Crossroads Farm

More from "Magpies"... Lessons 2 and 3.

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:27 -0500

It is lonely in the fields.

The pioneer needs to brace themselves for the loneliness that will come from being the unpopular voice. If I desire to begin anything that has not been done yet, there is a likelihood that I’m the only person who sees this particular need this particular way and has offered this particular solution.

Many times we had meetings where we would express the need to a group of leaders. They would get excited. They would buzz about the possibility. Then they would go back and try to fix the problem using the same stuff they used before they discovered the need.

Luke talks about the problems of attempting change with the old materials. 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

My mind works in a few pretty comedic ways. I just imagine the church organist playing a song by David Crowder, while the choir sings. It is not working for me. Well, it does make me laugh a bit. An old school preacher can’t just go shopping and outfit himself with hip clothes, change his hair, head to starbucks and throw in the words “cultural shift” and “foshizzle” (Yes. I know no one uses those phrases anymore.) to become socially relevant. Change is something that requires… Okay, change.

If you want to discover a church’s, business’s, school’s willingness to change, just look in their closet. It resembles mine. I am amazed at how many pair of pants I refuse to give away because I am sure that I will lose weight and once again wear them. Frankly, I have pants older than my children.

I have been in far too many churches that are attempting that exact scenario. You just can’t get there from here. Besides, that won’t draw an entertainment-savvy world in. We need new material to fix the tears. Most churches probably just need new pants.

Get ready to be lonely if this is your message. There are many who desire change. There are some who will endure it, but, there are few called to be agents of change. The lonliness will not simply exist because a leader lacks peers however. The “call” to be a guide through change is lonely at the core of thought. You become aware that few are with you in your process of mind. You ultimately find that the only place you have company is on your knees.

You need good help. There is another critical component to change. That is a commitment to risk for the sake of the whole body. We as leaders do a lot of talk about the body of Christ but do very little in order to work alongside others in that body. Pastors who have a sense of drive tend to envision a personalized kingdom at which they sit as the king. It is the way we have always done church. We don’t trust our work to others. Thereby, we have condemned our ministries to only go as far as our talents and our congregation’s talents can take us.

I can’t tell you how many times I have sat in a room with leaders who are trying to find a way to update their worship. The bottom line most often is that the rural church does not have the musical talent to update. Worship used to require one organist and someone who was willing to pick songs our of the hymnal and sing them loudly. This new era demands emotional attachment to the music. It expects quality. As a bit of a closet musician myself, that is extremely difficult to pull off with the average beginner on a Walmart guitar and a 57 year old pianist. Their hearts are there but their skill set may not be.

Music is not the only factor involved in change. Business models have shifted over the last ten years of struggle. I was involved in meetings with a large branding organization about a new concept of ministry for us here in the United States. Suprisingly, many missions organizations have already adopted something that I call “entrepreneurial ministry”. That is a system of ministry that provides jobs for its parishioners while supplying revenues for its operations. It is not a new concept though. Some church historians might say that John Calvin used this model during his second time to Geneva. Others may say that Paul raised funds needed for ministry by making tents.

Some churches have taken on daughter companies or encouraged their congregations to launch cottage industry as a means of reaching their neighbors with the message of Christ, while providing much needed job in depressed areas and raising ministry capital through tithing of these businesses. New coffee houses, day cares, charter schools, and manufacturing plants have come as a result of this new/old thought.

During my meeting, the CEO jumped up and asked permission to write on my presentation board. Up until that time, the marker in my hand had merely been used as a prop and a pointer. He told us that the new business model has switched from a bell, in which the low-end goods and high end merchandise took only 10-20% of all sales, while middle of the road franchises made all of the real money, to an inverted bell. Guess who was making money and who was losing money.

Business has had to rethink itself. There are two types of car still moving in America. Top dollar, high performance luxury cars and the kind I drive, low dollar, low performance rust buckets.

How does this affect the local church and its ministries? Simply in that church leaders cannot assume their congregations can write the checks for every ministry idea we think is important. It is change that we need and it is real, which requires talent and thought. New ventures are in the process of setting the new standard. I wonder why so many of the starters believe that you can begin something new, and do something better with less help, sweat and talent?

We need help.

A Perfect Present for Christmas

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:14 -0500

I went to the mall. I was looking for something really special this year. I wanted to say I really love you to you and so I followed the rows and rows of full cars until I arrived at the biggest collection of stores I’d ever been to. I was amazed at how many different stores there were. Each one of them had a sign in their storefront window. There must have been two hundred signs that claimed they had the perfect Christmas gift. Music made me feel Christmassy. I saw the Santa and he smiled at me. It made me feel like I was six again. Lights flashed and danced across the tinseled hallways. I loved my walk.

I started going into every store to find the perfect gift. I looked at clothes. A lot of them were really stylish. Some would make you look thinner while others made you look fun. Some were very expensive and would tell people that you were wealthy. Some were really casual and would show others how at home you were with yourself. I liked them. But then I thought, “These styles will be gone in a year. Even the best clothes made will only last a few years.”

I wanted the gift to last longer than that.

I went to a few more stores. One offered me some extremely tasty summer sausage and cheese. I love food and thought that this might be perfect. The memory of the great flavor would linger past the gift. I thought, “This will be eaten so quickly. My friend will be sad when it’s gone.”

I didn’t want to make you sad. So I moved on.

I sniffed all of the fragrances. I looked at all of the mantle place decorations. I looked at almost every movie, video game and listened to hundreds of pieces of music.

I sat down at a coffee house with a eggnog late’ in order to clear my senses and make an informed decision. None of those things would last long enough or be remembered for all of your life. They just were not good enough to tell you how loved you were. They would make you happy for a month or two, but… Well, I wanted more for you.

I started to ask people what the perfect Christmas gift would be. Wow! Did I ever get different answers. Some teenagers wanted a 1.21 gigawatts Ipod. A woman with four kids in two strollers said she wanted a babysitter and a day at the spa. One man said that he wanted a new gun. I moved away from him pretty fast. He looked aggravated at the crowd. A little boy wanted just about every toy ever developed. He wanted transformers and toy cars and a video game and a machine that made candy worms and one that melted chocolate and one that shrunk stuff and a chemistry set and… I walked away from him too.

Gift certificates seemed like a cop out. Besides I just couldn’t decide on an amount that would show you how much I loved you. Everything I saw was nice enough for someone else, but just not good enough for you.

Jewelry seemed like it was a great gift because people always kissed after they opened jewelry. I thought that would be awkward. I love you… just not that way!

I knew you didn’t really want a new car with a bow on top. I don’t think that the bow would help with gas mileage. The bow itself would be great but would leave you wondering where you could put it.

I had heard of a wealthy person who bought a house for someone they loved. That’s a great gift! I knew that you already had a home.

Vacations are awesome too! I wanted to spend time with you. At the end of the vacation, however, we would both be depressed that we had to return to normal life again. I wanted a gift that was a part of your everyday life. I asked a few more people.

A little girl said that she wanted a doll and that was all. I liked her. I knew that you didn’t need a doll.

I asked a young lady sitting on a bench what the perfect gift would be this year. She started to cry. All she wanted was to have her husband home safe from Afganistan. I wanted to help her be happy but I knew that I couldn’t find her husband. That started me thinking.

Maybe I couldn’t buy the perfect gift. I needed to find someone who was wise. Age gives wisdom so I left the mall and went to a medical care facility that worked with older people. I thought that they may have a few wise people there. I went door-to-door, bed to bed and asked everyone the same question. “What is the perfect Christmas present?”

They didn’t ask for much. I knew that I couldn’t give them anything they wanted though. A man said that he wanted to run like he was eighteen again. Another man told me that he just wanted these, well I shouldn’t repeat that word, nurses to leave him alone. One lady just wanted a glass of water. I gave her one but thought that she might get thirsty sometime when I wasn’t there.

One lady said she wanted for it to snow. Another woman said she would be happy if her family would come and visit her. A very quiet man in the comfortable chair beside the television said he wanted his wife back. A few said they couldn’t hear me, so I guessed they wanted better hearing. One man said he wanted to live forever, and a lady told me that she wanted to die. A couple wanted to see again and a few more said that they used to have beautiful singing voices and wanted them back. Most of the older people seemed to be asking for something they had lost.

As I was leaving the parking lot I saw a man who was pushing a shopping cart. I asked him. He wanted a lot. He wanted his life back. He also wanted to be sober. Then he asked me to buy him a drink. I explained that I wasn’t asking about the present for him. I hoped that he could find somebody who could get him what he wanted for Christmas. He sure kept talking though. I guess what he really wanted was for someone to talk to him. I gave him what I could but it was getting late and I had to get you something.

I prayed, “Jesus. You are the giver of good gifts. What is the perfect gift to show my love to my friend?”

He thought for a minute before he answered me.

“Let me see. You would want something that will bring joy. Happiness doesn’t last very long. You need a present that lasts. That is for sure. You want a gift that restores youthful hope… running like you were a kid again and that sort of thing. Health is pretty important. The problem with most health is that it gives way to sickness. You need the kind that lasts forever.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I thought that too.”

“Family has to be included in the perfect gift,” he continued. “ I mean, really great gifts are always supposed to be, better if they are shared.”

Something that is like a cup of the best water ever; totally refreshing and completely fulfilling. The gift should be rich beyond all treasures and simple beyond the most basic need.“

I asked, “Do you know where I can find the present like that?”

Jesus smiled. “I was hoping you’d ask. I have it right here with me.”

I paused. It is probably more expensive than jewelry though, isn’t it?”

“And cars or houses. It’s better than a vacation though.”

I frowned in thought, “Jesus, I could never afford something like that. I really love my friend but…”

Jesus laughed out loud. “Relax. This one’s been taken care of. I bought it on the first Christmas and I bought it again thirty-three years later. I have given it away every year since then to anyone who wants the perfect gift.”

He handed me a box. I was surprised that it had my name on it. “Jesus,” I started to say, but he caught me in mid-sentence. When you give it to your friend it will have their name on it. Merry Christmas.”

Familiar Territory

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:34 -0500

The fish tank is a little depleted of water and so it sounds a bit like a brook in the mountains. I have no illusions however, as I sit in our library at the office there is little calm. My spirit is restless. Kids have been facebooking their dread of the oncoming rush of restarting school today. Can’t you remember the hopeless feeling in the pit of your stomach as you headed outside to catch the bus. So much time until Christmas.

My friends are writing about being tired or their trek back to work. Here I sit, ready to write but all that comes is a stillness. It is a bit tiring to think about the road ahead when you have some idea of the work and no promise of the outcome.

On this day I am anticipating the time when I will make a phone call. I have been carrying an idea for a little more than two years. God woke me up with it and then provided people to share it with. It has seemed longer than two years. There have been so many peaks and valleys to this adventure. Parties with rock stars, lunches with businessmen, meetings with millionaires and each scenario has been a wonderful story in itself of God’s grace. I have tried to be a herald of God’s story in each place.

Maybe that has always been the point of this grand concept all along. Perhaps the things we do are less important than the people we impact.

I have always tended to see each day as a slot of time with which I am to accomplish some particular task. Today I will write, study, organize and plan. I think that each of those tasks may just be a platform for loving God in public.

My problem is that I’m wired to succeed. I am so needy in regards to recognition. I want to be appreciated, loved and respected. I have come to believe that people will love and respect me based on what I do, and in most cases, what I do for them. It is a false standard. It sets up a cast system, a hierarchy of value based on accomplishment. It establishes me as the driver and God as my approver.

I think that Jesus must have anticipated his days with mixed senses of excitement over the people He would impact and angst over the parts of the machine he was called to refashion.

My prayer today is a funny one. That is what this blog has been. A prayer. Lord? Were you ever nervous? Did you feel the anxiety of potential disappointment? I just am nervous and concerned about being disappointed again. Help me to work through that today. Do not allow me to become paralyzed by the potential or the delays in your story.

PREPARE YOURSELVES!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:14 -0500

Looking for an ideal Christmas gift for a beloved teenager! Try a scholarship to the Crossroads Farm Winter Retreats!

Harder Than It Looks... More from "Magpies"

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:49 -0500

What I hear from many pioneers is that they would rather learn everything themselves while journeying.

That always sounded dumb to me. Why learn lessons on your own if you can read about someone else’s mistake. But someone has to learn the first lessons. When God calls a pioneer he is calling them to discover the landmines. It is pretty humbling how often we make mistakes without a guide or a map.

Land mines would be less dangerous if they had flags waving from them. We started placing flags in the places we discovered explosives ten years ago. It didn’t really help us but we felt it may make the walking a little less, umm, loud. Here are a few of the landmines that you can count on in every new venture. Whether you have been called to begin a different type of Sunday School class, move to a new city to start over or launch something fresh and original, there are principles that govern our efforts.

Planting is harder than it looks. There we were. Now gainfully unemployed, raising our support as missionaries to most metro churches backyard. The thought had never occurred to us that finding students to fill a ministry would be difficult. We’d just talk to students, and they would come. We imagined pastors of small rural congregations warmly receiving us as we offered to help them build a student ministry. We had visions of churches seeing full pews with teenagers anxious to be a part of this great partnership. As they say on the school grounds, “Then we woke up”.

We did find kids fairly quickly. We would go to a softball or basketball game and sit in the student section. We began conversations and explained what we were doing in their world. God showed up. His timing was impeccable and in our first year we met a few influential students that were hungry for more. Kids were willing.

Pastors were not. Most pastors in an area where the average church size is fifty have many of the same fears. They also, candidly, lack some of the skills that pastors of larger churches. It becomes easy, and I can say this after many years now, to minister from one little issue to the next, allowing a calling to a great vision to bleed out into an endless sea of light bills, board meetings and hospital visits. A pastor in the rural community most often struggles to delegate because there is no one to delegate to. If they find a person to participate in the priesthood of all believers then parishioners very often feel that the pastor is shirking their responsibilities. Besides, nobody can do it as well as the Pastor. They are in high demand for many small things. They are busy.

We found that although our rural pastors were romantically attracted to our ministry, caught a bit of the vision and in fact saw the need in their own church, we were asking them to help us shift a culture of youth ministry. That is not something many pastors get into ministry to do. They preach. They love their people. They lead but they are too often the first into the fray of change and many times are battle scarred to the point of maintenance. The need was glaring. In one case, a church had just one set of students and one leader. The kids were brother and sister and the leader was their parent. This made a “Love, Sex, and Dating” segment creepy, to say the least. In spite of the obvious need there was too much work to be done in order to change the pattern. That church has disbanded now.

My own home church, does it’s ministry in the city. It has been hugely instrumental in enabling us, but still has a blind spot when it comes to the needs of the rural church. Money is next to unattainable for a stateside, rural, youth ministry missions model start-up. People don’t want to hear that the rural fences are broken down. It will destroy their vision of the romantic past.

Leaders of new things are often called to bring attention to the needs of the new field. I believe it is the primary function of the pioneer. We are the heralds of hope to our places of ministry and the harbinger’s of reality to those who aren’t here with us. That was what all of the slide shows, power points and missions films have tried to do. Missionaries have attempted to connect people of means to fields of needs. A pastor does that when one of their flock needs a car repaired or their home made livable. A missionary does that when starving children can be fed using our spare coins. The agent of change communicates need, plight and pain to those who, if energized, could make a difference.

Our first years in this ministry had us sharing the message with sick churches in the country that they were sick. Nobody wants to hear that. We also were burdened to tell people who had left their back home, small town roots that the memories they had was no longer the reality. That wasn’t very popular either. Our communication became quite a bit like the train wreck that you cannot look away from but is too massive a tragedy to act on.

It was harder than we thought it would be.

Our 10 Years at The Farm!

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:20 -0500

For those of you not able to make it out to the banquet… or for those of you interested in seeing it again… Here are ten years wrapped up in 10 minutes.

Something, About The Ocean... Magpies, installment 16

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:46 -0500

Since 1999, which was the year God supernaturally called my wife, another couple and I to stretch into the rural community that has become our home, we have had visitors. We have had a lot of visitors with the same question. “How do we start something like yours?”

Our first question is always the same. “Why?”

Really. Aren’t there enough ministries, drop in centers, churches, schools and businesses already? There are a million hits on Google when you type in “church planting”. What makes us think that the one we start will be all that important? Isn’t there someone, somewhere else who is searching high and low for a person who shares their vision that could come alongside them? I’ve prayed that very prayer everyday since we started. Why do we feel that we all need to start designer lifestyles? Given that 4 out of five start-up ministries are destined to fail, why would anyone desire the heartache?

Sometimes I wish the Bible told more about the emotional tumult of its leaders. I know the outcomes of the struggles, but many times wonder if the main characters thought the victories were worth the sacrifices made.

We all love the stories of David. He was after all, the shepherd boy chosen as king. He was the giant slayer. He was the warrior poet, the slingshot rebel with a song. He was the man close to God’s heart. I can imagine him as an old man. If you mention the names of Eleazar, Josheb Bashebeth or Shammah he smiles a sideways smile, looks up at you with a spark in his eye that is all mischievous thirteen year old and rattle off the stories of their trip to the well in Bethlehem. He laughs hard as he tells about the looks on the Philistines’ faces as these warlords slaughter their way into the city, just three of them, and fill a skin with water, then kill their way out.

As you ask about Goliath he looks back at the day that launched him as a celebrity. His eyes grow fierce as he relives the anger that overcame him. “so rash in those days… Thought I could do anything. And I guess I about did that day.”

You hear him explain why he picked up five stones and the mockery that went with it. “Four brothers. He had four brothers. I knew that if I killed him I would have his family to deal with. You should have heard them yelling and laughing. And then the stone hit him. Best shot I ever made. Jehovah must have wanted that stone there. And the look on his face… priceless. He looked shocked. He knew it was all wrong. When he fell it sounded like a tree hitting the ground.” And then the story is gone. Clouded over by some other thought.

“Absalom,” he whispers. “I was never the kind of father he needed. I hurt him. You have to realize that I was just a kid when they anointed me king. Then we were on the run for years. I, uh, I never learned how to raise a family with the pressures of a kingdom on my back. Absalom was a beautiful boy, but… It all cost so much.“ David’s voice trails off.

You would never ask him if it was all worth it. That question would be far too naïve. The emotions would be too complex. Even David may not know. So he wrote poems to release the tears. You, O LORD, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me. 12 For evils beyond number have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, And my heart has failed me. 13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; Make haste, O LORD, to help me. Psalm 40:11-13

There are three truths that we have learned while directing a brand new ministry concept. Some came from mentors and sages at the horizon of their own treks. Some lessons we have attained by experiencing them through weighed guesses. Some of these truths have come through our mistakes. I would always prefer to learn the hard lessons at the feet of someone else. What I hear from many pioneers is that they would rather learn everything themselves while journeying.

Chapter Four-Reasons For Fences... Installment 15, Magpies

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:40 -0500

Recently, the new University of Michigan’s head football coach, Rich Rodriguez gave away the number 1 jersey to a defensive back. It became national news because of the outcry from fans and former players. There is perhaps no more traditional a football program than the one at Michigan. The House that Bo built still leans heavily on the specters of alumni players and long gone coaches. It was built because of the ravenous fans who number over 100,000 each fall Saturday. The number 1 Jersey has, at least within the last 20 years, always gone to the top wide receiver. In fact there is a $500,000 scholarship established by one of those receivers to ensure that it remains a Michigan tradition.

A thinking person would have to acknowledge that the uproar seems to be much to do about nothing. It’s just a number, right? Some observers may say, “Good. Exactly what we need around here. A little bit of a shake up. Players are spoiled anyway. This is probably part of the coaches master plan to assert authority. I understand. Master the little things and the big things come along. That is exactly what was wrong with the football program in Michigan. Stayed traditions don’t win championships, Selfless players recklessly throwing themselves at opponents does.”

I sat in a pastors’ office a couple of weeks ago and asked him about a recent decision his board made to choose a universally applied curriculum. The selling point of the curriculum is that families can discuss the same topic in their cars and dinner tables on the way home or after church. I sensed a Norman Rockwell fantasy coming. I asked him how many families did he think would do that. He answered that he could only think of one. Obviously, this was a poor decision.

He leaned forward and lowered his voice and said something like this. “The truth is, this is not about curriculum. We had to do something in order to get a few Sunday School leaders to quit acting like kings of a domain. A couple of teachers have challenged the authority of the leadership and we HAD TO DO SOMETHING RADICAL.”

I get that. I understand when we as leaders have to take drastic steps to move people in a new direction. I wonder how many time Moses said that?

A person, thinking about the shift at the University of Michigan, or this curriculum maneuver might ask the question, “Why would a new coach or pastor mess with something so small, knowing that it would raise the ire or traditional fans and faithful attenders. Aren’t some things better left untouched?”

Change is hard. Sometimes the safe decision is the deadliest one. That “safety first” mentality may just be the way we have ended up in the economic straights we are in as a country. It could be the reason that American automakers are unable to compete with the world’s automakers. Change scares us. We like what we know. It could be why some guys still wear a mullet. Change is, frankly, sailing your boat out of the harbor. For all we know the sea ends and sea monsters rule. Traditions become sacred cows. Sacred cows become protected by the religious masses. The religious masses become bound to their own devices.

I’m not one of those guys who are afraid of change. I am one of those guys who realize that not all change is wise. Sometimes it’s good to shake things up a bit. Sometimes, it causes a shift in the geological tectonic plates that support the foundations under our house. When that happens, homes slip off the cliff into the ocean.

Let the Year Begin!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:52 -0500

So, there I was, dressed in a wig and a pink flu-flu, waiting in the barn to be announced as this years’ First Crossroads Announcement Award. I thought, “We’re back!”

Student ministry is fairly demanding but the rewards are outstanding. So are the heartbreaks. I was excited about the 50 kids that were there for the hot dogs, lazer tag, and each other. The bonfire was roaring, the volunteers were amazing and the student leaders were eager to jump into their roles. In spite of all of this, my heart always breaks for the kids we will have already lost. Kids who have made their decisions to choose their own path always are hard for me. Mainly because I was one of them myself. I know that the road back will take years.

I desire strong churches that not only have a vision for youth but a plan to attract and disciple them. I know that in the morning as church services rolled, there were thousands of teens who determined that church is an option, if not completely irrelevant.

On Tuesday night we will do it all again. I anticipate that this will be the year that our middle school numbers will overrun our high school attendance. It’s a good competition.

All of this to simply say, “Each fall we have to win kids back.”

I am wondering if you will remember us each Sunday and Tuesday nights in prayer as we fight the battle of rural kids? You may want to lift up my wardrobe designer as well.

Cosmic Hide and Seek, Installment 14, Magpies

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:16 -0500

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD,
Jeremiah 29:11

But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8:24b-28

In each passage of scripture where God promises us a direction in accordance with His will. He also promises us personal change and growth as His disciple. There are so many of these references that it would be overkill to list them all. In most of these verses, a challenge to immerse, seek and wait for God as He takes us where and when He wills is implicit. Scripture is not just making a positional statement. You know, “If you stand close to God, then you will see where He is heading.” It is a matter of psyche. Whenever a believer finds themself in the will of God they are defined by that will.

Too often I have regarded God’s will as that cosmic game of Hide and Seek. The one where God has hidden His will and I have to search in places like foreign countries and career days. What I have discovered is, first, God desires I find His will, and, second, sees this issue differently than I do. His will is the pursuit of Him above all else. It is not a job, class, vision, diversion, distraction, decision or even a ministry. What I end up doing for God will come out of the vision He has for me.

Gideon conquered the Midianites, not because He was in the right wine press at the time that God was looking for a general. Gideon was a general through God’s will. What he was responsible for was to listen and do the things that God clearly asked him to do. In the most memorable case, he got to blow a horn and watch the enemy kill themselves. God’s will for Gideon did not stop with that event. That event was an evidence of God’s will for Gideon. The rest of Gideon’s life was spent fulfilling that calling according to what scripture tells us.

The Bible does not offer us a metaphysical free ride either. There is real personal and physical work to be done. There are disciplines and decisions. There are places to go and people to meet. My own love affair with my wife is much more involved than an intimate, heart to heart stare down. It involves conversation, using real words and love, using real actions. Honestly! It’s pretty hard work at times to love well! So it is, with God and His divine appointment for each of us. This is simple. I am to be like Him.

Each morning, Dawn and I have committed to our time with a cup of coffee, God’s Word and a book. Dawn has been a catalyst in my life for needed change. Our time together, contained within the confines of pursuing an excellent relationship has had an interesting side effect. I have become a better husband and father. Dawn has become a better wife and mother. We did not hope for a great love by rubbing a four-leaf clover or by kissing the Blarney Stone. That seems like a waste of a kiss. No. We set time on our calendars as sacred, read through a hundred books together, got down on our knees over the couch and talked about everything. It was hope based in effort.

In 1999 my wife and I made a commitment to chase hard after our Lord. In the process we found people to share in and participate in that vision. Our story was only beginning to unfold. We were no more out of God’s will before we left all and ran after a vision to equip and train rural ministry workers than we are now. Grace in the searching.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Being and Becoming, Magpies Installment 13

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:35 -0500

I grew up in big cities. Dawn grew up in the country. I was a mall rat. She was a child of the corn. I listened to Rock and Roll while she listened to country music. I felt the urge to share my gifted prowess with as large a group of believers as possible, (Weren’t they going to be blessed?) whereas she felt a compelling burden for the lost tribal peoples of the world. My youth group experience was a big one and a good one. Hers’ was a small one. My church had thousands. Her church had tens. My church focused on growth through small groups. Her Church was a small group. We had opposite visions and similar gifts. And then God introduced us to each other. “Dawn, here is the man you are going to marry. Be patient. He’s not ready yet. In fact, He’ll need a few years to get over himself. I have called him to do something tribal though.”

“Doug. You see that woman over there?”

“Yes.”

“The intimidating one that you don’t deserve. Well, I’m going to draw her your way. Just keep quiet and I’ll work out the details.”

It was love at thirty-seventh sight.

It was also a merger of mission and a confluence of passion. The marriage, that God ordained and prearranged through an unusual set of circumstances, melded two hearts together in him. And so we began to walk together.

At first there seemed to be a bit of personal indecision but in every instance God clarified. In His clarity we found our bond. We both loved the ministry to kids working toward adulthood. We loved teenagers, and in that passion we saw direction. God began a refinement in us.

Being and Becoming

This process of synthesis, or the merging of our experiences and desires, which so many seem to balk at, is what God most often uses to streamline our lives for ministry. He is making me. He is not just giving me something to do for Him. He is molding me to His image and He can use anything to accomplish that purpose. In my case, He used Dawn.

I was speaking at a well-known Christian college in the middle of the country recently. When I finished the convocation I offered to hang around and talk. Find me a Starbucks and I can go all night. I’m a “hang out and talk” kind of guy. I was deluged by students. They waited patiently to ask what was, essentially, the same question. The truth is that whenever I speak at colleges, I hear the same question hundreds of times. “How do I find the next phase of life?”

It is not only a matter of finding God’s will but also a matter of finding yourself in it. My answer is the same too. Don’t be afraid to do something while you are waiting for everything. I remember the sensation of the impending future, as C.S. Lewis put it, “rushing at me like wild animals.” Job fairs and Career days all had this affect on me. I walked away with all of the free stuff and no clearer idea as to my calling. I desired to have God come to my dorm room at night and tell me, “Doug. You need to spend a few years doing construction work. Then I will reveal my will on a cement slab”. I may as well have been searching for Jimmy Hoffa.

You see, I believe in the result. God believes in the process too. A number of years ago, an old friend of mine became my mentor in one sentence. Don Lonie, the most prolific and perhaps controversial youth speaker during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, told me that God was more interested in who I was in Him, than what I was going to do for Him. Boing! Something sprang free in my brain. God’s work was being accomplished in me as I chased after Him! I have discovered a grace in God’s refining. God is not looking for results. He can’t help but have those. He is searching for disciples who will join in His process.

Finding myself in the will of God requires that I become immersed in it; that I seek my identity only there. God’s will has always been found in his person. He in me and I in Him is the creed of the follower of Christ. This principle of being and becoming is more important to God than doing and accomplishing. It is this that changes our persona. It allows God to show us His vision of us. It is where I find victory over sin. It is where I learn to trust verses that I have memorized but secretly question. It is His promise and my reformation. God is emerging us and always has been.

Between The Sunsets

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00 -0500

Here I am again. Sitting on the warm sand watching the sun set down across Lake Michigan… and it seems as if we just did this a few days ago. What bears the truth however is that sitting on the blanket in front of me, eating our stuffed crust pizza, is a teenage girl and two others that just a few sunsets ago I had to carry to the beach and place a sun-sequester camp up around. Now, they helped carry volleyballs and beach chairs.

These Labor Day sunsets have become one of a very few traditions. They also are a moratorium for us. We pause at this gateway, say “goodbye,” to the summer, with all of its travel, speaking and beauty, and “hello,” to the fall with all of its staffing, programming and a sad melancholy. Its not winter, but it is signaling the coming. Dawn and I find ourselves wistfully gazing at the view, while secretly bracing for the rush.

Today has been less warm than we desired and a bit more overcast but here, in the last few moments a glorious neon red globe descends towards a cool turquoise blanket. It is a blazing and spectacular terminus. It also is a rite of passage.

It is here that I am reminded to set aside the things that have been accomplished and dragged into the next chapter. It is here that I ask myself two questions.

Have I done all that I could this last year in order to serve Christ? My answer is almost always, “No.” I’m not sire many people evaluate themselves on this level of spiritual accountability. It is the query that all leaders must ask. It is here that I am reminded that “Good enough never is.”
What is going to happen differently because of me? This question doesn’t let me off the hook with wishful thinking. It places responsibility squarely on my shoulders because of the call God has placed on my life. It is here that I answer for the next year. It is this question that set up what will happen between this sunset and the next.

It is here that I throw myself on God’s grace and pray for God’s blessing. After all, each sunset is different.

IN OUR LIKENESS... Installment 12, Magpies

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:57 -0500

In Our Likeness

Here is my point. God’s creation, and his desires for a righteous creation at that, culminated when he designed human beings to need his destination and will. We were created to desire the right over the wrong. In fact, with every new thing comes a desperate dependence on God’s specific direction. We are hard-wired to need God’s relationship. There is no room for arrogance, self-reliance or personal confidence in starting something that God is directing. In fact God spends a considerable amount of energy removing the smugness from people who are committed to following him.

The Paralizing Call

As I speak to college and High school students I get the sense that students are waiting for something. There is a detachment to the call of God. In some, there is fear, and in a too many there is paralysis. Most often, we are afraid to mess this thing up. It’s a valid concern, but the concern should drive us to our knees in preparation of motion. I don’t know if it’s good theology or not but I find myself praying, “Lord, This is your thing! Do not let me mess it up.”

A friend at one of America’s superchurches told me that they used to hang a banner in new staff’s offices when they arrived. The banner encouraged, “Don’t screw this up!”

I think that God has always protected his creations from his creatures stupidity. Look. When God called His giants of old, He knew that they were human. My emphatic urging to people waiting for HIs will to arrive on a text message or twitter post is, “Do something. If God doesn’t want you doing it, He’ll stop you.”

This whole faith is based on the knowledge that humans are messed up and God will have to fix their attempts. I like that a lot. I need that a lot. That would be called grace.

Past Paths

And the LORD said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. I Samuel 3:11

It should come as no small wonder that romance launches people but love and call sustain the quest. We live in a day when people are looking to launch, begin and reinvent. It seems to be the nature of this societal shift called American post-modernism. It is the new call to churches. Redefine yourselves or get left behind. There is a coldness to this new romantic phase in the Western church’s future though. The reasons behind the reinventions are sometimes self-servicing. It feels like a consumer switch of favored venues; like the one that drove Bill Knapp’s out and hailed Appleby’s in.

I myself, have found a need to walk a less charted road. After spending the first 20 years of ministry at super-churches, I felt a burden growing that could not be subdued. Ironically, it was not a moment of dissatisfaction that moved me to this course. It was a conversation that should have been rewarding.

I had been looking to make a move earlier in my ministry “career”. I do not believe that this is a good combination of words, but it is a common one. I had begun the process of pursuing a position at a big church out west. The salary and benefits package were tremendous even if housing costs were ridiculous. The job was in keeping with my gifts and abilities. Hiring a staff to compensate for my lacks was reasonably assumed. It was what most youth workers labor their whole ministries to achieve. There was a problem however.

A small voice, I know now to be that of The Spirit of God, was asking me, “And what about them?” I knew the “them.” We, my wife Dawn and I, had been praying for them for six years. I contend that true call is always determined because of “them.”

Here is a question which at this point is not found in the manuscript. Who are the “thems” that are motivation for action in your life? Are there people so significant to you, to God, that would cause you to give up something for? It is the “Thems” that caused Christ to come.

Playing Footsie

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:49 -0500

I have a theory about feet. It comes from the observation that everyone I know over the age of sixty complains about how much their feet hurt until they break down and buy a pair of those ghastly comfortable shoes. Eventually we take smaller and smaller steps, metering out foot usage like bites of our favorite desert to our kids.

We were born for a perfect world where each step taken was on cushioned grass fields with no rocks. Sin created a world of gravel roads and now we wear our feet out in half of our lives… if we were careful.

I abused my feet. I went barefoot in places where work boots should have been the fare. I played sports, hurt, at a time when athletic trainers wrapped your aches up with thick white tape until your feet went numb. Sweet unfeeling bliss.

Have you ever looked at a baby’s unused soles. They are wonderfully padded. It looks like they could get eighty years out of those soft fleshy pads… on a perfect lawn. I was thinking that I wanted my baby feet back tonight. Mine are all worn out and hard, like the pillow that you sleep on two years too long. Forget that a new one costs about ten dollars. I’ve kept mine too long. I’ve logged too many miles and nobody wants to rub them.

That’s the life of the spiritual entrepreneur. A little sore from all of the hard miles. I could have led more carefully. I probably would get more mileage if I would be a smidge more tiptoey. But I’m not going to do that. That is the irony of leadership. The type of person needed to charge into the great unknown is… frankly, the type of person dumb enough to charge into the great unknown. They wear out feet.

Our trek at Crossroads Farm counts on two spiritual premises. 1. It would help us get farther if someone could massage our feet from time to time. Even Jesus appreciated the love that it took to oil his tired pedes. 2. I will get a new pair of baby’s feet later. I’ll try the lawn out with them. That’ll be heaven.

Closing Down The Season

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:07 -0500

Just over two months ago we at Crossroads Braced for our typical summer season. That amounted to two trips for our students, one to the ALIVE Festival and one to Michigan’s upper peninsula for a week at Hiawatha. It also meant that I would be speaking 35 times at two churches and three different camps. My family would cap off the “Routledge Traveling Suitcase Tour” with a ten day stint in the north woods to breath and rest. Now here I sit at the close of that season. This has been my traditional seat at the picture window as I watch the last chalk-like sky etching fade into night. The end of a movement by the composer of life.

I am reflecting on God’s goodness through this summer and it has been an incredible showing of God’s hand. I had no preemptive sketches or notes as to how the summer was going to play out. Just for your consideration, as friends, I wanted to give you a peek into his blessings.

At the Alive Festival God spoke to three of my guys on one night and another three girls on that same night. We trudged through the slime created by three days of rain. We worshipped with 25,000 others along with David Crowder and usured out the Peter Furhler era of the Newsboys. It was a great beginning.

I was home just long enough to wash my clothes and sleep on a real bed for a day or so and then we (all) headed to Fairview, Michigan and Camp Barakel. Over the years the camp has been a source of encouragement to Dawn and I in that its founder (some 65 years ago) had taken opportunity to embrace us at some level. No matter how difficult this ministry has been over the years, I recall his words of encouragement. He had almost walked away from the camp in the fourteenth year of operations. Johhny passed on to his heavenly home a few year back, and despite of the many wonderful friends that we have gained over the years, I still hear him say into my ear just before I got up to speak, “It’s all big stuff.”

I spoke and God moved hearts again. Somewhere around twenty campers prayed to receive Christ on Friday night.

Home for a few days and then on to Camp Michindoh for Madison and I. My two younger daughters were attending junior camp at Hiawatha. God again proved his faithfulness when another twenty or so students prayed to receive Christ. I will never get tired of seeing that happen. My prayer as I left camp that week was for God to hedge these kids’ lives. We will get to experience a reunion with a band from both Michindoh and ALIVE at our own Murder Mystery in October. Shine Bright Baby is coming.

A week between and Madison was off to camp again. The garden and animals had to be tended and then we packed into a 30 foot RV for a week of meetings in North Carolina. I would be selling it short to say that God did anything but break lose that week. On three of the four nightly sessions the altar was packed with crying, pleading and praying students and adults. It is humbling to be a small part of that. My prayer for that week was simple as well. “Lord begin the spiritual revolution of North Carolina here, with this.”

Vacation has been short but God has restored a bit of my vision. Now I pray that he will bring the revival home with me.

Telling Me a Story

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:07 -0500

I’m sitting in a quiet sun room that looks out into the U.P. darkness. It is a smidge above 40 degrees and I can barely believe that it is summer; August at that!

Earlier tonight we sat on a pontoon in the middle of Piatt Lake and watched today dissipate in ribbons of orange and fucshia behind an kelly green treeline. At the opposite end of the lake was a white faced moon in total balance to the sun. Night was becoming. Day was ending. I watched and realized that there was no way to take a picture of both the moon and the sun in the same frame. They were at diametrically opposed points in the day on opposite ends of the world but from where I sat, they were my reality.

That is my life in a summary picture. One day ends and the night begins. I have no input into how either came to be played out but here they are. One ends with another’s beginning. I need to remember that a little as I try so desperately to make tomorrow come a little faster and make the night end a little sooner. God has orchestrated my days in a ballet of balance that ultimately has the angels in awe over God’s choreography. Their greatest applause always come as my life dances to the brink of destruction and then God brings it all back to perfect center. God is telling the heavens a story of his glory.

That’s a good thing to hold on to when I begin to plan a ministry that will depend on his staging.

Back in the Saddle.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:43 -0500

For just a couple of days I have a brief respite. It has been a time to collect and refocus. Just last week I was speaking to a group of middle schoolers and seeing God move. In the twelve hours after, there were people to interview, a work crew to launch and a staff to spark. Today we sent our two youngest daughters to camp. On Sunday I head to camp Michindoh… more speaking.

These days we are praying for a miracle of God’s provision. We are seeing HIm move on our behalf and we are at His discretion. If you are reading this, then I assume you are a friend. I’ll let you know that I’ll be back at work on the manuscript in a few week, but in the meantime, If you can pray towards God’s igniting rural youth through this ministry. Love you all. Doug

He is our Chicken!

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:09 -0500

CRF made an impression on the second day of the Alive Festival. This is our own Ralph Anthony’s 15 minutes of fame.

Wanna See Some of What WE"RE DOING THIS SUMMER!

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:02 -0500

For CRF Kids ONLY!!!! A week of camp for only $150.00 Call Our office NOW for our July 11th-18th trip across the Big Bridge! 517 283-3982

My Daughter's Introduction Project

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:00 -0500

We thought this was pretty funny.