It begins at the cross

For seven years Pat and I ministered in Lansing MI at Calvary Assembly of God. Jonathan and Joanna were born in Sparrow Hospital there. We averaged dedicating a baby per month as young couples joined us in populating the earth!

The church grew both by the natural process and the influence of the charismatic movement. During our tenure a larger sanctuary was built to accommodate more people and expanding ministries. Our pulpit guest for the dedication was Reverend C. M. Ward, speaker on "Revivaltime," the international radio ministry of the Assemblies of God. We witnessed miraculous healings and many dramatically changed lives. Living in Lansing Michigan was a happy experience. Our memories from those years bring broad smiles to our faces every time we recall events and personalities.

One day is most memorable of the more than 2600 days we fulfilled our calling there. That day a young man, Mike, called asking for time to speak with him. Mike arrived and began with his explanation, "The church we have been attending has left the faith we hold essential to our spiritual life. We will join a congregation that will minister to us and where we can minister in full agreement with the pastoral leadership and church’s doctrine."

My first question was, "How did you find us?" Mike smiled and explained, "Your building has a lighted cross on the facade. When Maxine or I are going home on a dark or foggy night, we look for the cross. Our street is the first left turn after we see the cross." I didn’t feel the cross was particularly attractive. It was made of glass block set in the stone facade with dim florescent bulbs shining through the textured glass. But, that day I fell in love with that part of the building!

The appointment lasted more than an hour as Mike grilled me about the church’s history, specific doctrines and my personal relationship with the Lord. He and Maxine were newly married and were making plans to begin their family. Mike and Maxine joined with us and accepted every responsibility they could reasonably fulfill and contributed generously in ministry. I dedicated their children. The last news about Mike and Maxine is that they continue to thrive.

The story all began with the cross in the facade in our building’s face. The cross-shaped glass was symbolic, but the preaching of the cross of Christ is the power of God that saves. Some church properties are generic and might pass as warehouses or retail stores. Contemporary efforts to be relevant often strip symbols from public view. But, there is one cross on public display that became the catalyst for a wonderful series of events, a long-lasting relationship and many happy memories. The cross of Christ does that, magnified to the nth degree! Saint Paul wrote, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins . . . made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved." (Ephesians 2:1,5) It starts at the cross! All other events pale in contrast with the day the cross comes into focus.

A Virtual Salute?

As technology advances we risk falling into the trap of "virtual deeds," the exercise of brushing up against reality but not fully engaging. Yesterday our pastor presented a masterful Memorial Day video salute. Combined with patriotic anthems and appropriate choruses, the worship service was moving and the pastoral prayer focused on thanksgiving for the unselfish service our military shares and implored the Lord to overshadow those in harm’s way and their family. It was excellent!


However, Dover Air Force Base is 30 minutes North of where we observed Memorial Day. The harsh reality is, military aircraft land at Dover with body bags of the recent casualties of war. Other bases receive the wounded. Individuals, extended families and whole communities are forever changed. Life pivots around a date with painful memories, sorrow and challenges making forward progress a daunting experience.

As I drove away from the church meeting, ate dinner with new friends, visited a veteran in a rehab facility, and helped Pat prepare for our guests at a holiday picnic I wondered if a few moments of salute in air conditioned comfort was enough in light of the sacrifices of others. My father-in-law, Roy Kolas, is part of the American demographic, Tom Brokaw’s "Greatest Generation." That generation daily loses almost 900 from its honored roles. Roy is 91 years-old. We don’t have many Memorial Days left to tell him "Thank you!" Viet Nam War veterans are aging, many now in their seventies. Young veterans, still in the prime of life, learn to walk on sophisticated, but still artificial limbs, scoot around in motorized wheel chairs or writhe in pain in military hospitals.

Is the grand Sunday morning experience enough? No, I don’t think so! Pat and I will call Roy this morning. My friend Ralph served in Europe a long time ago. I’ll call him too. It is the least I can do. I am open to suggestions about how to better express my appreciation for the selfless service of so many. This morning I repented. I admit, I have taken for granted the military of our nation. Shame on me!

Today I will pray for those military personnel who have enriched my life and help make a safe and prosperous nation possible. The selfless servants who have blessed us deserve more. Sunday morning salutes, the moving digital productions of colorful patriotism, do their best work when those who view them follow up with something more!

Coffee and . . .

"Coffee and . . . " an idiom which I believe is indigenous to Northern New Jersey. It serves as a code phrase for a social event. For more than 10 years following most Sunday evening services, members of the congregation would ask, "Are you interested in going for "coffee and?" The most frequented place for "coffee and" was Matthews Colonial Diner, nicknamed "Saint Matthews" because three or more local churches had delegations in attendance. We enjoyed "coffee and" a Belgian waffle, a wonderful Danish as the sign out front announced "baked on the premises," or a grilled cheese sandwich or a cup of one of the eatery’s signature soups.

"Coffee and . . . " helps simplify an idea about living as disciples of Jesus. As I have been privileged to preach in over 300 different pulpits in more than half of the 50 United States, Spain and South Africa, I am convinced that we Pentecostals have learned how to do church. Our performances are as varied as stripes on zebras, as colorful in some venues as peacock feathers, and loud enough to awaken comatose patients one mile away. In many places we do church brightly, garishly, loudly and to increasingly large audiences. But few people outside the walls of the building or outside the fences, soaring shrubberies and water-filled motes defining the real estate boundaries know what we church attenders do inside, or care.

What we need is, "Sunday and . . . and , church and . . . !" What we do on Sundays is faith building, emotionally stimulating, and helpful to participants. But those who need the experience most are outside. Since what we do Sunday morning is good and needed, those participating must be committed to exporting everything they learn, everything we experience. The joy of Sunday is valid and needs to distributed on Monday, Tuesday . . . you know, all week long. By the way, has anyone laughed or really found the wonderful release from stress and fear because you showed up carrying a bit of "Sunday and" with you?

Peace, the kind that surpasses ordinary absence of war and usual understanding, is God’s shalom. It is a valued sense of wellbeing that needs to be known on Wednesday morning in the super market checkout line. Or, is peace only dispensed in certain buildings set on specially dedicated pieces of real estate? Hugging and kissing (the holy kind) is an appropriate expression of love on Sunday, but love is needed in the marketplace! Love is in desperate short supply in Thursday’s rush hour traffic.

"Sunday and . . . church . . . and " are as essential as the "coffee and . . ." experiences on Sunday nights following church services. Over a cup of coffee and . . . our children built friendships in the adjoining booth or table. Laughter bubbling geyser-like from members of sevral congregations filled the same space where Monday morning customers groused about having to start another work week.

I pray your find as much pleasure as I have as I go about doing "Sunday and . . . church and . . . " today! If you are not too busy, we ought to meet at Saint Matthews!

Know Your Leaders

This Spring I am rereading the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, for sentimental reasons and to keep myself from speed reading the sacred text. (I had forgotten how difficult some passages are in my boyhood Bible.) Some passages stir the warm embers of memory into passionate flame. Other passages are more difficult than ever.

If I were invited to preach on Father’s Day, I may use the Second Samuel account of the distressing season in David’s biography, the occasion when Absalom dared to challenge his father for Israel’s throne. The passage teems with enough intrigue and father-son interaction to develop a series or short book. The book title may be Non Parenting for Dummies.

One paragraph arrested me as I read 2 Samuel 2:7-12 it several weeks ago, "And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the LORD, in Hebron. For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the LORD shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD. And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose, and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom."



Absalom’s reach for power rightfully belonging to his father David had gone on for a long time. The KJV says 40 years. Newer translations record four years. For four years, or more, Absalom appointed himself a judge at the city gates and chipped away at David’s authority and reputation. He slyly built a following, an Israeli "Tea Party" that promised better everything when the right leader (Absalom) would ascend to the throne. The defining sentence in the passage is, "And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing." After more than four years not one of the two hundred men had an inkling of Absalom’s devious spirit. The sad fact is "the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom."

From the wider text which embraces the whole of Absalom’s conspiracy, I suggest we should learn the following lessons:

Efficient, charismatic leaders can be rogues. Not everyone with a following is the "real deal." A kind and wise mentor who took me into his tutelage as I was being formed for a life of ministry used to say, "Charisma without character will always result in embarrassment" Frankly, I have spent too much time being embarrassed by high profile, highly influential religious people who lacked character.
We have a responsibility to know whom we follow. Being naive is not acceptable. The adage is timeless, "We teach what we believe, we reproduce who we are." I suggest that we ought to know our leaders in direct proportion to the amount of influence that leader has over us. Unlike political leaders who are impossible to know personally, we can know and choose spiritual leaders. The traits of spiritual leadership were well defined by the Apostle Paul for his protégée Timothy. "Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self–controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap." (1 Timothy 3:2-7)
Followers must understand that distance is a built-in peril. Personalities in media ministries cannot be known, but assume authority to speak into everyone’s life who dares to set their radio or television to the frequency on which the teacher-preacher appears. On occasion, not too often or Pat will conclude I am absolutely daft, I speak back to one of the authoritative gurus and say, "You don’t know me, where I live, what I am experiencing or that I should do anything to sustain your presence in the media! And, I don’t know you either!" Glibness, the ability to influence and convince others is not enough! "Who are you?" is the question.
True accountability in groups small enough for members to know one another is imperative. Family is the first, most important God-designed accountability group. A spouse must be allowed to call their mate into account. Parents must assume spiritual leadership for their children. On occasion parents must humble themselves before their children and confess their sin, their errors in discipline and judgment.

If the contemporary Absaloms of our culture are followed as the 200 and later, the masses in Israel’s story, the results will be as disastrous. Someone taught me, "One cannot walk the path others have walked without arriving at the same destination."

Stop complaining, arguing and finding fault

The Apostle Paul, the former synagogue-appointed terrorist known as Saul of Tarsus, shares weighty truth with those who would take their salvation seriously. His call to "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling," is in the context of shining as stars in a "crooked and depraved generation." (Philippians 2:12,14) One living in the United States today finds it easy to associate "crooked and depraved" with our culture. It may never have been easier to level criticism at political figures, employers and church leaders. Reports of compromised character, expressions of twisted values and stories of ordinary people flaunting violations of God’s law fill media reports.

To "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling," Paul leaves three distinct prohibitions. Alas, the proscribed behaviors have been part on human spiritual DNA since the first residents of the Garden of Eden. And, I confess that they have been deeply imbedded in me and are highly resistant to change.

The first forbidden activity is complaining. "Do everything without complaining." (Philippians 2:14). It is simple to write and say, but can be as stubbornly rooted as my lawn’s ugliest weeds. Complaining is verbal reinforcement of what one doesn’t like or appreciate. We all experience negative events and occasionally we must deal with difficult people. But, complaining, reinforcing discontent violates God’s grace. I am challenged by Peter’s difficult counsel, "Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." (1 Peter 2:13-15) Our reverent "fear and trembling" compliance to honor God’s appointees will contribute more good than complaining.

I can hear it already, "But, what if good men do nothing?" Prayer is an acceptable activity. Remember, When I work, I work. When I pray, God works! Complaining is the antithesis of grace, forgiveness and loving compliance to what God has ordained. As we pray and forgive criticisms are arrested in their tracks. As "fear and trembling" people work out their salvation without complaint, the grace of God is evident and their spirit becomes contagious among the "crooked and depraved."

Second, "Do everything without . . . arguing." Argumentative people suck life out of others. Some thrive on being right. I am sorry that I have imposed too much of my "rightness" on others, at the expense of a spirit of love, joy, and peace. Of course there is a corresponding side of every truth. Grace has aspects of generosity and justice, two sides of the same coin. Light is light as it is contrasted with darkness. Most often, we ought to allow the side being emphasized to exist without arguing. Another time, another venue will be afforded to present the needed balance . . . without arguing.

And, live "without fault." Faultfinding is the domain of those who have never tasted of the grace of God. Those who have known the forgiveness secured by Jesus, who have sampled the joys of heaven here on earth, who have a hope secured within the gates of heaven, ought to be applying every iota of energy to preparing a path for those who are vulnerable to criticism.

Pat and I discovered that some of our critical and faultfinding peers were contagious. If we spent too much time with them, we began seeing the faults to which our peers pointed more distinctly than the grace and mercies expressed in Jesus. We consciously moved away from some to keep our "fear and trembling" pursuit of salvation in focus. It is entirely possible that others who are well ahead of us in their pursuit of holy living have had to avoid us. When that is true, please forgive us. We are determined to be light in a dark generation, people of hope in places of despair, and those who live as ones who have experienced the cure for the crookedness and depravity too common in our world.