Three men and marketplace ministry...
Three men.
In February of this past year God put a few men on my heart. I would like to say a 'few good men', but I wasn't sure of the 'good' part until I reached out to meet with them. I was at a church planting conference and was invaded by God's Spirit...I don't know how else to put it. Conferences haven't really moved me for as long as I can remember, but I was cut to the quick as I sat in my seat and listened to a couple church planters from India share their stories of discipleship and disciple-making. One of them shared a story of how a young man he was discipling had just lost his family (wife and children butchered in front of him) in his home town because he dared to go back and share the gospel. Tears filled my eyes as I tried to reconcile how this Indian church planter was even at our conference speaking with hope and joy when such an event had just taken place in one of his disciple's lives. How does that not stop you dead in your tracks? How do you go and speak at a conference in the United States after that kind of horrific devastation? How are people continuing to sign up for this kind of ministry after the circulation of that story and particularly that kind of outcome due to obedience? Why is martyrdom breeding even more hungry hearts who desire to give their lives for the sake of the gospel?
I was stunned. I was restless. I was convicted.
I left the conference that day and returned to my hotel. I wept and prayed. I surrendered my life afresh to the call of the gospel and, in a way, my personal calling. It's crazy how you can forget the point of it all, the original impulse that made you choose ministry as a way of life, as a career. The burning passion that once blazed in my bones. As I sat there, I felt the need to simply write. To write what I was feeling and who God had brought to my mind that I could possibly pursue to plant churches, not just traditional churches, but micro-churches led by marketplace ministers. I wanted to expand my vision, to challenge my constructs, to follow God by faith into places that didn't make sense to me. As I was writing, God laid certain men on my heart...random men, really. One man I knew pretty well, one I knew very little, and another I didn't know at all. I just knew they were attending our church and for whatever reason, they were being downloaded into my soul in that moment. I know, it sounds mystical, even superstitious, but I just let it happen. I just wrote down their names and committed to not speak a word to them until several months had passed. I wanted to make sure this wasn't a fleeting emotion. I wanted to make sure the move of God in my heart wasn't just a conference chill or frill. I wanted to know it was bone deep...abiding and enduring.
So after several months, I began to make contact with these men one at a time to meet up. I wanted to share my "February conference story" and then I wanted to hear their story...the longer version. What I heard floored me as I came to realize that all three men that God laid on my heart had one thing in common...they all had affairs over the course of their lives. One had an affair and worked through the broken trust...and with years of counseling and healing they remaining married, another had an affair and it led to a divorce and a shattering that eventually God used to call him back to himself, the third had an affair that eventually ended in divorce only for God to transform his heart and miraculously bring about their reconciliation and their re-marriage a couple years ago. I remember when it hit me after meeting with the last of the three..."God, are you sure these were the guys you wanted me to pour into? Is the commonality of having affairs part of the storyline that you want to use to show your power to redeem and restore?" I was dumbfounded.
So this morning was finally, after months of meeting with these guys separately and praying for clarity and certainty, the day where each of these men would meet each other for the first time. It was still dark when the guys converged outside Nonna's cafe in Ada. They introduced themselves and gave each other hugs as we walked into the restaurant. I'll write more in the months to come, but suffice it to say that it was powerful to listen to them share an abridged version of their story that led them to the table we were sitting around this morning.
The road of discipleship is slow and scenic, but it's worth it. To follow God's nudges to pour into lives he puts in your path and on your heart. My prayer is that the seeds I'm sowing with reap a harvest in the years to come and that maybe, just maybe, some marketplace ministers will start some micro-churches that will start more micro-churches, ad infinitum...
That's the dream...and today, was another small step toward the daunting dream.
In February of this past year God put a few men on my heart. I would like to say a 'few good men', but I wasn't sure of the 'good' part until I reached out to meet with them. I was at a church planting conference and was invaded by God's Spirit...I don't know how else to put it. Conferences haven't really moved me for as long as I can remember, but I was cut to the quick as I sat in my seat and listened to a couple church planters from India share their stories of discipleship and disciple-making. One of them shared a story of how a young man he was discipling had just lost his family (wife and children butchered in front of him) in his home town because he dared to go back and share the gospel. Tears filled my eyes as I tried to reconcile how this Indian church planter was even at our conference speaking with hope and joy when such an event had just taken place in one of his disciple's lives. How does that not stop you dead in your tracks? How do you go and speak at a conference in the United States after that kind of horrific devastation? How are people continuing to sign up for this kind of ministry after the circulation of that story and particularly that kind of outcome due to obedience? Why is martyrdom breeding even more hungry hearts who desire to give their lives for the sake of the gospel?
I was stunned. I was restless. I was convicted.
I left the conference that day and returned to my hotel. I wept and prayed. I surrendered my life afresh to the call of the gospel and, in a way, my personal calling. It's crazy how you can forget the point of it all, the original impulse that made you choose ministry as a way of life, as a career. The burning passion that once blazed in my bones. As I sat there, I felt the need to simply write. To write what I was feeling and who God had brought to my mind that I could possibly pursue to plant churches, not just traditional churches, but micro-churches led by marketplace ministers. I wanted to expand my vision, to challenge my constructs, to follow God by faith into places that didn't make sense to me. As I was writing, God laid certain men on my heart...random men, really. One man I knew pretty well, one I knew very little, and another I didn't know at all. I just knew they were attending our church and for whatever reason, they were being downloaded into my soul in that moment. I know, it sounds mystical, even superstitious, but I just let it happen. I just wrote down their names and committed to not speak a word to them until several months had passed. I wanted to make sure this wasn't a fleeting emotion. I wanted to make sure the move of God in my heart wasn't just a conference chill or frill. I wanted to know it was bone deep...abiding and enduring.
So after several months, I began to make contact with these men one at a time to meet up. I wanted to share my "February conference story" and then I wanted to hear their story...the longer version. What I heard floored me as I came to realize that all three men that God laid on my heart had one thing in common...they all had affairs over the course of their lives. One had an affair and worked through the broken trust...and with years of counseling and healing they remaining married, another had an affair and it led to a divorce and a shattering that eventually God used to call him back to himself, the third had an affair that eventually ended in divorce only for God to transform his heart and miraculously bring about their reconciliation and their re-marriage a couple years ago. I remember when it hit me after meeting with the last of the three..."God, are you sure these were the guys you wanted me to pour into? Is the commonality of having affairs part of the storyline that you want to use to show your power to redeem and restore?" I was dumbfounded.
So this morning was finally, after months of meeting with these guys separately and praying for clarity and certainty, the day where each of these men would meet each other for the first time. It was still dark when the guys converged outside Nonna's cafe in Ada. They introduced themselves and gave each other hugs as we walked into the restaurant. I'll write more in the months to come, but suffice it to say that it was powerful to listen to them share an abridged version of their story that led them to the table we were sitting around this morning.
The road of discipleship is slow and scenic, but it's worth it. To follow God's nudges to pour into lives he puts in your path and on your heart. My prayer is that the seeds I'm sowing with reap a harvest in the years to come and that maybe, just maybe, some marketplace ministers will start some micro-churches that will start more micro-churches, ad infinitum...
That's the dream...and today, was another small step toward the daunting dream.
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