Lon’s Blog

On this day, exactly four years ago, right before midnight, we rolled into Montreal for the first time.  My wife and I, our four children and our dog found our house, bedded down for the night, and on July 8 woke up to a whole new world.   I am not one who is big on “signs,” but arriving on 7/7/07 seemed like a number only fitting of the God-sized adventure we felt awaited us.  And we have not been disappointed.  Now, as I look back over the last four years, I must say that our experience in Montreal has included some of the best moments of our lives.  They have also included some of  our most difficult moments, but we knew they would likely be so as we left friends, family, home and culture to pursue God’s calling to live, minister, share Christ and plant new works for Him in this great, lost city.  But it has all definitely been an adventure, and we are all alive (even though we got rid of the dog).

On the high side, our church, Impact Church, has been to us the most kind, loving and generous church family we have ever experienced.  They are the most extraordinary group of followers of Jesus Christ we have ever met. And through their dedicated service to Christ, we have seen God do miracles in people’s lives like we have never experienced before. Over the last 12 months, our little community of 40-50 had the privilege of baptizing 11 people.  That is not a small thing. It is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. And the changed lives of these that have followed Christ is an awesome testimony to the power of Christ at work in the world today.  We are so humbled to be in God’s presence as He works among us.

In our personal lives, there is no denying that God has been ever-present with us as well, in the “good times,” and in the “bad times.”   Many of you know that even as God has done so many things in our church life the last nine to 12 months, it has been a particular strguggle physically and emotionally for Amanda and I in our personal lives. Now, we are getting some rest and treatment in the US.  Ironically, after four years on the mission field, many international missionaries take a year off for sabbatical and deputation.  We had not planned to do this, but intended to be in Montreal for the summer.  God had other plans, and has given us a sort of “forced” Sabbatical.  We believe that as always, God’s plans are better than ours, and that we are securely in under His loving protection.  As we spend some time here resting and concentrating on our family and personal issues, I believe that God is going to grant us new skills, perspectives, and habits that will help us serve Him, our family and others better.  It reminds me of Elijah, who experienced a sort of emotional crash after his enormous victory over the 950 prophets of Asherah and Baal on Mount Carmel.  He needed copious amounts of rest and food, and then to hear the still, small voice of God.  After that, God told him to “arise” and serve Him again.  I believe that when God tells us to ”arise,” it will be even greater intimacy of relationship with Him and effectiveness for Him. He sharpens and disciplines those whom He loves.

I hope to blog a whole lot more in the days ahead than I have done in the days behind.  In those blogs, I look forward to sharing many of the things that God has taught us, and is teaching us, as we continue our journey of knowing Him and making Him known.

In US politics, when an encumbent president successfully wins his party’s nomination to run a second time for the highest office in the land, his supporters chant, ”FOUR MORE YEARS!! FOUR MORE YEARS!!”  That’s my chant, too.  I do not know the future, and I certainly do not determine it, but if God so wills, I pray that in four years I will find myself and my family and a growing number of disciples of Jesus Christ on mission with Him in the great, lost city of Montreal.   His Kingdom come, His will be done.

Your fellow traveller,

Pastor Lon

Except for the moan and hiss of the oak logs giving way to the snarling fire, the house was silent.  Just 45 minutes prior, my troop had arrived at their highly anticipated destination. The kids had crawled out of our blue 2006 Toyota Sienna mini-van that had doubled as their vehicular sleeping quarters for the last six hours or so, and, with their mother gently goading  them into their assigned beds, each quickly slipped back to sleep in the comfort of more conventional bedding at “Nana’s and Pop’s house.”  

It was now 4:45 am and I was the only one still awake.  The roaring fire snapped and popped and cast an ethereal glow from the corner of the otherwise dark room in which I found myself.  Wisps of smoke escaped the boundaries of the tumultuous fireplace by which I sat and tinged the air with the acrid smell of burning logs.   Before I realized it, the searing heat from the angry fire brought the temperature of my pant legs to an intolerable level, and I was forced to reposition my chair further away from the inferno.  But I really didn’t mind. In fact, the sting on my skin went virtually unnoticed  due to one fact: after a 1,722 mile trip that spanned 30 hours and took my wife and four kids and me through parts of Quebec, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, I was seated right where I wanted to be.  I was home.  Ahhhhh.

After unpacking the car, I had prepared for bed and intended to follow my family to a much anticipated sleepy bliss.  I turned back the covers, being careful not to wake my wife, and prepared to get in bed. But at the last moment I changed my mind.  I put the covers back in place, and turned and walked down the three short flights of stairs in the split-level house to the den where the fireplace burned on the ground level.  In the familiar room where I spent so many years of my childhood, and intermittently since, I took in the artifacts of our family’s history.   I turned on a lamp to get a better look at familiar photos, antiques and other keepsakes. As I did so, I asked myself, “Why am I still awake and wandering around this old house while everyone else is sleeping?”  “After driving 30 hours through snow and rain on only a few hours sleep, why am I not fast asleep like everyone else?   

The answer came to me quickly. It was this: I wanted to savor the sweet sights, sounds and smells of home for which I had just paid a financial, logistical and physical price to experience.  I wanted to take a moment to appreciate the familiar, to enjoy being in the one place in the world where I felt most comfortable: home.  Then I turned off the light, gazed into the fire, and pondered the very concept of “home.” 

When it comes to stable homes, mine was about as rock solid as they come. I was really, really blessed.  In a day when people change jobs and spouses and cities of residence almost as frequently as hairstyles, my parents never did (as a matter of fact, they never really changed hairstyles either). They still live in the same house they built in 1955, five years after they married.  Thirteen years later, I was born, the last of six kids. I grew up in a community where we were a very well known and established family. We had the keys to our neighbor’s houses, but it didn’t matter much, because none of us locked our doors anyway. Having such a place to call home was, and is, a great heritage and comfort to me.

But as I warmed by the  fire, I was reflecting on the fact that my own children have no such physical heritage.  In pursuing God’s will to make disciples in this lost world, we have lived many places.  That fact concerns me at times, and this was one of those times.  I sought the Lord’s mind on this issue as I have done scores of times before.  By the firelight, He reminded me of another one who left his homeland and never got to provide a permanent home for his own family.  “By faith he [Abraham] made his home in the promised land…for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:9-10).”

Yes, Abraham moved from his homeland, and moved about the promised land frequently.  He gave up a “stable home” to pursue a spiritual home.  But I think his faith informed him that the latter was more lasting, more “real” than the former.  C.S. Lewis once said, “If I find within myself a desire that no other experience can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”   Abraham, like Lewis, knew that the price to be paid in this world would be far outstripped by the reward in the next.   

I love my home and hometown in Arkansas. Sometimes I yearn to live there again and sometimes I wish my kids could have what I had.  I certainly wish they could be nearer family.  I experience this feeling every time I return.  But a great “hometown experience” is not all there is to life.  Even being near family is not some right that we have, nor that we have to have, as incredibly supportive and helpful and rich as it can be when we are able to live near family.  As idyllic as my upbringing was and as awesome as it is to live near family, neither of these things are what anyone was really MADE for.  It is not what my children were made for, either.  Doing God’s will is just not comptatible with my own convenience, nor even my family’s.  To take any other opinion is for me to say that the eternal destiny of people who have never heard the message of Jesus Christ is LESS IMPORTANT than my own desires, my own dreams, my own convenience.  It is also to say that it is okay for me to do my will, and to ignore God’s.  Certainly I cannot do that if I call myself His disciple.

We were made for so much more than the pleasures, comforts, and conveniences of this life. Even some of the good things can get in the way of the GREAT things.   Ultimately, we were made for another world, another home.  And when we get there and “unpack our bags” and curl up beside the indescribable heat and light of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we will experience home in a way that surpasses our wildest imaginations and exceeds even the most perfect home in this world.  And that homecoming will make the journey worth it all.   

  ________

  Addendum:  This trip home was the last time I ever spoke to my mom face-to-face.  She died on August 21, 2009 from a heart attack and complications from surgery to remove cancer.  Oh, how I wish I were able to spend more time with her in her final months in this world!  But that was not God’s call nor His will for me.  But I remember vividly the last words Mom ever spoke to me before she died.  We talked on the phone, and she reassured me that it was okay that I could not be there for her surgery, because she said she believed God wanted me to be in Montreal to share Christ with the lost.  Then her last words were these:  “I will talk to you when I get out of surgery, or, if not, I will see you in heaven.  Either way, I am ready.  I am not afraid of going home to be with my Lord. I am at peace.  See you soon, or see you in heaven.” 

I know that my mother is experiencing “what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard,” in the presence of her Maker, Lord, and Savior. She is home.

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.

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 ).”