The Love of My Life

Almost a quarter of a century has passed since she walked into my life. She was then, as she is now, full of grace and beauty. Within three weeks of meeting her, she had captured my heart, and I have never been the same.

Today we celebrate our twenty-third wedding anniversary, but more than that, we celebrate our God-given love. I am humbled to think God would love me enough to prepare Joye just for me; I am amazed that she would love me as she does, in spite of all my hangups and flaws.

Joye Rowe Jackson is the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. She blesses me daily with her intelligence, her beauty, her depth, her unselfishness, her wit and her love. She makes every day an exciting part of the journey we share in life together…and for that I’m grateful.

Sure, there are days when life is tougher and our differences show up in more challenging ways. But you know what, she loves me just as much then, and her passion and grace even in the harder times make life richer, fuller and more meaningful. She is a woman who fears God and offers forgiveness…what more could I ever ask?

And what a mother she is to our children. She teaches them, she invests in them, she serves them, she cares for them with a zeal and a heart full of passion and love. Her commitment to them and to God is unmatched.

I am a very, very blessed man. And today, as we celebrate what God has done in and through our lives, I say thank you…to Him, the giver of all good things, and to my wife, Joye, for the love and laughter we have shared over these many years.

I love you, honey, with all my heart. You’re the inspiration.

Most Church Planters Don’t Dream BIG Enough

Church planters are known for being “visionaries.”  They have a sense of what God wants to do through them and they not only can envision it, but are also able to cast that vision in compelling and tangible ways to those they are seeking to influence others for the King.  All effective church planters are entrepeneurial enough to start a new church and, with the commitment to and calling from God, they are determined to do just that, no matter what it takes.

The problem is this vision–to start a new church, even from scratch–isn’t big enough.

Some church planters, myself included, have dreamed bigger.  We’ve envisioned not only a church being planted, but the multiplication of churches, some simultaneous and some in subsequent generations, to exponentially reach more and more people for the King.  My organization even says that we won’t partner with church planters who aren’t committed to seeing multiplication happen.  This is a noble goal, to be sure, one that have the potential for huge impact over time.

The problem is this vision–to start multiplying churches–still isn’t big enough.

God doesn’t want us to simply start new churches…we’ve seen thousands planted in recent years with NO DISCERNABLE DIFFERENCE in the communities where most of them are located.  He wants to usher in His Kingdom; literally, to transform the world.  Any strategy to plant churches, even hundreds of them, that doesn’t change the world, falls woefully short of the heart of God.  After all, He taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.”  Any other vision is not big enough.

Dangers, Toils and Snares

Yesterday morning I put my nineteen year old daughter on a plane back to Vancouver, Canada. She starts college there on Tuesday. It was a heart-wrenching experience for all of us in the family for a variety of reasons.

As parents, we worry about our children when they are away, so far and with so few “connections” whom we have come to know. We worry about their safety, we worry about their needs being met, we worry about those around them. We worry about the need for friends and most of all, for growth in relationship with God.

This summer all five of us spent time working on our relationship with each other. We went lots of places together, we participated in all kinds of activities, we talked and laughed and shared in each other’s lives. We “caught up” on so much, including much that we had missed in the last year or two, and to be honest, was greatly needed in our lives.

Still, there are temptations to miss the moments of significance in each other’s lives, to fail to speak into those lives the word of God, and sidestep the need to challenge each other to remember that we live for Him, if we’re not careful. These “snares” can trip us up, the writer of Hebrews says, if our eyes aren’t fixed on Jesus.

In spite of all these dangers, toils and snares, I have to tell you I feel very blessed: God has given me and my family an extraordinary gift this summer, the unexpected, serendipitous gift of almost three full months with our first-born daughter. When she came home, we didn’t know what to think or expect, nor how long she would remain. What we received was a second chance to build a relationship, a better one, a deeper one, a relationship that means more to each member of my family than before.

And that’s all because of God. He is still working ALL THINGS together for good to them who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And so I can say, with John Newton today, that “through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come, ’twas GRACE that brought me safe thus far, and GRACE will lead me home.” It is amazing grace, indeed.

Thank you, Jesus.

There’s No Such Thing as a Church Planting Movement

Any of us would be hard-pressed to defend the belief that the early church intended to start a “church planting movment.”  in the first place, Jesus never even mentioned “church planting” in the words we commonly call the Great Commission.  In addition, there is no indication in the early chapters of Acts that the Apostles were intentionally attempting to plant churches.  (You may think of the Jerusalem church, but Jesus did all the “groundwork” on that core group and the Holy Spirit did everything else to bring the church into being.) 

Rather, the early church, according to Bob Roberts, was only interested in starting “a Jesus Movement.”  The command was to make disciples, which including baptism and obedience in following Jesus.  The early believers numbered in the thousands, as the Apostles led many to faith in Christ.  That emphasis continued even as the church scattered across the Roman Empire.  The focus was on making disciples, not on planting churches.  Church planting was not “the end,” but only a means to the ultimate end–the making of fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.

Apart from the Western world and most notably the United States, believers don’t talk about church planting movements, only Jesus movements.  So says Bob Roberts, who has traveled the globe and still passionately believes in multiplying churches. 

It is a subtle distinction since both “disciples” and “church planting” go together, but it’s an important distinction.  The emphasis always needs to stay on Jesus.  After all, that’s what all of life–including church–is about.

More Alive Than I’ve Ever Been

Church planters lost a great friend this week.  Dr. Bruce Revel, Director of Missions in Eastern Baptist Association (Maryland) died suddenly on Sunday morning.  In his final blog posting, he dwelt on his own morality in an amazingly frank and preparatory way.  A friend and colleague, Bruce was quick to love people.  We met not long after I arrived in Maryland in 2001, a year or two after he had returned to the Eastern Shore as Director of Missions; he had pastored there previously. 

Over the course of the years that have passed since that time, Revel led his association to be the leader in successful, effective church plants in the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.  During the course of these years, he led an association with only one significant church plant in its previous immediate history to start at least eight other plants, including three of the largest in our convention this decade.  The emphasis also extended to ethnic works, including the first Brazilian work in the entire convention.

Revel also led his association to prioritize church planting in its values and its planning.  He led his association to budget money to assist with new church plants, which had not been done before, and he also worked in tandem with Delaware Association to his north to hire a Church Planting Missionary, who has keep the focus and the efforts on-going to start new churches on the Eastern Shore.  In light of these things, it’s not surprising that Revel called himself “an idea guy.”  These ideas saved countless lives for all eternity.

Lost people lost a friend this week, too.  Whether they realize it or not, Revel was sold out to making sure they knew of a Savior’s love for them.  He would do anything he could to make sure that they heard the Gospel as “good news” for them, and not just a sales pitch or a manipulative marketing maneuver.  His conversion at age 20 made him even more passionate that others come to know the redeeming love of his Lord Jesus Christ.

Bruce Revel, advocate, friend, colleague, will indeed be missed, but his legacy lives on.  At the funeral today, the words of D. L. Moody were paraphased about Revel.  “If you are hearing this, then no doubt you’ve been told of my death.  However, nothing could be further from the truth; for today, I am more alive than I’ve ever been.”

Bye Bye Manny

So it finally happened.  Manny being Manny wasn’t funny anymore, at least not to the Red Sox.  He made it clear that he wanted to be a free man, to go elsewhere, and pursue a longer contract with more money, and so he’s gone.

I’m sad today because he has been the most integral part of the Red Sox teams of this decade.  His hitting was beyond comparison. His personna large than life.  The tandem of David Ortiz and Manny will long be remembered as one of the best, all-time.

But I’m happy today because the team is embracing the future.  I agree that Manny is past his prime and that his antics has become a major distraction, inside the clubhouse as well as on the field.  I don’t believe they could have won anything with the situation the way it was.

So, on to the future.  Jason Bay will be better in Boston than in Pittsburgh…IF he can handle the media and all the attention he’ll receive in this high-profile place.  And the team chemistry will be better for the days to come.  At least the Red Sox have learned a valuable lesson in the Epstein years that seemed to elude them previously:  you cannot live in the past but must position yourself for the days ahead with the changes that are necessary to make a difference. 

There’s always risk involved in making changes, but it’s a necessary risk.  Staying as is, or pining for what used to be, for churches as well as baseball teams, invites certain death.  “Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.”  (Albert Einstein)