Zip-line to Glory

Several years ago, I led worship at a father-son retreat in Indiana. I cannot remember any of the songs we sang, a single message we heard, or even the identity of the keynote speaker. I do remember that weekend, however, as one of my all-time favorite weekends for one simple reason: I spent the weekend with my first-born son, Jonathan.

Three memories in particular stand out for me from that weekend: horseback riding, wall climbing, and, most notably, the zip line of death! The horseback riding was one of the two most satisfying rides of my life. (By the way, I have only been horseback riding two times!) The wall climbing was at once both one of the most proud moments of my life and one of the most humiliating. My shameful failure to conquer even the baby wall scarred me for life. Jonathan’s triumphs over all three walls – the beginner, the intermediate, and the master walls – impressed me to no end and fortified my perpetually growing joy that he’s my boy. I am so glad to be his dad!

My third memory relates to one of the half a dozen or so most powerfully existential experiences I have yet survived. In these intense moments, everything seemed to move in slow motion, except my mind. They are as close as I have yet come to out-of-body experiences because it seemed I was watching myself balance on the razor’s edge of time between the here-and-now and the hereafter. These are my peeks into eternity:

· The night when as a newly licensed driver I passed my first semi-truck on the slopes and curves that constitute the two lanes of US 50 between Brownstown and Seymour, Indiana. I was two-thirds of the way around before I saw the headlights of oncoming traffic leap over the rise. I still gulp and wonder how I made it through.

· The sunny Saturday afternoon when Donna looked into my eyes and said, “I do.” I did not fully grasp it then, and still have much to learn today, but I remember looking into her brown eyes and thinking something like, “Now it starts.”

· The events surrounding the births of each of our children are cauterized into my consciousness, especially the first time I held each child. “O Lord,” I thought, “Help us show them You.”

· The morning I lifted the head of my father’s vacated body in order to retrieve my youngest sister’s pillow for her. Dad was simply no longer there in that shell. I kissed his forehead anyway and whispered, “See you soon, Daddy.”

Add to this list the aforementioned zip line of death. Here’s what I recall. Picture a three-foot wide runway suspended sixty feet off the ground from a tower. Before we set our feet on the steps up to our appointment with destiny, our guides helped us strap on a harness and instructed us on the procedure to follow. I remember looking up and thinking, “That’s not so high.” Fifteen minutes later, I no longer held to that opinion as I sat on the ledge and felt the sway of our structure – an ominous lurch of some two or three feet back and forth which I did not notice from below.

Now I must make a point to tell you emphatically that I knew in my head that everything was going to be okay. We had watched several groups precede us. Everyone had survived. No one had been lost. I knew the harness and the cable and the hooks that secured me to the line were reliable. Bigger men than me had already successfully tested their mettle. Still, as I sat on the edge of the scaffold with a bird’s eye view of the ground and heard our instructor say, “Just lean forward and fall off on the count of three,” what I knew to be true was no longer any comfort whatsoever to my racing heart! I was about to die and nobody seemed to care or even notice! In fact, everybody, including my own flesh-and-blood, were grinning and laughing and whooping it up.

To this day, I do not know how I found the nerve to fall off that stand. I half-suspect that an angel nudged me over, or perhaps one of those twenty-something guides. I do know that not only did all the equipment work properly, but after the nanosecond of sheer terror when my weight left the structure for the zip line, the next 30 seconds or so were sheer delight. What a rush! The zip line of death was one of the most exhilarating and enlightening exercises of my life. It was worth it!

There is a message to my tale. The past few weeks have been saturated with hard news for many of the people I love. My brother-in-law’s dad passed away this week. Several members of our church family have received difficult reports from their doctors. Some of the sweetest, gentlest people I know now strain for their next breaths or find themselves exhausted after less than a dozen steps. And as they grapple with exhausting physical limitations, they also begin a more profound fight with their faith. More than one dear friend has confided in me recently, “Rob, I know heaven is my Home. I know Jesus has saved me. But part of me is still … afraid.”

I think of the zip line. I remember the strange mixture of confidence and terror. More than that, though, I remember the thrill, the adventure, once I left the ledge. Life has a way of bringing us to the edge of the ledge where faith and hope and confidence in the Unseen meet out dependence upon the slippery stuff of these shadowlands. The truth is, we would all be better people – better spouses, parents, siblings, children, friends, neighbors, and better Christ followers, if we learned to live the next five minutes as if they were our last five minutes (Thank you, Steven Curtis Chapman).

Let go of the ledge, beloved. Trust what we know by faith and His Word. Trust the harness of hope. Trust the cord fashioned by God’s love in Christ to carry you Home. Live for the zip line to Glory!

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Pastor Rob

Conversations and Conversions

I have an awful confession to make, an especially odious admission for any self-respecting Baptist pastor. This is painful, but I must come clean. The terrible truth is I don’t have any wonderful airplane stories. Seems like almost every dynamic Christ follower I know has a suitcase full of testimonies about people who sat next to them on a plane, unsuspecting strangers whom God serendipitously dropped one seat over, whom the Christian leader then engaged in conversation, and whom they subsequently guided to conversion to Christ before the plane landed.

Oh, I have had my share of witnessing opportunities in the big blue yonder. I have met some fascinating people on planes, and have been graced to tell many of them about the life-changing power of Jesus’ love in my life. I have shared tray tables with self-absorbed but lonely businessmen, college athletes so full of the life right now that eternity is obscure and unintelligible to them, at least three young people moving to a new city to start their careers, one wayward son returning home to Mom and Dad and hoping to be reconciled with his ex-wife and his own young son, a young lesbian leaving her parents home and values to be her own person, and even the head coach for the United States Men’s Olympic Team – an enormous thrill and honor for a former gymnast like me. I have even had a fellow passenger try to lead me to Christ!

Still, for all the conversations I have had with people on planes, I have not successfully directed any of those conversations to the conversion of even one soul … yet (“Hope springs eternal”). I whimper to Father: “What’s wrong with me, Lord? Why do I seem so lousy at that which seems to come so naturally to my ministry heroes?”

My sense of failure is not limited to the airways. With my feet on sold ground, I regularly find myself in social contexts populated with folks who need to know Jesus. Many times every day, as I talk with bank tellers, teachers, coaches, store clerks, and neighbors, an eagerness rises in me to help them encounter God in Christ like I have. Consider these, for instance (their names and a few identifying details have been changed to protect their anonymity):

Chuck and Cindy are part of our soccer parent fraternity. In his fifteen years as a cop, he has seen a lot of life … and death. So, he would say, he has a realistic view of the world. I would say he has a more calloused, though friendly, cynicism. George and Kathy’s youngest daughter studies Tae Kwon Do with our son. They are generous and love to talk, so, while we watch our kids practice their kicks, we chat amicably … at least about everything except politics and religion. Jack was recently diagnosed with stage four cancer. Still relatively young and evidently strong, he and his wife refuse to think about death but prepare to beat the prognosis of 6 months to a year left. Ron looks for all the world like a successful young leader still selling millions of dollars worth of real estate. But he confides business is so bad he may lose his own home.

In each case I wonder how I might speak life into their world. Here’s some of what I know:

1. People do not get to heaven by slick conversational maneuvers. Most folks are too savvy today to be manipulated that way. Besides, God does not need earthly real estate agents to pitch prime heavenly property for Him. He does not want sales people but sold people. “Sales,” so to speak, is the Holy Spirit’s job, not mine.

2. People do not get to heaven because they are impressed with the person giving witness to the Gospel. I can assure you, when people learn I am a pastor, … well, that is anything but a conversation stimulant. When they learn I am a Baptist, a Southern Baptist, they generally take on the demeanor of a trapped animal frantic for any means of escape they can find or fabricate. My task is not to attract people to me but to Jesus. “I must decrease; He must increase.”

3. By far the most fruitful fields are the fields with which I am most familiar – my friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors (FRANs), the people who are already most familiar with me. Authentic relationships, friendships that do not make people our marks, are (as they have always been) the most fertile soil in which to sow the imperishable Seed.

4. We often seem not to be inspired enough or sufficiently motivated by our own connection with God to deem His promises worth the risk of personal rejection that may come if we invite other people to consider Christ. The solution: get to know Jesus better every day. The more we know Him, not simply know about Him, but truly and intimately know Him, the more marvelous and wonderful and inspiring we find our Savior’s love to be!

5. Everybody needs Jesus. Very few people think they need Jesus. But at some point, almost everybody we know will wonder if Jesus is really the only way to heaven. When the people who know me get to a place where they ask that question of themselves, I hope and pray and purpose to live my journey with Jesus and with them with such consistency and confidence that they think: “Hey, maybe Rob can help me with this.”

6. I am convinced that 99.9% of the people led to Christ by a conversation on a plane have actually been groomed for that occasion by the faithful service of believing FRANs who have been investing in them for some time already. “Paul planted. Apollos watered. God provided the increase.” If I will be faithful, I can trust God to be fruitful.

7. Success is not measured by how other people may or may not respond to my witness. Success is measured by my obedience to “preach the Gospel at all times and use words when necessary.”

Until we “fly the friendly skies” on to Home, let’s encourage and provoke one another to be faithful and fruitful!

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Pastor Rob

Beware! Tipping Sacred Cows Can Be Dangerous

Last week I introduced a new concept, new at least to me – “tipping sacred cows.” What a crazy notion! I took the phrase from the sub-title of Pastor Brad Powell’s book, Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping. I share Pastor Brad’s conviction: “I believe that the church is the hope of the world … when it’s working right. And therein lies the problem. Most aren’t!”

These three truths resonate with me:

1. The church is indeed the hope of the world!

2. The church is the hope of the world “when it’s working right.”

3. Sadly, most churches are not working right today.

The question we must ever ask ourselves is this: Is our church working right? Does the local expression of the Body of Christ called First Baptist Church, South Lyon, Michigan – a local expression we cherish – operate according to God’s vision, purposes, and values? The impact we make as the hope of the world provides our answer.

How many lives are we seeing transformed by the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ? How many people have we seen be born-again this week, this past month, or so far this year? How many of our friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors have been drawn to Christ by His work through us as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”? The bottom line: Jesus Christ expects His body to make many and more disciples who engage in ministry and mission.

Jesus states unequivocally: “I will build My church, and the forces [gates] of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus’ claim bears three important implications:

1. First Baptist Church does not belong to the families who have invested their lives and livelihood here, though their investments have often been noteworthy. Neither does this church belong to any denominational entity, though we proudly align ourselves with the heritage and mission of the Southern Baptist Convention. This church does not belong to her pastors or her leaders, though their ministries have been praiseworthy through the years. First Baptist Church belongs to Jesus Christ alone. We are His church answerable to His design and desire for us.

2. The responsibility of building His church is … His. We may find certain methods, strategies, programs, or even gimmicks useful for a season, but the real Generator of growth in church life is the Head, Jesus Christ Himself. Make no mistake, He intends for His church to grow, to multiply. I am persuaded that He is so committed to building His church because He has commissioned His church to be the hope of the world!

3. Jesus also assures us that His church is to have an indomitable influence. The right understanding of His claim that “the forces of Hades will not overpower” His church is not merely that we will survive but that we will thrive. He does not emphasize here that we will be under attack “by the forces of Hades” but that the gates of Hell will be under attack by His church, and His church will prevail!

What has all this to do with tipping sacred cows? Well, I believe and contend that when the church is not working right, when the church is not growing and making disciples at a rate that threatens the dominion of darkness, more often than not the problem is with what we value. When believers value their way of doing church more that what Jesus says, they begin to cherish sacred cows.

What are we to do with sacred cows? Rick Warren famously proposed once: “Sacred cows make great hamburger.” We may chuckle at the witticism, but that approach would also be hurtful – to the sacred cows and to those who value them.

Let me close this week with some levity. Perhaps some folks have thought, as I did, that cow tipping was actually only an urban myth. My friend, Bert Spann, the pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Saline and an old country boy from Arkansas, assures me that cow tipping is an actual recreational activity, though he denies ever having participated himself. He did offer some counsel about how to “git ’er done,” though. I also found some sage advice from a sister’s blog called “emerginggrace.” Here are some realities to observe if one hopes to tip any cows safely and successfully – sacred or not.

1. Always remember, cows simply do not volunteer to be tipped. It is not natural to their preferred worldview. In other words, they will resist. For that matter, their owners are not to cozy with the notion either. They also will resist.

2. Make sure you have targeted a cow and not a bull! ’Nuff said.

3. A cow’s sheer body mass and center of gravity make the prospects highly unlikely, even for a group of people working together. In fact, the task requires a sizeable group with clearly-defined roles. Teamwork makes the dream work!

4. For the same reasons, momentum plays a key part in this adventure. We cannot simply stand still and pick up a cow. We have to get a good head start, build up speed, and hit the target squarely.

5. Apparently, cows are not all that susceptible to sneak attacks. They are hard to catch unaware. Moreover, if a cow is startled, they are quick to communicate to the rest of the herd that something is amiss. Think: Stampede!

6. Beware! Any attempt to tip a cow is by nature a dangerous activity. Despite a reputation for being placid and slow, a cow is actually quite capable of causing real and severe damage to humans when provoked or nervous.

Let’s moooove on! We will be chewing on this cud for some time yet. (Sorry, I could not resist)! Time to focus on Jesus!

Pastor Rob

Tipping Sacred Cows

Brad Powell, the lead pastor at the dynamic NorthRidge Church in Plymouth, writes: “I believe that the church is the hope of the world … when it’s working right. And therein lies the problem. Most aren’t!” (Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping, p 24).

Now that is one observation that should produce a reaction from anyone who loves Jesus Christ. In fact, I find Pastor Powell’s assessment to be downright provocative … and prophetic. His statement is certainly provocative in that it provokes a response and challenges me to think deeply and honestly about three people I love very much: Jesus Christ, His bride (the church), and … me. (I wish I could with integrity have listed lost people as the third person I love so dearly, but if I am to be absolutely truthful, I must candidly admit I think I love me more that I do them).

I also find Pastor Powell’s comment to be prophetic, not in the sense we tend to imagine prophetic – as some mystical foretelling, but in that I believe he is forth-telling – he is telling forth from God’s Word and heart the truth. Specifically, I recognize three obvious truths in his claim:

Truth #1: Yes! The church is indeed the hope of the world! God has established the confessing and possessing fellowship of Christ-followers as the Body of Christ – not government, not education, not religion, not economics. And this Body of Christ is charged to grow up and mature in a manner commensurate with the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). That means we are to be like Jesus, designed to remind heaven and earth of the love and grace and mercy afforded us in Jesus Christ. We are to function as His hands, His feet, and His voice to invite all nations to know Him and to make Him known (Matthew 22:1-14; 28:19-20).

Moreover, when He returns for His Bride, again, He is not coming for governments, or financial institutions, or even benevolent organizations. He is coming for His Bride, the church! Even when He comes for her – for us – the bride is found in Scripture applying herself to His mission – inviting all people to come to the Living Water (Revelation 22:17).

Truth #2: Yes! The church is the hope of the world “when it’s working right.” When the church does not work according to “specs” – according to God’s original design and desire for His people – then we actually become a hindrance, even an obstacle to people’s clear reception of Jesus. I find it enlightening that when Jesus says to His disciples, to us, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world,” He immediately follows each of those glowing commendations with warnings. “Don’t become contaminated and, thereby, lose your salt-like capacity to draw people to God.” “Be careful you don’t cover up the light and, thereby, obscure the path for people in the dark” (Matthew 5:13-15).

You see, the bad news is that when the church is not on mission, operating according to God’s vision and values, then our systems and strategies, our ways of “doing church” actually make the Gospel unclear to folks. The good news, however, is that when all we do as a church, when our programs and practices are governed by God’s vision, God’s mission, and God’s values, then we are indeed the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the great hope of the world Jesus says we are. And when we are operating at peak proficiency, informed by God’s Word and inspired by His passion for all people, then we our light will shine in such a way before people that they see our good works – not our hypocrisy, not our secret code words, not our exclusivity – and they will give glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16)! Hooray! and Hallelujah!

Truth #3: Yes. Sadly, most churches are not working right today. We are all familiar with the statistic by now: 80% of all churches in the United States today are declining or plateaued (a polite way of saying “dying more slowly”). I actually heard this week, that figure could be more accurately measured as high as 92-94%!

When churches love their way of doing church more than they love God’s mission, or more than they love lost people, then those churches are not working right. And when they are not working right, the common perception of the church is that we are out-dated, irrelevant, and unnecessary. So, leaders like Dan Kimball discover and write to warn us that the emerging generations “like Jesus but not the church.” When people begin to think that of His ambassadors, then a disregard for “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” is sure to follow. Who would argue that we are not seeing a massive war effort in our culture today to “dethrone Jesus,” as scholars and authors Darrell Bock and Daniel Wallace contend in their book, Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ?

Here’s the tough question: What do people in our community see when they look at us? Do our activities direct them to God? How many of our neighbors, our co-workers, or our classmates are giving glory to God because of our “good works”?

Much, if not most of what brings a church to decline is a fascination with what we like, forms of faithful practice that appeal to us, that are meaningful to us. We step onto a slippery slope when that fascination completes with or worse, even drowns out the appeal of God for us to be or become “all things to all people” so that we might “by any means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). When we find ourselves in that condition, it is time to look around and see if we may have some sacred cows that need to be … tipped. I have much more to say about this in the weeks to come. Maybe next time I will write about lessons from the dangers of cow tipping. Until then, let us strive to be His church, the hope of the world!

Pastor Rob

There's a Song in the Air

In the first volume of his classic Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, CS Lewis portrays Narnia before the arrival of the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, and the subsequent thaw that heralds the coming of Aslan, as a land where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” Can anything be more dreadful to a child’s mind? Long frigid nights, shortened days colored dreary and gray, cold winds imposing their will on bare trees that can only creak in mournful complaint, week after tiresome week of school with Christmas vacation far from view, snow, ice, chill, and more snow, … Hold on a minute, that sounds a lot like winter in Michigan this year. To make matters worse, with the writers’ strike, I have to endure winter without some of my favorite television programs! (sigh)

Indeed, winter has maintained a relentless grip on us this year. Since early December, it seems creation has been chastising us with one wintry blast after another. In fact, we have had so many snow storms, ice events, and arctic temps on Saturday nights these past 8-10 weeks that I am very nearly convinced our enemy, the prince of the power of the air no less, has specifically targeted pastors’ hearts with this weather cycle and its impact on folks coming together on Sundays for worship and fellowship.

Take heart, beloved! I have some wonderful news! A most gladsome sound has reached my ear this week, a song with indiscernible lyrics but a most clear message in the melody. Three times this week, after long, cold nights, I have been greeted in the morning with the singing of birds! They have begun to greet the dawn just outside my bedroom window. Birds singing in the morning – surely the grip of winter must soon break!

They sang again this morning. They were still singing at mid-morning when a home health care professional visited my father-in-law. From my study, I heard him comment as well on the aviary arias (a fancy reference on my part to birdsong). He called the day “delightful” and declared it was especially so because of the birds singing.

Delightful – snow-covered, frosty, but delightful. The power of hope fascinates me. How marvelous that dreariness can be so easily transformed into delight. How magically hope warms our hearts, thaws our spirits from the icy clutch of despair, and stokes the embers of our courage so that we can trudge forward! When I had nearly resigned myself to give in to the gloom, hopeful whispers of joy steady me and stir me to look upward and outward again.

I find particularly intriguing today the messengers God often uses to transport hope from the holy majesty of His love to the humdrum monotony of our lives. The heralds He employs are not often grand, glorious, or awesome. Rarely does Father announce His graces and mercies into my life with the trumpets of angels or the rolling back of the skies like a curtain or anything my limited imagination might equate with a God-sized, heavenly declaration. He does not often bowl me over in dim or dark with an explosion of bright light. Instead, He seems to favor first dispelling the darkness and preparing my eyes to adjust with the softer glow of candles. He uses birdsong to melt the ice on my soul.

Seems to me God frequently introduces flickers of hope and joy with small and common things, hardly conspicuous and rarely ornate. Whether in plain sight or public hearing of any who would notice, God invites us to remember He is Who He says He is. He would remind anyone who would pay attention that He can, always has, and surely will continue to do what He says He can do. Winter may not want to let go, but let go it must, because God has ordained it so.

One man once heard God’s invitation to him when he was in the deepest throes of despair, a severe winter of the soul. What is particularly striking is how Aurelius Augustinus heard God call. The man, who would become better known to us as Saint Augustine, found himself weeping uncontrollably, in fitful despair at his failure to reconcile his heart with his mind and with his lifestyle. Try as he had, he could not find a truth that would liberate his soul from the emptiness his choices left him. Then he heard a child-like voice chanting what sounded like a nursery rhyme from beyond the garden where Augustine sat. The child sang, “Tolle, lege” – “take up and read.” He retrieved a copy of Paul’s epistles and began to read. God’s Word came alive for him that moment, and he finally found hope, joy, and new life in Christ that day. The messenger God used? Apparently, the instrument of God’s invitation to Augustine was a child singing a children’s song.

Have you ever thought God might desire to use you to be someone’s song? I believe He would use each of us if we were available to Him. His employment of us for eternal ends may very likely be so subtle, however, that even we, His instruments, might not recognize the impact of the song He sings through us to another person. Consider, for instance, an incident David Bruce reported to us in our prayer service Wednesday night.

While setting up his Pepsi display at the Speedway on Nine Mile and Pontiac this week, David nudged one two-liter over, which led to the whole stack rolling across the floor. As he set himself to picking up the mess, he thought how people just tend to walk on by rather than help one another. Then, to his surprise, someone stooped down and began to help him. When they looked at each other, they thought they recognized one another. As it turns out, David’s unexpected assistant, and God’s song of hope to him that day, also attends First Baptist Church – a young man named Nick! With no side-glances at God to get His favor, Nick simply saw a need and met a need. The result was a thawed, thankful heart.

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may … give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Pastor Rob

Love is a Verb

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about love. What is love? What does it really mean to love? When we say, “I love the Detroit Pistons, or Diet Pepsi Jazz, or my wife’s lasagna,” what does that suggest, if anything about other objects of my affection such as my wife, my kids, my church, or God?

I have wondered and worried this past month about what I could do for Donna this Valentine’s Day to convey to her how much I love her. What convinces Donna she is loved, treasured, cherished by me? How do I love my wife? More than the idea or feelings of love, how do I demonstrate to my bride I love her? How do I say to her that she has no competitors for my heart’s devotion? Is there enough evidence in my life to convict me of love in the first degree for my wife?

Saying “I love you” is nice, but is that all there is to love? If I say to Donna, “I love you,” every morning and every evening and countless times through the course of every day, is that enough? Surely love is more than a declaration, more than words spoken, sung, or put on paper. I mean, it’s a start, but merely saying the words does not a lover make me.

Perhaps the fact that I need her so much is proof I love her. I need her smile, her wit, her wisdom, her hugs. I need her near me to complete me, to protect me from myself, to encourage me and to cheer me on. But love cannot be defined by our need for the person or object we claim to love. That is actually selfish when we think about it.

In my quest to define love for my sweetheart, I have landed on a place of deep commitment and challenge. I come most near to loving her in a way that she feels loved when I invest myself in discovering what pleases her and then set myself to presenting that pleasure to her. Seems simple enough, but if I really want to show Donna I love her, a good place to start would be to ask, “Honey, when do you feel most loved by me?” Take care, however, that if the question is asked, there must be a commitment to act on what she says.

For instance, if I know that my wife feels loved by me when I spend time with her, when I rub her feet, or when I pray with her, well … love would prompt me to do so. If I know she feels loved when I help with tasks around the house or give my time and attention to our kids, love acts on that knowledge. If I learn she doesn’t want more jewelry or would be upset about our finances if I bought her a car, but that simply planning and taking a day or two away together fills her love cup to overflowing, not only do I save money, but I invest in our happiness when I hit the road with my beloved. In fact, if I know what pleases her but do not do that under the guise of finding the perfect gift, then I have actually shunned the perfect gift for my own ego’s sake. And that would not be love.

I learned a long time ago that if I truly love my wife, I could not play softball eight nights a week. I had to adjust my routine to accommodate her desires. Love is more than words. Love is more than feelings. Love is more that stuff. Love is a verb, an action verb. Love is demonstrated or proven authentic by the actions love takes. The Bible says, “we must not love in words or speech, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

How do we love God? For many of us, we almost instinctively answer the question by finishing the statement: We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. Bravo! Jesus did in fact declare this to be the first and greatest commandment. But what in the world does that look like? What sets of attitudes, what sort of behavior will typify our lives if we love God with our whole being?

Perhaps some church people would follow up with: Well, if we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, then we are supposed to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. So, if we really love God we will love our neighbor. In fact, some would say we cannot honestly claim to love God unless that devotion moves us to love our neighbor. I would add, we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves until we love God first. But the question remains unanswered even still. How do we love our neighbors? What is love?

What are the indications in a person’s life that they do indeed truly love God? What if we were to ask God, “Lord, how could we show You we love you? What if God were to say, “Do this and I will know you love Me.” Well, actually, Jesus does say as much. He says:

If you love Me, show it by doing what I have told you. … the person who knows My commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves Me. … if a person loves me, he will carefully keep My word … Not loving Me means not keeping My words. … If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am on My way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of My life (John 14:15-28, The Message).

If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, then we will manifest that love in at least these three ways:

1. We will commit ourselves to know what He expects.

2. We will commit ourselves do what He expects.

3. We will commit ourselves to rejoice in His ways, even when we don’t feel His presence or understand His process.

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob

To Grow or Not To Grow

Since becoming your pastor some eighteen months ago, I have definitely grown. In more ways than not, this growth has been much needed and gratefully received. For instance, I have grown in my capacity to love people. In addition, I have rejoiced in the growth Father has brought to my Bible study and my prayer life. I have also marveled at the opportunities He has provided me to lead people to Christ, though I have not been as faithful as I would like to seize each moment.

Some of my growth has been unexpected and, though needful, not particularly welcome when it began. For example, with the increase of my capacity to love people has come a commensurate amplification of heartache for people. I feel much more sharply than I can ever remember grief and anguish for other people when they lose loved ones, reap consequences of poor choices, or encounter the painful course life in these shadowlands affords.

I also miss people much more. On any given Sunday, when I see empty places once regularly occupied by one of our FBC family … well, it is very much akin to that first meal with my mom and siblings after Dad graduated to glory. It is as if a place remains at the table left vacant, but strangely filled with longing for someone dear to return.

I must admit, I have not always appreciated as quickly as I should the growth God brings to my sense of His greatness and my minuteness. Is it possible to grow in humility? Sounds ironic, but the truth is, while God has brought me to a place of much greater confidence in the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ, He has situated that place directly over the rubble of my own abandoned arrogance. This is good growth, but it is also more than humbling. It is often downright humiliating!

Indeed, in more ways than I can list here, I have grown since becoming your pastor in August 2006. At the end of each day, I am, for the most part, grateful for almost all the growth God has begun in me. One area of growth confronts me daily, however, about which I am not at all happy. Perhaps it is the most obvious growth to most of you (O wretched thought!). I have gained over 50 pounds in my brief tenure here! Yes, I have grown – over six inches in my waist alone!

This is not healthy growth. This growth threatens to shorten my lifespan and limit my effectiveness as a husband, father, and pastor. This growth must be arrested. Nay, more! This growth must be turned around.

This is not a new path for me. When I moved to Michigan, I weighed about 215 pounds and wore 38” trousers somewhat comfortably. A few years of travel across Michigan, dining out with pastors and leaders across our state, and keeping a pace that prohibited regular exercise, saw me balloon to nearly 260 pounds and finding 46” pants to be a tight fit. I was breathless after fifty paces, having trouble sleeping at night, and experiencing significant back pain.

Donna convinced me we needed a life change if I hoped to see any grand kids someday. We got serious about lifestyle, diet, and exercise. Within a brief three months, I had lost so much weight that people across the state wondered if I had become gravely ill or something. Eventually, I weighed just below 197 pounds and was nearly ready to wear 34” pants for the first time since college! I stayed fit until … well, about August 2006.

So, here I am, eighteen months later, and beginning to experience the same health hazards I thought I had conquered once and for all. This week, at the wise and loving insistence of my wife, I have taken up once more the challenge to better health. I wonder to myself, “Can I get this right this time?” I also remember five keys I discovered three years ago related not only to healthy physical life, but also to productive spiritual growth. These are the reason I have brought you on this personal testimonial thus far (as well as an invitation for my church to hold their pastor accountable).

1. We need to see the problem. If we do not own or admit there is a problem, we are not likely to change. Until we are dissatisfied with the status quo, we do not even desire to change. Einstein has been credited with the witticism: “Insanity is to keep doing what you have always done and expecting different results.” Put another way, if we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we have been getting. If I want to be healthier and more productive, then I must address and alter the behaviors that have made me unhealthy. If we want to grow closer to God’s design for us, then we need to change our life patterns to produce that end.

2. We need to set a plan. My fitness plan involves adjusting my schedule, my diet, and my routine. I have to rid myself of some things and add some new. What’s your plan for growth in Christ this year? This week?

3. We need stay on principles. A friend commenting on diet plans told me a few years ago, “Any plan will work if you work the plan.” That is only as true as the foundation you build upon. I don’t think a plan like “eat only Snickers bars” will work. But if I have a passion to work a plan that is built on solid, reliable, time-tested principles, then that plan may work if I work it. God has given us clear instructions about how we can grow in Christ. Our plan must cleave to His direction, His life principles – prayer, Bible study, Love God, love one another, love our neighbor, etc.

4. We need the support of partners. When I set out to lose weight several years ago, a number of colleagues from whom I expected support actually discouraged me, even made fun of my attempts. I had a strong network of friends and family, however, who believed in the principles, the plan, and me. They were my partners. They cheered me on when I was tired and ready to quit. They guarded my practices and my portions. They loved me enough to hold me accountable, and they celebrated each milestone with me as well. Sounds a lot like what I understand the biblical concept of body life to be. Who are the 3-10 friends with whom you are growing closer to Jesus right now?

5. We need to settle on perseverance. This is not the first time, and probably will not be the last, that I have had to make significant changes to my life if I am going to be everything I hope to be for God’s glory. In each new season of life adjustment, I have had to determine early on that I was in this to the end – through good days and bad days. This struggle will not disappear in this lifetime. I must decide to choose the road to health for the rest of my life. In the same way, we must resolve always to know Jesus Christ more intimately and to make Him known more intentionally.

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob