Lon’s Blog

I went into my local gas station (Ultrimar) to pay for my gas the other day, and they offered me a free cup of coffee.  I chose the Hazelnut Cream. Mmmm.   And I left feeling a bit warmer and happier.  They gave away the coffee because it creates good will, and, more importantly for them, allows me to try one of their products that I might not have tried without the free offer, thus making it more likely that I might purchase this product in the future (adding to their bottom line).

Can Christians learn anything from the corporate world? I think so. Once we get past our disdain for worldly corporate greed and invasive sales techniques, sometimes there is some gold to mine in the principles they are using. In fact, often the world has borrowed the idea from God’s people, not visa-versa.  As St. Augustine of Hippo said over a millennia ago, “Gold, even froEgypt, is still gold.” He was referring to the fact that the original Tabernacle, God’s holy meeting place, was decked out in articles made of gold taken entirely from pagan Egypt.  Gold, is, well, golden, and created and given to us by God for visually spectacular purposes, regardless of its origin. The origin of the gold did not determine it’s holiness; instead, its use purified it, sanctified it and made it holy.

No, I don’t think the key to winning the world to Christ is giving away gold, or even Hazelnut Cream (although it might not hurt…).  But I do think we need to learn something from Ultramar on this one. We need to create opportunities for people to “try on” our most precious “product,” that is, faith in Jesus Christ, just like I tried Ultramar’s coffee. Of course, faith in Christ is not a mere product, but is life itself. All the more that we should offer this to the world!  But how do we do this?

First, we need to understand the process people go through in going from a non-believer to becoming a fully committed disciple of Jesus Christ. The order of the steps is not set in stone, and the fact of them taking place in a person’s life is not always discernible, but they are there nonetheless.  First, it includes the obvious: learning the story of God and the claims about Jesus from scripture. These are the “Gospel message.” Next, they evaluate the truth, or internal integrity of the Gospel, and then test it against their own competing worldview. But, unlike the common misconceptions about how people “get saved,” persons do not place their faith in Christ in a vacuum or based solely on these cerebral facts about Christ.  Instead, they also test the claims of Christianity against their own experience.  And then they evaluate the Gospel in terms of seeing this truth lived out (or not) by a person or persons who claim to be followers of Jesus. Obviously this brings up the important notion of living as light among our friends, co-workers and family.

But that’s not enough, because there is one more vital step that precedes their actual decision to commit their lives to Christ. This is the step that my Ultrimar experience reminded me of. It is the step I call “trying on the faith.”  Like trying on clothes in the mall, most persons need to “try on the faith” before they commit to Christ personally.  Just “seeing” our faith isn’t enough, we must give them an opportunity to hear the truth, to see the truth (lived out in our lives), and to experience the truth - to “try on” Christian faith in a non-threatening environment.

But how do we help people take the step from observation of faith to actually experiencing the Christian life before they are believers? That sounds almost impossible! And how can they try out faith for “free” in a non-committal way (like I did with the coffee, it cost me nothing)?

To explain this, I’d like to tell you a story.  It’s about a man named Patrick of Ireland, whom moderns call “St. Patrick.”   Beyond the popular view of a leprechaun-ish figure to whom inebriated people made toasts of green beer today, the real Patrick was a missionary with few peers.  Patrick, when a Briton lad, was captured by marauding Irish, taken to Ireland and enslaved there until his escape years later. The amazing thing is that Patrick received a call from God to return to these people whom he should have hated, and Patrick, at age 48, accepted. In doing so, he went to a culture that was one of the most pagan cultures of history, its people entrenched totally in witchcraft, slavery, child sacrifice, cannibalism and tribal warfare. And miraculously, one of the most incredible times in missionary history was recorded as hundreds of thousands placed their faith in Christ over the next two centuries (ad 432-600+).

How did he do it?  Among other things, Patrick allowed these “pagan” Celts to “try on the faith,” before making the plunge into following Christ.   In his book The Celtic Way of Evangelism, author George Hunter explains that Patrick would take a small contingent of disciples with him into a village, and establish a faith community there.  They would actively make friends and share the message of Christ’s love and sacrifice with people. They would share God’s love through acts of service and kindness.  And then they would invite these people to come into their fellowship long before they ever made a personal commitment to follow Christ as a disciple.  They essentially allowed them to “try on Christianity” before “buying it.”  They would participate fully in the small group of believers spiritual community (even taking communion), and a great majority placed their faith in Christ in the process – so many so that one of the most dramatic large scale conversions to Christ in history occurred.

But will methods that worked among pagan Celts in the 5^th and 6^th centuries work in Montreal?  Hunter says yes, and so do I.  Hunter asserts that we are in the age of the Neo-pagan.  And the methods he described are working among these “new pagans” in the West today. And its not just limited to the West - we witness mission fields around the world where people are coming to Christ in large numbers in this way.

What is this “new” method?  Frankly, it’s not new at all.  And it wasn’t even new in Patrick’s day.  He got the idea from what he saw the early church in in the book of Acts doing house-to-house (see Acts 2:36-47).  And that thing was the power of dynamic, holistic faith communities. We call them cell groups, life groups, small groups, or even house churches.  The name doesn’t matter, but the principle does.  When small, intimate bands of believers gather together to pray, worship, study the Bible and live the Christian life together, something supernatural happens.  When they share the love of God by doing genuine acts of service together in the community, it is a powerful expression of God’s love (and it’s fun doing it together). When they are accountable to one another, it helps them experience life-change at a totally new level. When they share spiritual victories in one another’s lives, as well as spiritual failures and other trials of life, it gives them nourishing support.  And above all, when they invite interested friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances to “try on the faith” by first experiencing this kind of Christian community through their small group, they unleash God’s power to totally transform that person’s life forever.

Sharing our faith with others is not and was not ever intended to be a purely solo endeavor; indeed, when Jesus said, “follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he proclaimed this to the disciples as a group. God intended for our love for one another to be one of our most powerful witnesses, and this sentiment is expressed over and over by Christ and the Apostles. Jesus, in John 13:35, said, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” Now you can see why I think everyone should be in a small faith community, or cell group (small group).  It is vital for every person’s personal spiritual transformation and well-being. But when it comes to loving others, these small groups of believers help us to love people who do not know Christ in a truly dynamic way, as we give them the gift of community, and let them “try on the faith,” for a while before they “buy into it” for good.  And, like Ultramar, we want everyone to just try on this faith once, because we know that most will like what they try.  Thus, we should all be a part of some type of Christian community (”small group”) and encourage other people to do the same. It’s a spiritual no-brainer.  And once we get there, we must never forget that our groups are not just for our own personal growth, but are also there for us to invite new people to “try on the faith” who have not yet done so.  And that’s better than Hazelnut Cream, and more precious than gold.

Yet another year is coming to a close.  After anticipating it all year, Christmas is over.  And I got through my first Boxing Day without taking a single punch!  Seriously, I hope everybody had a nice time with family and friends.  Did any of you get a chance to share Christ through this holiday that celebrates His birth?  I did, and it was a really cool Christmas Eve experience.  If you’ve got any stories along those lines that we could share with the Impact family, email it to me.  So now it’s on to New Years Eve!  I pray that you are all safe and find a fitting and fun way to ring in the New Year.  With that in mind, anyone up for some New Year’s Resolutions?  I know that many of you are so thoroughly counter-cultural that the idea of doing something so clichéd as making New Year’s resolutions is not on your radar.  Being a fellow counter-culturalist, I understand that sentiment.  But I do them. I like new beginnings. I like landmark dates and decisions.  I love making New Year’s Resolutions.  So, below, I’ve given you my list for 2008. More than once I have considered the wisdom of doing this, because this is making my life pretty a pretty open book with a whole lot of people!  I guess that brings a whole lot of accountability.  Oh well, what is better than a lot of accountability to help me reach these important goals!  And I think that maybe, just maybe, you might get inspired to make a few goals of your own this year that could bring you the change you hope for. If you do, I’d love to hear about them. So, without further adieux, here’s my New Year’s Resolutions for 2008:

First, I have one overarching goal:

To make relationships the uncontested #1 priority in my life: with God, my wife, my children, my friends, my church, my mentee’s and the lost.  This means serious quality time, doing lots of listening.

My ten resolutions/goals:1)      Learn to depend more on God: a) Begin and end every day with prayer, b) get up before everyone in the household and spend time in the Word and in prayer for one hour every week day c) read the Bible from cover to cover this year d) journal. 2)      Help my family grow closer to God. a) memorize one scripture and/or scripture story each week with my whole family, b) pray with each of my children nightly and c) have a more consistent weekly family night (with devotional)3)      Nourish my marriage. a) Take Amanda out on dates more often (goal: 1x a week), b) offer more words of praise, less words of criticism. 4)      Nourish my kids: a) spend more planned, quality time with my kids: take each child out at least once a month for one-on-one time, b) give them more loving discipline/structure5)      Organize, simplify and maintain:  Throw away stuff, make a place for everything and put everything in its place in my office, shop, and household. 6)      Reach 100% funding of our Budgetary Needs (we raise a majority of our own support each month, and I need to find some new supporters to help us meet our budgetary needs here). Contact supporters more consistently. 7)      Meet with as many church members and leaders each week as I can schedule.  Encourage, pray and vision together.       Engage more lost persons relationally for Christ through a) Prayer-walking b) “Exploring” and c) Storying in
Montreal at least once a week and d) deepen existing relational avenues of basketball, scouting, and neighbors. 9)      Get into better physical shape: a) through walking/jogging, elliptical and playing racquetball and basketball and  b) eating better and taking vitamins regularly (goal: lose a total of 50 lbs by Dec 31, 08). 10)   Grow musically: a) take guitar lessons  b) record an album of original songs c) involve music more often personally, with family and in ministry. Okay, so there they are. I’ve bared my soul.  That’s what I want to see happen in 2008.  There are more, but those are my top 10.  A few will be pretty tough to do, but hey, if they were easy, they wouldn’t be goals, they would just be reality.  It is exciting to see these on paper. But I can’t imagine how exciting it will be if I reach each of these goals.  Wow.  How about you?  What goals do you have for 2008?  What does God want to do in and through your life?  I look forward to hearing about that as we travel this journey together.  

Your Fellow Traveller, Pastor Lon 

My family had a Zaccheus experience today.  Remember the story of Zaccheus in the Bible?  Zaccheus was a hated tax collecter.  He was also very short, and had trouble seeing over people in a crowd. One day, Jesus passed by his house, and there were large crowds preventing Zaccheus from seeing Jesus. But Zaccheus was so intent on seeing Jesus that he climbed up into a tree.  When Jesus passed by, He saw Zaccheus in the tree.  Jesus sensed that Zaccheus would only go to such great lengths to see Him if he were somehow being drawn by His Father in Heaven.  So Jesus told Zaccheus to come down from the tree, saying, “I am going to your house today.”

Our “Zaccheus” experience was a lot like this!

We arrived at the dog park a few minutes after Kaleb and Abigail and our Westie named Kirby.  The kids love to take Kirby to this dog park to run around and play with other dogs.   I think they like talking to the dog owners, too (those two like talking to anybody, anytime, anywhere!).   On this day, they had met a gentleman named George,* who had recently lost his dog.  George had already shared with the kids that he’d lost his dog and that he was having some health problems.  Amanda and I began to talk to him, and he seemed sad and even teared up at one point. Amanda and I could sense that he needed someone to talk to, so she took the kids to play, and George and I sat down at a picnic table beneath a large tree.

I learned that he lost his girlfriend a few years ago, and that she had aborted their baby.  She took all of his money.  And his health is declining.  He has a degerative muscular condition similar to MS.  I found out that he is a carpenter by trade.  I told him that I was a storyteller, and that I tell people the story of God.  He opened up to me and told me that he didn’t understand why he was having these health problems, and that he feared for his mother’s well-being if he were to die.  He cried, and expressed many things from his heart.

We talked more, and then I asked him if he would like to hear a story.  He enthusiastically agreed.  From beginning to end, I told him the story of how Jesus healed the man born blind (John 9).  One of the points of the story is that his blindness was not due to his sin or the sins of his parents, but Jesus declared that, “this has happened that the power of God might be displayed in his life.”  We talked about how we don’t always know why we suffer, but that sometimes it is to bring God glory.  We also discussed how the blind man declared that Jesus was the Messiah, and worshiped him.  George’s countenance changed, and he expressed over and over again that he was very grateful for me telling him this story.

Then an unusual thing happened.  He invited me to his house, and so I went.  After that, he invited our whole family to eat with him at an Indian restaurant (he is Indian-Portugese), and he paid for the meal!  Then he took us to see the condominum he is renovating nearby.  Through our times together, we talked about Jesus and what He can do in George’s life.

Please pray for George.  George comes from a Roman Catholic background, and is missing the point that going to mass does not equate with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  I saw pornographic magazines in his home, yet he has pictures of saints and the pope, and he believes that kissing these images and having them in his home will bring him blessing and good luck.  In reality, just a few hours with George revealed that his life is a real mess. Pray with me that God might grant “sight to the blind” as he did for the man born blind.  Pray that salvation would come to his house, as we see in the New Testament stories of Zaccheus and the man born blind.  If God is truly drawing him, that will be the case.  We will be here to share God’s story and help him in this process as the Lord leads.  Pray that we would be bold, faithful, and can serve George in ways that would make him want to have his life changed, too.  Pray also that we might form meaningful relationships with other persons at the dog park as we go there frequently.  There is a group of dog owners that come there daily. Hopefully, through a dog, a child, or something new that God orchestrates, we may be able to say again, “Zaccheus, come down from there, I’m going to your house today!”

Jesus said to His disciples, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!  Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life (John 4:26).”

I laid tile in our foyer this evening.  The linoleum in the little 5ft x 5.5 ft. room was likely original with the house, which was built in 1955. Suffice it to say that it was in horrible shape.  The project took me about six hours to cover an area that is 5ft x 5.5 ft. For those who know tile, that may seem to have taken too long.  For those who know me, it will seem like a miraculously short time!

Projects such as this would have taken me hours in the past because I am a perfectionist.  And a slow one at that.  But  God has given me a new perspective on time.   With each second that passes my kids grow one second closer to graduating high school and being out from under my roof - and away from my parenting, guiding, and protecting. With each second that passes I grow one second older.  And with each second that passes, someone dies in this world who does not know Christ.

It’s nice to fix up the house or yard, but in the scheme of things, they just don’t matter enough to devote too much time to them.  It will look great if the tiles are lined up perfectly, but I am learning that “really good” is an admirable state as well.  Otherwise, I would have never finished tonight.  And as long as our place is nice enough to entertain guests and church members and we aren’t embarrassed about it, that is enough.  Because the clock is ticking, and I am accountable to the Father for what I did with my time here on this earth.

Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16 ).”