Progress

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

   -  Jesus as found in Luke 19:10, NIV

She still wrangles horses but now she wrangles people, too

Yesterday morning at the weekly meeting of the Breakfast Club (the fellowship of local pastors and ministry leaders that meets weekly at Bob's Grill to have breakfast and pray for one another) we found out that Sunday was a good day for the Church of Jesus in our small town. Of course, if you ask me, any given Sunday regardless of the weather or whatever else may be going on is good day in the “House” (i.e., “the household of faith”). Norm shared that he baptized five individuals at his fellowship among them the biggest linemen on our high school football team. The Advent Christian Church is one of the oldest fellowships in our community but also one of the smallest and yet they witnessed five individuals confess faith in Jesus Christ and enter the cleansing waters of baptism. For Four Square-ers (The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel) “Sister Aimee” refers to their flamboyant and charismatic founder, Aimee Semple McPherson. But around here the only Sister Amy we know is a former, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed diminutive cowgirl who God radically saved several years ago. As a sinner she excelled in ungodliness but now as a beloved daughter of the Father she remains just as loud but now in hot pursuit of letting anyone who cares to listen her own amazing story of grace. And this past Sunday Norm baptized this hulking linemen with whom Amy had prayed with a while back. When a junior in high school and one of your local star athletes wants to get baptized, something special is at work.

I want to be like him when I'm 79

Wherever David goes he tells the Story

David shared of the development and deepening of his friendship with the couple who moved into their rental unit. Last summer, Paula's, David's wife, and a friend went walking by the home that is just down the road from their own. The wife was out on the porch apparently and a conversation ensued between her and Paula that resulted in her praying with this woman to receive Jesus. Later David made a point of getting better acquainted with her husband, Mike, and have struck up a burgeoning friendship. Sometime this fall they began attending Chetek Alliance Church, the fellowship where David serves as one of the elders. This morning David shared with us that Mike, who is a foreman in a large construction firm and presently working out east, called him the other night for some encouragement and prayer that he would now be a foreman that honors God as he oversees many a raucous worker. How cool is that? When he was inbetween projects, he just so happened to strike up a relationship with the Holmbecks and now that he is back in the saddle, as it were, he returns with a growing hunger in his heart to honor God with his life.

And we're only at the beginning of Troy's story...

For my part, I shared with the guys that this past Sunday Troy preached at the Justice Center. I've lost track of how many posts I have mentioned him in now. Nineteen months ago, he was sitting in the JC for his fifth OWI and potentially looking at two years of prison. At 40 years old he had been in and out of 20 correctional facilities since he became an adult. But because his bunk mate invited him to church one Sunday, he went and nothing has been the same since. In nineteen months I have been fortunate to have a front row seat of witnessing God's Story being written in his own – from inmate to convert, from convert to disciple, from disciple to member of our small ministry team that heads up to the JC once a month to facilitate the service there. Saturday night Troy called me up and asked if I had thought of what I was going to share at the jail service the next day and if not could he share. I assured him that I hadn't thought that far ahead yet and was only too happy to let him tell his story. “I just feel like God's been prodding me all weekend long to share my story so if it's alright with you, I will.” He has no idea that pastors live for moments like these. I gave him the ABC's of sharing one's faith story (be Accurate, be Brief, be Christ-centered) and then prayed for him that God would help him organize his thoughts. For a long time there has only been one service on the Sunday we lead the gathering but as soon as I hung up the phone I knew there would be two. And, as it turned out, there was. After I led the gathering in a few songs, I turned it over to him so he could begin the telling of a great story. There he was standing in the same room where he had once heard me share my own story now telling how God's amazing grace had reached a guy like him. It wasn't surreal. Rather it was another reminder that the gospel really is how Paul once described it, “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, NIV).

Every week at the Breakfast Club after we've chatted and laughed away over breakfast, we always end our gathering with an extended time of prayer for any needs that may have been mentioned but mainly to see God's kingdom come to our community. Listening to the stories yesterday morning it was a reminder to us all that, just as Jesus said, His Father “is always at his work to this very day, and I, too am working” (John 5:17) seeking and saving those who have gone missing or have been lost. What's more, it was an encouragement (to me, at least) to keep asking the Father for laborers, to keep casting the seed, to simply keep on keeping on. We've experienced a few mercy "drops" but we're looking for the rain.