When I look back over my shoulder at the past 12 months, I don’t want to ever repeat the year but at the same time I am so grateful to the Lord for the experience.
While it was a year of amazing opportunity, it was also a journey through a dark valley of uncertainty and disappointment. The opportunities stretched and pushed our faith like an athlete working out with weights to prepare for an event.
Personally, Sharon and I joined a legion of other families walking through the dynamics of a cancer diagnosis. Emotionally, it is tough news to hear. Physically, the treatments are not anyone’s Sunday picnic. Spiritually, you realize afresh how fragile this life is and how precious the promises of God are. You hold on to the Lord and seek to discover His purposes in this leg of the journey we call life.
A friend asked me today how we worked through this. I said, “Well, we awake at 5 a.m., make coffee, then dive into the Word of God while asking the Father to give us hearts that are attentive to him. Breakfast at 7:20, then off to work. On the evenings we are home, we communicate about our day and thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him with clean hands and a pure heart. Some time after that, our bodies run out of energy and we sleep only to awaken and start a new day the Lord has made and discover afresh the Word of God invigorating our day. Just one day, this day the Lord has made.”
We simply want to live each day full of His life, and when we do, we discover an amazing sense of purpose. Just like before the cancer diagnosis came knocking at the door, we are at it again now that Sharon is post–surgery and post–radiation.
The other amazing opportunities we experienced this year were the great churches we visited or served. In spite of cancer-treatment interruptions, Sharon and I were with 45 churches this year. With every congregation I came away with a distinct sense that we were in the assembly of God’s very own royal family engaged in reaching their Jerusalem and cooperatively touching the ends of the earth. I’m so glad to be part of the work of God through Missouri Southern Baptist churches.
This year was also punctuated with engagement with the ministries supported by the MBC. The MBC Missouri Baptist Children’s Home is so extensive, expansive and effective. Their new president, Russell Martin, has clarified for their staff and board that the chief aim is leading people to Jesus. While they do great ministry to the parent-less, the helpless and the victims of sexual exploitation, the primary purpose is to introduce those they serve to the Savior, who desires to heal the brokenness and transform people from the inside out.
Both MBC universities, SBU and HLGU, are gaining students and touching the world with next generation leaders. HLGU’s president Anthony Allen is looking for a few individuals to help him complete the new science building. What the tornado sought to crush has become a great opportunity.
The only Southern Baptist entity in Missouri is Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The word is spreading like prairie fire that total enrollment of new students was up around 17 percent. God is calling and we cooperate with other Southern Baptists to equip these who are preparing for leadership in legacy and new churches.
Did I say new churches? Yes I did. Missouri Baptists engaged in supporting 36 new churches this year, thanks in large measure to sponsoring associations and local churches. What is incredible, too, is that these churches are giving already at least 6 percent of their undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program.
An amazing year! I could go on for hours about things God is accomplishing through His people in fantastic ways.
At the same time, some disappointments rose up during the year that absolutely break your heart. While some of our churches have a renewed sense of championing mission engagement through the Cooperative Program and other mission endeavors, other churches are facing the grim realities of survival. I hear too many stories about some of our churches that have not recovered from last winter’s storms and face the prospect of no heat for this winter. While some of our hurting churches are using the moment to call upon the Lord in humility, others are playing the blame game and making troubling decisions.
How do you measure church trouble? Believe it or not, the measure of trouble is not calculated in dollars and cents. Let’s use a little Jeff Foxworthy style and say what a church trouble is: If the only children in the nursery of your church are the pastor’s kids, your church is in trouble; if no one 18-29 years of age was baptized at your church, your church is in trouble; if the leaders in your church spend more of their time trying to make people inside the church happy instead of welcoming every generation and race to worship, your church is in deep trouble.
Part of the work of MBC missionaries is helping your church triumph over troubles. Take a look at www.MoBaptist.org. There are many resources available to help churches move through a process toward restored health. Contact the MBC Church Strengthening Team for information and resources.
2014 is a year that was. In 2015, let’s be like a runner leaning forward toward the finish line. Let’s finish the year having spent our energy on what matters for all eternity.