

But he added, “Homosexuality is a sin.”

“It’s not popular in America to say that,” he acknowledged. “There will be legislation introduced … that will actually make that … a hate crime.”

Noble said he has been studying homosexuality for a year and emphasized that it is never endorsed in the Scriptures. “Anytime it’s mentioned … it’s always condemned.”

He also pointed out that he doesn’t disagree with homosexuals who say they were born this way.

“I believe it,” he said. “Because the Bible says that we were all born sinners.”

Heterosexuals were born into heterosexual sin, the pastor added.

“I was born with a desire to have sex with every pretty girl that would let me have sex with her and so was every man,” he said. “Just because you were born that way doesn’t make it right for you to act on the way you were born.”

Noble made it clear to the congregation that adultery, premarital sex, pornography and homosexuality do not bring the joy that they are searching for. Rather, they bring pain, regret and hurt.

Church attendees were given the chance at the end of the service to seek help for any sexual sin they were struggling with.

“Those wrapped up in sexual sin … you got rocked tonight. You’ve got time tonight to repent, to stop it. You’re not trapped … You’ve got to ask for help,” he urged.

Unfortunately, the church has always been the last place where you can go for help, he lamented. But he told them that there won’t be condemnation or judging at NewSpring.

“People are going to get free tonight.”

–via ChristianPost.com, September 6, 2011

I have been grievously burdened for some time about the gospel that is being peddled in the western church. Some have called it an ‘incomplete’ gospel in that it presses for decisions but leaves off the necessity of discipleship. I believe it is not only incomplete, but deceptive in that it offers an unreliable assurance to those who are trusting in it. It falls in the category of what Paul warned against:

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:8, NASB)

Then Paul repeats the last refrain just for good measure in verse 9.

We’ve made the Gospel message a veritable stroll down the Roman’s Road instead of a narrow road that leads one out of Vanity Fair. We place so much emphasis on “It is finished!”* that we tragically ignore the admonition to “finish the course” with a fixed belief**. There are entire generations who believe they have heaven because they prayed a prayer and made a decision for Christ. Where are the testimonies of the abiding life? I’d like to see John 15 become a bigger part of the discussion on eternal life than the Roman’s Road. All of First John, too.

Why not Mark 1:14,15? Or the rest of the ‘Red Letters’?

There’s a ridiculous notion out there that says the Gospels can only be applied to a particular audience for a limited period of time. Sorry, but the dispensationalism of Darby and Scofield have led to the diluted, deconstructed gospel we have today. Let’s do, as Scot suggests, “start all over again.”

With the Gospel of King Jesus. The Gospel that Jesus—and His disciples (including Paul***)—preached.

*It most certainly is finished on our Lord’s end, having secured the means, way and endurance for our salvation, but it remains for us to enter in by faith and determined belief—all of which comes with the empowerment of grace to accomplish
**Such a life can only be lived by drawing on grace that empowers us to abide in ‘this other life’, not by human effort, and certainly not by the means of religious piety
***Acts 20:25; 28:30,31

Something happened last week. I went on a retreat with an amazing spiritual director / teacher named Jan Johnson. By the end of our time together I realized that I’m done with living like a Christian.

• I’m done serving the poor.
• I’m done going the extra mile.
• I’m done being a husband who strives to love his wife as Christ loves the church.
• I’m done visiting the sick.
• I’m done opening up my life to Christian community.
• I’m done loving my neighbor.
• I’m done living with integrity.
• I’m done loving my enemies.
• I’m done giving finances to global causes.
• I’m done opposing violence.
• I’m done speaking out against hatred.
• I’m done standing up for the marginalized.
• I’m D-O-N-E done…

This past week made me realize that doing all these things won’t change the world. That’s because the world can’t be changed unless God changes me.

For the past several years, ups and downs defined my spiritual life. Moments in the journey were some of the most intimate encounters with Jesus that I’ve known. Real (nearly tangible) experiences, that can’t be explained by anything but the power of the Holy Spirit, took place. Other moments, when I showed love to a neighbor, prayed for an enemy, served the poor… these were times when Jesus was right there with me.

Then there were the times when I got stuck trying to live like Jesus. In the Christian world we call these “good works” or “ethics.” I made my aim “doing” rather than “being.” By “doing” I believed that my “being” would be consumed by an experience of the life of God. Unfortunately, the God encounters often fade when all my time is spent “doing” or theorizing about such “doing.”

For me, it’s time to stop doing. It’s time to simply be done. Done “doing” because the Holy Spirit invites us to stop and to “be.”

• To be the kind of person who serves the poor.
• Be the kind of person who goes the extra mile.
• Be the kind of person who is an awesome self-giving husband.
• Be the kind of person who visits the sick.
• Be the kind of person who opens my life up to Christian community.
• Be the kind of person who loves my neighbor.
• Be the kind of person who chooses integrity.
• Be the kind of person who loves enemies.
• Be the kind of person who gives generously to global causes.
• Be the kind of person who responds to evil with creative nonviolence.
• Be the kind of person who not only speaks out against hatred, but who suffers for the sake of the hated.
• Be the kind of person who stands in the margins with those who’ve been placed there by society (and even the church).
• I want to BE, and in the process, become a different kind of follower of Jesus.

Why the distinction? It’s easy to follow the Sermon on the Mount and other ethical teachings of Jesus and to miss the Christ who taught such things.

Dallas Willard puts it this way:

Jesus never expected us simply to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, bless those who persecute us, give unto them that ask, and so forth. These responses, generally and rightly understood to be characteristic of Chrsitlikeness, were put forth by him as illustrative of what might be expected of a new kind of person – one who intelligently and steadfastly seeks, above all else, to live within the rule of God and be possessed by the kind of righteousness that God himself has, as Matthew 6:33 portrays. Instead, Jesus did invite people to follow him into that sort of life from which behavior such as loving one’s enemies will seem like the only sensible and happy thing to do. For a person living that life, the hard thing to do would be to hate the enemy, to turn the supplicant away, or to curse the curser… True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.[1]

So, yes, I’m done with living like a Christian. I’m trading that in for living in a deeper relationship with Christ. I want to know Jesus. I want to hear Jesus. I want to be empowered by Jesus. Not simply in theory as I do the good things that he calls us to do, but as the natural outflow of intimacy with God. The former way “gets the job done.” The latter way changes the world.

For me, this means a new-found intentionality of placing myself in a position to hear from the Spirit. Spiritual practices like – solitude, Sabbath, lectio divina, silence, confession, prayer, and practicing the presence of God – these neglected areas of my life have led to a Christianity defined by “doing” rather than “being.”

My prayer for us is that our intimate relationships with Christ would make it impossible to not respond with the ethics marked out by the Kingdom of God. Not out of effort to do good things, but out of our efforts to know Jesus Christ through an awareness of the presence of God’s Spirit. When this becomes normative, we won’t be able to help it… we will just start looking like Jesus.

[1] Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives,7-8.

When I had my fortunately unfortunate accident in 1981, the Lord clearly told me my life’s assignment: to encourage the Body of Christ. Isn’t it cool when people repeatedly recognize in you a particular call or gift and you are taken aback–because it just flows out of you. You don’t have to “work it up” because it just happens ‘naturally’ in the course of the day. This is how you know it is Jesus and not you.

I recently had a brief “Twitter” conversation with Stacy Harp and had an opportunity to step aside and let the Master of the Storm speak peace into her personal bout with the angry seas of life. Stacy is the president of Active Christian Media and writes columns for such publications as Voice of the Martyrs, has appeared on multiple radio broadcasts and has been featured on Fox News on the issues of pedophilia and child predators. Stacy’s work is difficult and requires a lot of standing opposed to many of the cultural vices of our day. She gets beat up. Like you, she gets tired and wonders, Does anybody care what I do?

Is there not a cause?

After a brief back-and-forth, a scripture popped into my head and I tweeted: “Hebrews 6:10–it’s for you today.” Lo and behold, it came up on her radio show the next day. I’m grateful the Lord could encourage her by the power of His word, which is alive with hope and light.

Here is the link to the audio of her ACM Devotional:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

One final thought: let Jesus shine through you today and make a difference in somebody’s life. You never know who might be on the receiving end.

We are distressed/hard-pressed/troubled/squeezed on every side…
(Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:8)

Nobody puts ‘Baby’ in a corner.
(Johnny Castle, Dirty Dancing)

I’m feeling ‘hemmed in’ these days. Diminished. Limited. Grounded, like a teenager: no keys, no car, no friends. Just school, then home.

On top of that, I feel cornered. Outnumbered.

It’s redolent of a scene in Thor where the Viking hero and his compatriots infiltrate the Frost Giant’s lair and are met by a relentless enemy in wave after wave, each giant becoming more formidable than the last and more numerous than before.

Yeah, that captures it nicely.

On every front a vexing battle is being waged and it seems like I am losing ground.

Ministry.

Family.

Finances.

Friends.

Health.

Some fronts are more like skirmishes while others border on “Shock and Awe.” These days I look like the Arizona border, Iraq (in March, 2003) and Afghanistan all rolled into one.

Lord, is it warfare?

Am I being downsized? Capsized? Ostracized?

Then, like good news from home, these words came for me when I was about to arrive at some ill-advised conclusions:

On your behalf I speak to adversity, for I the Lord come to bring the power of My voice over the power that has come against you. For, I have been given all authority, and by that authority I speak over your life that you may be totally free from all adversity, oppression, depression, fear, anxiety and worry. When I am with you, you cannot be defeated. I speak into your life–peace be still. And, there will come a great calm and a great benefit. No longer allow yourself to sit down in the very pit and doldrums of failure, but arise to new heights. As the sun rises each day, arise and shine for you are the people of light; the children of light and the glory of My kingdom upon the earth. It is time for you to come to a new understanding of who you are in Me and who I am in you. It is time for you to feel the power of My wind upon you; the power of the wind that flows through your mind and regenerates your spirit. Come this day and receive a fresh baptism and allow the wind of My Spirit to move you and to lift you. Come and fly with Me, says the Lord.

On the other hand, I could be hearing:

Snip, snip.

That doesn’t negate the rhema word. Whether I’m being intentionally hemmed in (like a time-out for an unreasonable child) or it’s just my time for the gardener’s shears—either way—my trust is in God and I purpose to stay the course.

Faith may not know where it’s going, but it is in love with its Leader.

In faith, this day, I have it on good authority that I am not being shelved or downsized. Neither are you. We’re being prepped for reassignment. “Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.”

In faith, this day, I declare that “friends may fail me, foes assail me” but, hear this enemy: “He my Savior makes me whole.” Jesus. What a Friend for Sinners. I know He loves me to death, but not like Lenny in Of Mice and Men who loved a little too hard. His Hands enfold me, they do not crush me.

Though He slay me…even if there’s no seed in the barn and the cattle barns are empty…no figs on the branches…if this infection never leaves my body and my leg falls off…if (fill in your own blank here)…

Either way.

Whatever.

I say:

I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
He makes me sure-footed as a deer, able to tread upon the heights!
(Habakkuk 3:17-19)

Hemmed in. Targeted. Isolated. Pressed on every side. Fire on one side and flood on the other.

Do not despair, o my soul.

He always brings us through and out, and gloriously IN.

Related articles (some I haven’t proofread entirely, mind you):

• Watch Rob’s Story
• Will I Get Through This?. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)
• Thoughts about what I read this morning (standingatthedoor.wordpress.com)
• Habakkuk 3:19 (jantzika.wordpress.com)

When Abraham Lincoln assumed presidency over a fragile nation, there were 33 states in the Union. Five months later, 27 remained. Virginia, birthplace of seven United States presidents, was expected to tag along. The new president had said he’d rather be assassinated than to see a single star pulled from the flag, but the “great experiment” called America seemed to be coming apart at the seams.

“We will NOT have this man to be king over us!”

Would it, could it, survive?

Thousands.

That’s how many “followed” Jesus long before there was Twitter. They hung on His every word. He spoke their lingo and they liked that His simple lifestyle ran counter to the other rabbis and professional ministers who flouted, flaunted, fleeced and derided them. The religious dudes made them feel condemned. Hopeless. This man was different. Though a holy man, He was not religious and untouchable. It was as common to see him at a dinner party with undesirables as it was to see Him mixing it up with theologues and seminarians. If Jesus was a Facebook button, they would ‘like’ Him…

Oh! And the miracles?

Icing on the cake, baby.

Blindness, gone. Demons, gone. Leprosy, gone. My uncle who has never walked? Saw him skipping through town the other day.

Hungry? Just go see this Guy. He can fix you up.

This was pretty much the climate of the day. For a season. If there was such a thing as a vote, and a vote were held, this Guy was a shoo-in for King. As long as He kept them in bread.

Then one day, just like that, the honeymoon ended. It started out all right. Word spread that the Rabbi was giving a sermon in a synagogue. Don’t know where? Just follow your neighbors. They know someone who knows someone who knows where to go. Don’t bother packing a lunch. It’s a safe bet that your meal is included.

The air in Capernaum was buzzing and crackling. The synagogue was filled to the gills and it was uncertain if the old church could hold them all. It was probably going to be epic. The man called Jesus might just announce His candidacy for King. Who knows? Anyhow, He’s got my vote.

Anticipation was high. All the whisperings in the crowd had to do with what was on the menu. Would quail just magically appear on plates? Would the sky rain bread?

Instead of working the crowd, the Rabbi’s tone carried a weight, a certain gravity. He seemed deadly serious. No rah-rah. No trumpeted charge. No shmoozing. No campaign promises.

Clearly, it wasn’t going to be: YES WE CAN!

It was more like: Oh no, He didn’t.

So long as it feels like a vacation, a honeymoon, a good meal, a shopping day, a parade, Christmas morning, a cute baby in a rustic manger, a dinner party with friends, or being the center of attention, I’m good. As long as you’re hammering on those people, reading them the riot act, overturning their tables, I’ll go along.

Just don’t put me in Your sermon.

I don’t want to be obsessed with You. I just need You around. It’s cool with me just to know you’re there, especially when I’m hungry. So don’t start talking about a committed relationship. Friends with benefits is all I am looking for.

But You keep talking like this? I’ll un-friend You. I’ll hit the “Unlike” button. That quick. Just you watch.

“You don’t need this world’s food. Be nourished by Me! I Am the source of Life! Unless you worship Me, you will perish!”

Um, really? Aren’t you just a carpenter’s son? I’ll accept you as my personal Baker, but not my personal Savior and Lord. No way. No how.

I’m outta here. I’ll not let this Man be King of me!

Along with just about everybody else. The synagogue empties and a vagabond tumbleweed blows by a small handful of wide-eyed would-be followers huddled in a shadowy corner. A couple of them, too, seem to be contemplating the door.

Jesus eyes them up and down. This is what you signed up for, boys. Are you still with Me?

“Will you also go away?”

He looks them each in the eye, one by one, like a judge polling a jury, waiting for their answer.

They needn’t worry.

The Union won’t dissolve no matter how many left. His flag would lose no stars. My Kingdom is yeast running through the batch of dough, he said. This minor setback only signals the certain triumph to come. There will be many more who will fall away on account of Me…

“Will you?”

So I lost a few…we’ll rebuild…as a matter of fact, there’s a woman who is about to be stoned for adultery in Jerusalem. I think I’ll start with her…

He turns. and with an enigmatic smile, calls over His shoulder:

So, boys: You comin’? Or what?

My aim in this interview is to bring out and clarify what Rick Warren believes about these biblical doctrines. In doing this my hope is that the thousands of pastors and lay people who look to Rick for inspiration and wisdom will see the profound place that doctrine has in his mind and heart.

This is a marvelous dialogue; it allows us the chance to be flies on the wall as these men pick each other’s brains about such matters as Larry King (24:14), Election (27:00), the Gospel (38:53), and Hell (61:03). For my dollar, Piper’s charge to Warren at the end is priceless and insightful (88:10).

For the entire interview (98 minutes), click here. Here’s a sampling:

Passing On the Mantle...

Seventeen years ago today, I began my pastoral ministry in Douglas County. I was 31 years young, with great ambition and vision. Some thought I was foolish to end a road ministry that was quite successful and pass into obscurity in the small town of Douglasville, Georgia. But the litmus test of success in God’s economy is not position but obedience and Sandy and I both knew God was calling us to a more localized ministry where we could invest our lives in a particular group of people for a prolonged period of time. The starry twinkle in my eyes forecasted I would see a church of hundreds emerge over a span of a few years and then, after 10 years, I would resume life out on the road.

But God said, “Not so fast, big boy.”

I soon discovered I was not in Douglasville to build a church so much as I was put here so God could “build the man.”

When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man, and skill a man
When God want to mold a man to play the noblest part
When He years with all His heart to create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall praise
Watch His methods, watch His ways
How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally selects
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him into frail shapes of clay which only God understands
How his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands
How he bends but never breaks when God’s good he understands
How He uses whom He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him
And by every act induces him to try His splendor out
God knows what He’s about!

Mrs. Pastor with one of her "girls"

When God wants to take a man and shake a man and wake a man…
When God wants to make a man to do the future’s will;
He tries with all His skill…
When He yearns with all His soul to create him large and whole…
With what cunning He prepares him…
How He goads and never spares him! How He whets him and He frets him and in poverty begets him…
How often He disappoints whom He sacredly anoints!
With what wisdom He will hide him;
Never minding what betide him…
Though his genius sob with slighting and his pride may not forget;
Bids him struggle harder yet!
Makes him lonely so that only God’s high messages shall reach him…
So that He may surely teach him what the hierarchy planned;
And though he may not understand…
Gives him passions to command.
How remorselessly He spurs him…
With terrific ardour stirs him
When He poignantly prefers him.

When God wants to name a man and fame a man and tame a man…
When God wants to shame a man to do His Heavenly best;
When He tries the highest test that His reckoning may bring…
When He wants a god or king;
How He reins him and restrains him so his body scarce contains him…
While He fires him and inspires him…
Keeps him yearning, ever burning for that tantalizing goal.
Lures and lacerates his soul…
Sets a challenge for his spirit;
Draws it highest then he’s near it!
Makes a jungle that he clear it;
Makes a desert that he fear it…and subdue it, if he can -
So doth God make a man!
Then to test his spirit’s wrath, Throw a mountain in his path;
Puts a bitter choice before him and relentlessly stands o’er him…
Climb or perish, so He says…
But, watch His purpose, watch His ways.
God’s plan is wondrous kind – could we understand His mind?
Fools are they who call His blind!

When his feet are torn and bleeding;
Yet his spirit mounts unheeding…
Blazing newer paths and finds;
When the Force that is Divine leaps to challenge every failure,
And His ardour still is sweet -
And love and hope are burning in the presence of defeat!
Lo the crisis, Lo the shouts that would call the leader out…
When the people need salvation doth he rise to lead the nation;
Then doth God show His plan…
And the world has found a man!

                                                             (Anonymous)

God was gracious to add seven more years to my ten to finish the work and on April 10 of this year, I heard Him say “Your work here is finished.” Somewhere along the journey we’ve managed to make ready for the Lord a core of people prepared for His coming, yes, but there has been a long and lasting work done in my wife and me. We are not the same people we were 17 years ago. Character has deepened. Faith has been strengthened. A life of more “apartness” and “otherness” is being realized compared to when we first began this journey.

For those who know us best, the past few years have been some of the hardest of our ministry lives, beginning in 2002. Pressures from within and without, destructive forces working against us, loss of hope, sleepless nights, tears seemingly without end. Perhaps the most difficult years, yes, but we stand before you with the testimony that they have been necessary and we have learned to Praise Him in the Storm.

Eleven summers ago, I was put before a congregation who wondered together: “Where do we go from here?” The lead pastor had stepped down and a shaky, uncertain man was suddenly thrust into the position and there were questions and concerns aplenty. But there was a lot of excitement too! We hammered the matter out one evening at a member family’s home and said we would focus on the things that were important to Jesus when He walked the earth. He grew UPWARDLY, INWARDLY, OUTWARDLY and DOWNWARDLY. “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with man.” This was His Life. He lived by His Father’s Rhema Word, by growing in Intimacy with His Father, by making Fishers of men, and by making Himself low before others that they would be brought nigh and high to the Father.

That seminal meeting turned into a night of deep introspection. “WHO IS ‘IN’?” was the cry of the core. It was also a time of unfettered consecration. All were humbling themselves before one another, confessing sin to one another, bearing one another’s burdens. It was the circumcision of a church intent on moving forward, away from its past, leaving those things that were behind, and reaching forward to a new day.

The same amount of people that are gathered today equals the number that confessed to “being ‘in’” on that first Sunday as we started out eleven years ago. From that, some people might say, “You haven’t gone anywhere!” “You haven’t grown at all!” and they’d be dead wrong. God has taken us places! He has stretched us and pulled us even more when we felt as though there was no elasticity left in us. The growth has been down into the ploughed-up soil of the Sower’s field and what is coming up is a richer harvest, sprouts shooting up from the Root and Stump of Jesse. We have not built new buildings, but we have been building our lives on the Rock, which Jesus defines as hearing and obeying the Gospel of the Kingdom!

Today, your lead pastor is stepping down and a shaky uncertain man is being called to lead the flock of God at New River. He doesn’t have to wonder “Where do we go from here?” and neither do you. The vision has been clearly laid out and the first steps OUTSIDE THE CAMP are marked and waiting. That doesn’t mean it will be easy. The cost has not been reduced. There are enemies encamped in “them thar hills” you have not yet encountered. There are fortresses that will rise before you that will take your breath away. But in God’s economy, great giants fall with a single stone and walls collapse without touching them. Five soldiers can rout a hundred and a hundred can put to flight ten thousand.

As long as you do it God’s way, remembering that…

      It takes OVERCOMING FAITH. (John 11)

      It takes EXTRAVAGANT SURRENDER AND SACRIFICE. (John 12)

      It takes a HIGHER LOVE. (John 13) 

Finally, my brothers and sisters, I wish to conclude with some scriptural admonition. If these are the last words I speak before this congregation, I believe they sum up the burden and blessing of my heart over you:

¹Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. ²For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
(1 Thess 4:1,2)

¹²We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. ¹⁵See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. ¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰Do not despise prophecies, ²¹but test everything; hold fast what is good. ²²Abstain from every form of evil.
 ²³Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
 ²⁵Brothers, pray for us.
 ²⁶Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
 ²⁷I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
 ²⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
(1 Thess 5:12-28)

¹¹To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, ¹²so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2 Thess 1:11,12)

¹⁵So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
(2 Thess 2:15)

¹Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, ²and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. ³But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. ⁴And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. ⁵May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
(2 Thess 3:1-5)

As the days and months pass, perhaps even years, I will make this my constant prayer for you: 

²Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. ³For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. ⁴I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
(3 John vv2-4)

Yes and Amen.

As for Sandy and me, we are not going gently into that good night. The Lord has a call on us and we are eager to meet it, whatever it is. If you ever have to step down from the pastorate, you want to do it this way, loved to the very end, not forced out or in bitter annoyance with each other, not parting because of overstayed welcome. (Sadly, wild and unkind rumors have been spread in this regard, and if they weren’t so tragic, we could all have a great laugh over them!) We’ve come to this day simply because God has revealed it is time. My ”Hebron” days have come to a close and Jerusalem awaits. And for you, Joshua waits to take you in. And I wouldn’t stand in the way of that for anything!