Get up and pray! Some thoughts about last night's prayer meeting

9 Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”

Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”

10-11 God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?” Jonah 4:9-11, The Message

Once a month a handful of people from our fellowship gathers on a Sunday evening to wait upon the Lord for an hour. While anyone can come to these gatherings it's never more than a handful and why that is I couldn't say (although I have my opinions). The format is simple. We sit quietly by ourselves for the first half hour or so and seek to listen to his voice. Then during the second half hour we gather in “the couch corner” of the sanctuary and share what verse of Scripture, images, or impressions that have come to mind while we have quietly sat before the Lord. Often a certain theme emerges in the sharing and then we seek to pray “into” that theme together. It's not a perfect science but frequently we feel “led” by the Spirit to pray in a certain manner.

Last night as I knelt at the altar Jonah 4:9-11 came directly to mind. Jonah, of course, is the reluctant prophet. He's the guy who didn't want to go to Nineveh and warn them of the judgment that was coming. After some divine arm-twisting that occurs in the belly of a whale he grudgingly obeys God's command. Peeved at having to deliver God's warning to one of the enemies of his nation, he marches into the main square of Nineveh and like Luther nailing his 95 Theses upon the door of the Wittenburg Church declares: “In forty days Nineveh will be smashed” (3:4, Msg). That's it or at least all that Jonah said that he shared with these uncircumcised pagans. He then marches out of town and sits on a hill and waits for the fire to fall.

But these Ninevehites do something surprising. They don't scorn or mock Jonah. They listen to him. They get serious with God. They repent for their sins. They are, as we like to say now, all in.

“The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers.” (3:5)

Well, this is awkward

Their response is so complete and so sincere that God changes his mind. “On second thought, I'm not going destroy their city” (3:10)

You would think that this kind of response is enough to summon a chorus of Hallelujahs from Jonah. Instead by the end of his short story he is sitting in a sulk mad at God for changing his mind. In fact, we learn why he's so peeved is that he anticipated such a response. He knows enough of God's heart to know that the only reason Yahweh would send him there was so that these people could get another chance.

4 1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!”

"Dang."

When the story began God is angry with Nineveh for its practice and reputation for wickedness. Like Marvel's Thing Yahweh says to anyone who may be listening, “It's clobberin' time.” But at the end of the story, the people of Nineveh have repented in sackcloth and ashes and now God is angry with his prophet who should know better. If, as he said, he knew that God was “sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness” why should he be stewing over the salvation of 120,000 people who spiritually speaking don't know what they don't know?

After awhile another verse came to mind. Jesus used parables, hyperbole, dialogue, Scripture references to persuade his fellow Jewish countrymen to believe what he was telling them. He always seems in control of the conversation, engaged but not overly argumentative. But in Matthew 23 the water flows over the dam. Jesus' frustration with the obstinacy of the religious establishment leads him to pronounce seven “woes” upon them. I certainly don't believe he “lost it” with them but I'm sure he didn't say these things with a smile. At the end of his litany he says this,

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me.” (23:37-38, Msg).

He should look angrier

In Jonah's story, an entire city of spiritually ignorant people humble themselves because of a one-sentence sermon delivered by a guy who didn't even want to be there. At this moment, Jesus speaks to the spiritual gatekeepers of his nation expressing God's great heart to draw them to himself as a hen gathers her chicks but they are tone-deaf to his plea. “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. We're not listening. No thank you. We don't want any.” In his next breath he pronounces the judgment that will visit them within a generation for their hardheartedness (v. 39).

It occurred to me that both verses reveal that when it comes to spiritually dead or deaf people God's arms are wide open. He is, as Jonah testified to, “sheer grace and mercy”. He is that mother hen who wants nothing more to draw her chicks back under the protection of her wing. The people who don't know a thing – who “don't know right from wrong” (Jonah 4:11) – listen and respond. The people who know it all – who certainly cannot claim spiritual ignorance – act as if they are entitled to God's deliverance when, in fact, they are headed to a rendezvous with destiny.

Randy is one of our elders at Refuge and a very thoughtful man. He reads a lot and ponders the ways of God. His contribution to our discussion was this passage from Romans 13

“Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.”

“But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” (Romans 3:8-14, The Message)

This text, in my mind, was the exclamation point that the Holy Spirit was placing upon our hearts last night. Pray! We must pray and intercede for our neighbors, the city we call home, the state and country we live in, the world we share with so many others. We can't tell ourselves that “God's gonna do whatever he's gonna do” when in fact he partners with us to stand before him (ala Abraham in Genesis 18) and plead for those we care about – and for those we don't care about but should. To not respond to the Holy Spirit's voice is to be guilty of wasting time and laying around when we should be dressing ourselves “in Christ and be up and about.”

And so we did pray together and will continue to do so because somehow or another our prayers matter to "the Judge of all the earth" (Gen 18) and he waits for us to call on him.

Not enough rocks (a pastoral response to the problem of evil)

“If God is God why would he allow me to be adopted into a family that would raise me to do terrible things?”

I was recently asked this by a former inmate of the Barron County Jail. He was adopted when he was three years old and according to him when he got older his adopted father forced him to do some pretty perverse things that now in his 50s he has great shame about. Why, he asked me, would God allow that? Why would God, he inferred, stand by and let that happen?

As a pastor of a small rural congregation, I don't sit around contemplating a good apologetic for God and the problem of evil. It's not that I have not encountered evil in my nearly twenty-eight years of pastoral ministry. I certainly have. I've buried a young woman who died of cancer way before her time and another who suffered from mental illness and later shot herself. My work as a volunteer for both our local food shelf and with the Salvation Army has brought me up close and personal to the ugliness that poverty can create in families and individuals. My service at the Barron County Jail as a chaplain has taught me the reality and power of generational sin. No, I may not live in the 'hood but in these idyllic woods in which we live sin abounds and scars and works havoc in people's lives.

Many years ago our neighbor's son was tragically killed in a car accident. Raised in the Baptist church, he had not been a part of fellowship for several years and at the time of his death he was living with his girlfriend in another community. He wasn't drunk. It was simple negligence on his part. He didn't look twice before he entered the median of the highway before a truck slammed into his car killing him instantly. It was, literally, an accident. At his funeral my neighbor's pastor said, “It was all part of a greater plan”, that God “allowed this to happen” and that even though we mourn we are comforted because “he's with the Lord now because when he was at Bible camp as a teen he had made his profession of faith.” I've never asked his mother if those words brought her comfort but admittedly sitting out in the congregation that morning my first thought was, “Are you saying that God willed for this kid to be killed by a truck?” To be fair, I'm not sure what I would have said if I had been the one presiding at that gathering but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be to opine that his death by truck was part of some greater plan of God's. Maybe at times like that it's better to be a Calvinist.

When we're born we don't start at zero. That is to say that none of us are a 'blank slate' when we come into this world. We are a born into a family, for better or for worse, that depending on the health of that family we will be nurtured or we will be corrupted. A few months back I sat in PV 1 at the jail listening to a 38-year-old guy I'll call CJ tell his story. He was a crack baby which means he was screwed even before he was born. The womb is supposed to be one of the safest places on earth but in his case his own mother caused him to be an addict long before he took his first breath. His father was no better and was long gone by the time CJ was a toddler. His mother was incapable of raising him (later dying of an overdose) and so he was brought up in the foster care system bounced around from one family to another. Somewhere along the way he became a user and then later a dealer. At the time of our conversation he was looking at the potential of over two decades of incarceration for his crimes.

As I listened to his story I was struck by the fact that though we were only sitting across the table from one another a great chasm of life experiences separated us. I was born into a nuclear family where both my parents were committed to their faith and to one another. I was born on a Friday which means by the following Sunday I was in church and no doubt baptized soon after. My parents loved me, provided for me, disciplined me when I needed it, made sure I went to school and church regular as clockwork. We went on family vacations and from time to time Dairy Queen on a Sunday night in the summertime. That's what I mean when I say we don't all start at zero. Compared to CJ, I was born at +50. Compared to me, CJ was born at -25. I was set up to succeed in life whereas he was set up to fail. Why me and not him? How is it that I was fortunate to be born into a good family while CJ a bad one (and the guy mentioned at the beginning of this post as well)?

Honestly, I don't know. But while listening to CJ's story I was reminded (again!) how fortunate and blessed I have been in being raised in the family I was. I won't for a second attribute my circumstances to luck and his to bad luck. “Sucks to be you” would be horrible commentary on CJ's condition. But mysteries abound in the life of faith and frankly most of the time I know better than to offer an opinion as to why bad things happen to good people – and, for that matter, bad. The thing theologically referred to as the Fall is enough answer for me. God created a perfect world and his original plan was to fill it with free-will agents who would willingly choose him. But that plan involved risk that those same free-will agents would choose to not follow him. And thus we have the command:

“You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you’re dead.” (Gen 2:16-17, Msg)

Of course, we know how that ended and thus we inherited the world we chose now full of sin and disease and heartbreak and death. We wanted to run the show ourselves – to be our own bosses – and the rest is history – and how sad that history has been at times. That some people live their whole lives relatively untouched by the world's sorrows I attribute to God's goodness. That others seem to experience trouble unlooked for or undeserved I'll attribute to man's propensity to lash out at his neighbor, the work of corrupted structures like government or just part of the reality of how “the rain falls on the just and the unjust” (Matt 5). As someone reminded me once, “We're not living in the Garden of Eden, you know. We're not even next door to it.”

...there is a distinction between the “pastoral”...problem of people

struggling to make sense of suffering and evil in their lives and the lives of others close to them, and the philosophical problem of showing the congruence (or at least compatibility) of the existence of evil with the existence, power, and goodness of God. These are not the same problem... William Hasker in God and the Problem of Evil: Five Views (p. 151)

I agree. Most of the people who come to me with their questions (when they do come at all) aren't really looking for me to give them a good answer when, in truth, good answers don't abound. They just want to be heard and have their pastor acknowledge that sometimes the math in life doesn't add up. I have learned to tread carefully in the presence of suffering. Pat answers won't do. And frankly, I don't usually feel like I have to defend God. He's a big God and he can defend himself if he needs to. Instead I try and mimic Job's posture who in the face of divine rebuke contritely responded, “I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head.” (Job 42). So, I simply try to listen and be a representative of the God who is Immanuel, “God-In-It-with-Us.” It provokes me to silently pray the biblical prayer, “How long, O Lord, how long?” while at the same time it reminds me something that Forrest Gump once said, “Sometimes, I guess there's just not enough rocks.”

Driving all the way to Chicago to hear a good word

“Then the word of God came to him: 'So Elijah, what are you doing here?'”

1 Kings 19:9, The Message

Elijah was by anybody's definition a spiritual Avenger in the times he lived in. Case in point would be the 'Clash on Mount Carmel' where he single-handedly faced down wicked Queen Jezebel's regiment of prophets of Baal and – with God's help – did it with style. Isaiah had once prayed, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,...” (Isaiah 64:1ff). I wonder if he had Elijah's victory on the mountain in mind when he had prayed thus? In any case, after that slam dunk knockout he becomes Public Enemy Number One. You would think his victory would fill him with bravado. Instead, his resolve melts like snow in May and he high tails it out of Dodge. He runs south, way south. He runs until he can't run any more and then crawls under the shade of some scraggly tree out in the Negev hoping for death to find him. However, God's got other plans. After being ministered to by an angel, he then walks “forty days and nights” (1 Kings 19:8) until at long last he reaches Horeb, the mountain of God where once upon a time Moses received the law of the Lord. He crawls into a cave to rest and while sleeping the word of the Lord comes to him,

“So, Elijah, what are you doing here?”

Personally, I would expect a better greeting from the Lord for this guardian of the Law. I would think a 'well done' or an 'atta-boy' or 'thank you for standing with me' would be a far better way to greet his exhausted servant. But no. He gets a, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' as in 'Why are you here and not up there defending Me and doing my work?' To wit I say, Come on, man. He's tired. He's emotionally spent. He's been an outlaw for God for such a long time and that's all he gets? “So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?” Frankly, it's a bit harsh. If that's how it went down, God's sure got a funny way of encouraging his servants.

FCA Convention Night #1

A month ago I attended the national convention of the association that our fellowship belongs to held this year in Chicago. Early on in my ministry in Chetek I was able to attend this gathering annually but our fellowship's resources have been pretty tight for a number of years now. What's more, the convention is always during track season guaranteeing if I go that I miss a full week of practice and meets. So I haven't attended one since 2008 when it was held in Minneapolis. But this year, seeing it was back in the Midwest, I felt like I had to go. Unlike Elijah in so many ways I do identify with that moment he drags himself into the cave on Horeb feeling discouraged and in need of a good word to sustain him. So I drove to Chicago with the hope that God was going to speak such a word to me.

Honestly, this has been a season of tough sledding in our ministry in Chetek. It's not that we have been experiencing conflict with our leadership team. We haven't. In fact, we have enjoyed a wonderful sense of unity in our midst for several years now. It's not that we have experienced some huge defections either. For a small fellowship, we have a good percentage of disciples serving in various capacities. So what's made this season so tough? Here are three things that come to mind:

For starters, one of our elders – and one of my dearest friends – has gone missing.

Without divulging particulars suffice to say he has become consumed with his work. He's a farmer and the ag industry in this

Longstreet needed this man in the fray

country is the worst it's been in a generation. He's trying to keep the family farm afloat and that pretty much robs him of energy and attention he used to be able to expend at our fellowship. We all feel he and his wife's absence from regular worship and the other things that go on around here. What Confederate Lt. General James Longstreet once said about one of his generals, Gen. George Pickett, sums up perfectly how I feel about this missing elder of ours, “I don't like being without Pickett. It's like going into battle with one boot on.” I feel his absence keenly.

Like a slowly collapsing bag, over the past five months people have left.

One left because he was offended at what he perceived was our lack of spiritual commitment. Another left (with her two children) 'feeling led' to begin attending another fellowship 15 miles north of here. What makes that loss more keen is that she once had been core. Yet another took a job in a neighboring county and therefore moved away. And another core couple have been slowly fading out for reasons they attribute to work schedules. These are, on the main, par for the course. Who of us in ministry hasn't experienced these kinds of shifts in the makeup of the fellowship we are responsible for? But the long and short of it is that on any given Sunday there are a lot more empty chairs in our sanctuary than we have been accustomed to.

Supposedly 'regular attendance' among evangelical Christians these days is 1 Sunday out of 4.

I don't recall which poll generated that finding and where I heard it quoted first but if that is so it certainly has been playing out at Refuge these past few months. The new 'normal' seems to be 30-35 average weekly attendance where 50-60 used to be the norm. Fair or not it's those dang Millennials that seem to be the primary culprits of fitting corporate worship into their schedules (as opposed to fitting their schedule around corporate worship).

The Lord specifically told King David never to count the fighting men to remind him that the sustenance and protection of the kingdom did not reside in his ability to marshal the troops and send them out to fight. In the same way, I shouldn't be counting heads in order to find my confidence as a leader but admittedly I have. Besides, less people attached to our fellowship means less resources both financial and human and taking all these other factors into account has left me feeling insecure and wanting to read the 'tea-leaves' of my circumstances. Maybe it's me? Maybe God has been trying to tell me I'm done for some time now and I've just been tone deaf to his voice?

Hollis had a good word for all of us

This was my state of mind as I pulled into the convention center on Chicago's far-southwestern side on Tuesday afternoon. The only thing I brought with me to the daily gatherings and the nightly services was my journal in hopes I would catch a 'word' that spoke to my current situation – a text, a Scripture, shoot, even a “thus saith the Lord” would do. Over the course of four days I heard some good messages, heard some wise counsel and engaged in more than a few poignant conversations with fellow ministerial colleagues and friends.

Convention is way more than hearing messages.
It's about connecting with friends.

On the very first night the speaker – a pastor turned stand-up comedian/Christian entertainer – shared from Genesis 42. In the passage, Jacob's sons are appealing to him to allow Benjamin to return with them to Egypt so that they may appease the prime minister who makes seeing their youngest brother a part of the deal to acquire more grain. When Jacob hears the terms he complains to his sons, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” (v. 36). His point: A lot of times we don't see things from God's point of view. Unbeknownst to Jacob he is soon to be a part of a grand reunion of all his sons as soon as Joseph reveals who he is. What appears to be against us may, in fact, be working out to be something very good for us. Which is why we need to seek “God's eye-view” of things in our life and ministry.

The very next day at morning devotions another pastor-friend

Here's another former roommate that I hadn't
sat down and spoke with for over twenty or more years

shared from Jeremiah 6:16 reminding us that God, indeed, wants to speak with us. Inspired by the text his counsel was simple, “Listen. Look. Ask. And then obey.” He concluded with something not original but I really like: “I've never heard God's voice but I know what it sounds like.”

Looking through my journal today I am reminded that all through that week I was writing snippets of good counsel and wise Scriptural advice that I heard. As I opened up to a few good friends and shared my life with them I received what you would expect to receive – encouragement, a pat on the back and a reminder that I am not the only pastor struggling with the issues that seem to be facing us here.

In the cave, Elijah was instructed to go out upon the mountain and prepare himself as “the Lord is about to pass by” (1 Kings 19:11, NIV). Perhaps it was the very place or in close proximity to the cleft of the rock where God had hid Moses seven hundred or more years earlier following the fiasco with the golden calf just before he passed by (see Exodus 34). But whether at that place or another there he stands waiting in expectation of the Lord's imminent visitation. And then this:

“A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.”

“When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his great cloak, went to the mouth of the cave, and stood there. A quiet voice asked, 'So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?' Elijah said it again, 'I’ve been working my heart out for God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed your places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.'” (1 Kings 19:11-14, Msg)

I think it's a legitimate complaint. He's been working hard and living on the run without a lot to show for his efforts. As far as he can see there has not been a whole-sale turning back to God among his countrymen. Ahab and Jezebel still rule in Samaria and while she's lost a whole company of her prophets, the people continue to flock to the religious sites at Bethel and Dan. He feels like he's fighting for a lost cause.

Of course, he's not. As bad as things are things are never as bad as they appear. God gives his dejected prophet some tasks to do (like return to the fray and appoint a successor) and then reminds him, that even though it feels like he's standing alone there are in fact, many remaining in Israel who “have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” (v. 18, NIV).

During the long drive home on Friday, as I reflected on all that I heard both corporately and personally, I felt that God had spoken to me. Not audibly and yet directly. Not dramatically and yet certainly. No whistles, no bells. No vision or ecstatic prophecy. While it wasn't a life-changing word – e.g., 'Go to Africa' or 'Come and be our pastor “over here”' - it was definitely a life-sustaining word. And it simply was: “Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.”

Chicago seems like a long way to go from here to hear a word that you could just as well as hear from any of my pastor-friends at Chetek Cafe. But sometimes you have to go far to hear something that's a whisper's length away. Here's how I put it in my journal: “...in lieu of not knowing any differently I must keep going [in Chetek] trusting that You are with me and will be with me.” And that's what I call a good word.

“Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

“So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.” (Galatians 6:7-9, Msg)

So, chin up. Keep going. Don't give up. And carry on until the journey's end. 

Thy Kingdom Come: In gratitude for Kirk and his many prayers

Kirk at one of the "on the hill"
gatherings we have hosted

“My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought 

in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.” 

Psalm 139:15, 16 (NASB)

Rev. “Kirk” Petterson spoke a lot about prayer. In fact, you could say that after serving a congregation in Shell Lake for ten years and then moving to Chetek to serve here it's about all he ever spoke about. But more than just talking about it he actually did it and demonstrated with his life that among his other loves – such as his wife, LeAnn, and their children and grandchildren as well as the efficacy of certain barbecued meats – communion with the Father and intercession for God's people was one of the top priorities of his life.

Some of the membership of the Breakfast Club.
Kirk's spot was usually at the head of the table

We met at a Pastor's Prayer Summit held at Luther Park back in the mid-90s but after he moved to town a few years later he quickly became a regular compadre of our circle of intercessors and assorted prayer warriors here. In fact, Kirk was a significant catalyst for a prayer movement that began in the mid-2000s when a number of us began to gather at what was then Bob's Grill (now Chetek Cafe) every Tuesday morning. The format was simple: breakfast, coffee and conversation followed by a time of prayer. We dubbed ourselves “the Breakfast Club” and with the exception of when Christmas and New Years fall on a Tuesday, have been meeting there ever since throughout the calendar year. We pray for each other, for our community and for God's Church in our area.

"Around-the-Grounds '15"

Kirk was a founding member of our club and that regular meeting and eating and praying together naturally fostered love and trust. And out of love and trust, as all of us should know, so many good things happened and continue to happen. In order to give us some kind of cache with those outside our group we created what we called the Chetek Area Prayer Initiative. On top of our weekly breakfast meetings we continue to sponsor so many corporate prayer events including “Around-the-Grounds” (an annual prayer walk around and through our schools prior to the beginning of the new school year), “See You on the Hill” (a prayer meeting for our city on top of the only hill in town), “A Day Away to Pray” (an informal pastor's prayer gathering that occurs every so often), “A Progressive Prayer Meeting” (just like a progressive dinner we moved from church to church), not to mention the annual “See You At the Pole!”, “National Day of Prayer” and “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday” gatherings. Over the years participation in these events has ebbed and flowed according to people's interest and schedule but Kirk was always there. He agreed that we God's people needed to be about the business of intercession and he lived it.

When Pastor Norm, another founding member of the Breakfast Club, owned a pontoon one Tuesday morning in the summer we loaded up the boat and puttered around the lake praying for our city from that floating platform. As much as the Chetek Hydroflites regularly pack out their ski show and just as the lawn between Advent Christian and their parsonage is always full on the night of the fireworks we asked God (among many other things) that His house would be just as full of people seeking Him. For a few years running five of us drew the names of participating fellowships out of the proverbial hat and whatever church we drew that was where we preached that Sunday. Yes, love and trust can move mountains where organizational meetings only seem to grow them.

Kirk praying on the pontoon

When George Otis, Jr began producing his Transformations documentaries, it was Kirk who got us watching them and the watching fueled our imaginations what might be here in our city and area if we redoubled our efforts to pray for not just revival but wholesale transformation. When The Elk River Story: Transforming the Spiritual Climate of a City came out it was Kirk who gave us all complimentary copies. When a group of intercessors from our community felt compelled to begin a House of Prayer right here in town, Kirk and LeAnn not only frequented the weekly gatherings held there they supported it financially every month. When his own church decided to take one of their Sunday School rooms and turn it into a prayer room, it was Kirk who designed and outfitted it. Yup, prayer was very much what he was all about.

This is the book he gifted us all with
this past Christmas

He prayed long. In fact, he once laughingly told me that someone from his fellowship called him a “prayer hog” as once he started into praying he wouldn't stop until he was prayed out. (I won't speak for the other guys but I know that on more than a few occasions I struggled to hang in there with him and secretly hoped for the meter to run out!) But regardless of the length of his intercession, his prayer generally included a cry for God to send “a Holy Ghost, heaven-sent revival”, a prayer that we who remain will continue to pray from this side of eternity.

Praying at the HOP

He prayed continually. Tuesday mornings and Thursday nights (at the House of Prayer), Wednesday nights (at Northside Christian, the fellowship he was a member of), and once a month on Friday nights (at The Well in Barron, a ministry focused on the local Somali population there). And that's only the gatherings I'm aware of. I'm sure there were others. I am grateful for his example of persistent prayer. Jesus Himself, the Captain of the Host, exhorted his First Century disciples and also exhorts us his Twenty-First Century ones the same: we “should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). As far as I see it, Kirk was faithful in that. He liked his meat rare and his preference in pancakes was always “gooey” (regardless of the cook who was on he always offered to demonstrate just what that was but for the record he never sent any back). But he prayed on regardless of the consistency of his cake.

Praying at The Well 2010

In recent years he had been struggling with various health issues. In fact, three years ago he nearly died while attending the international convention of the College of Prayer International in Atlanta. He recovered and returned to his normal routine of prayer around our community. Psalm 139:15-16 became one of his verses claiming that since every day of his life was already recorded in God's book he planned to live every one of them. During the last year he liked to quote some African brother he heard at a COP gathering who said, “If God has ordained for you to die on Friday you cannot die on Thursday.” To him it gave purpose to each day he was given. How ironic that he actually died on a Friday.

A Concert of Prayer held at Northside 2016

Some people serve their community by volunteering at a local food shelf or at the school. Others serve as an alderman or as a member of a non-profit organization. Kirk served us here in Chetek by praying persistently and consistently for all of us. I will miss his presence at the Breakfast Club and every other prayer event that we usually host in the course of a calendar year. I will miss his prayers, long though they could be, but now the rest of us will just have to pray on a little longer now that his voice has been silenced. Of course, his prayers that he raised in this life, especially the ones that have not been realized with regardless to that 'heaven-sent, Holy Ghost revival' he asked so persistently for remain continually as incense in God's presence (Revelation 5:8). And for that I am grateful because it seems like we need that more now than ever before.

May the Lord bless and keep him and may there be stacks of gooey pancakes cooked to perfection in the presence of the Lord he loved so dearly in this life.

At our most recent "Day Away to Pray" gathering in January 2019

Let it shine: What I "saw" last night at "Wait & See"

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.' Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, 'Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.'

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he answered and said, 'Verily I say unto you, I know you not.'"

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” Matthew 25:1-13, KJV

The Second Sunday evening of every month since last year has been set aside for an hour of corporate prayer in the sanctuary of our fellowship. I started scheduling such an event after reading Joyce Huggett's book The Joy of Listening to God (Intervarsity Press © 1987). Speaking only for myself, I know how to talk to God; it's the listening part that is challenging to me. I call these gatherings “Wait & See” because my hope is that we will wait upon the Lord and then "see" and hear what he may be saying to us.

The format that we use for this gathering is fairly simple. I put on some quiet, instrumental worship and encourage those who attend to sit quietly anywhere in the sanctuary and be still before him. Most people bring their Bible with them. I bring my journal as well. We are quiet for the first half hour or so trying to allow him room to speak. After this we circle up and share among ourselves impressions, thoughts, pictures or Scripture that may have come to mind while we sat. The goal is try and discern any common themes or Scriptures that may come to light as we share.

Yesterday it snowed all day and while by evening the snow was tapering off the plows had only begun to clear the way. Honestly, these gatherings are not well attended – usually only between four and seven people – so I fully anticipated that I might be on my own for this gathering. But if the priest in the days of the Tabernacle was required to keep the lamp of the Presence burning daily how could I neglect the Lord because of four inches worth of snow? Besides I only live three blocks away.

But three showed up – Sandy, a senior citizen, Sara, a twenty-something and Randy, one of our elders who lives out of town – and more than quorum was met. Since beginning this routine of these gatherings I have gotten better at learning to still myself before the Lord. But last night I came to the gathering with a lot of interior noise and static. I was frustrated over a few fellowship matters, our internet at home wasn't working, and one sentence out of an otherwise positive letter from a couple in our congregation raised a bit of ire in me. So out of a need to quiet myself I turned to Philippians 4 and re-read the words of Paul to myself:

“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! [Peterson's translation of “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice] Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!”

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Philippians 4:6-7, Msg)

I had to do this first, purposefully rejoicing in God's goodness, the wonder that for over twenty-seven years a group of people still unflinchingly affirmed me as their pastor and that probably was okay to be off the 'net for an afternoon and evening. I won't say my spirit settled immediately but eventually it did.

And then in my mind's eye as I continued to kneel at the altar I saw Pastor Guy. Pastor Guy pastors Chetek Lutheran Church down the street from us. He's something of an artist and will just as eagerly quote Scripture as he will, say, John Lennon, as a part of his weekly message. He's also writes and plays folk music. So while I knelt at the altar disciplining myself to rejoice and not to worry I saw and heard Pastor Guy playing “This Little Light of Mine” as he had done at our annual ministerial Post-Epiphany Christmas Party a few weeks before.

Pastor Guy working his magic

Journal entry #1:

“We are probably the only Christians in Chetek tonight gathered together to pray. Four souls out on a snowy night to wait on God together. I can't help but hear refrains of “This Little Light of Mine” as we do. Our 'little light' burns tonight – may it light the darkness and encourage the faithful to keep their lamp trimmed.”

I then turned to Matthew 25 to re-read the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Five were wise and five were foolish. The wise ones remained alert while the foolish allowed themselves to become distracted, sleepy or both. And then suddenly, the bridegroom showed up and the wedding began in earnest to the joy of the wise virgins and the shock and disappointment of the foolish ones.

Journal entry #2:

“I want to be diligent to keep my lamp trimmed with a ready supply of oil. I want to stay on task, expecting inspection at any moment. May You lead our prayers so that we at Refuge and the faithful here in town will remain diligent, fervent, serving the Lord.”

I had entered the sanctuary thirty minutes before frustrated (among other things) that I couldn't get on-line at home and the tech support people had been less than professional in their dealings with me. (To be fair, I wasn't the best of customer to them.) A half hour later, however, I was in earnest that we here would be about the Master's business when he returns.

Journal entry #3:

“Yes, I'm on my way! I'll be there soon! I'm bringing my payroll with me. I'll pay all people in full for their life's work!” (Jesus in Revelation 22:12, The Message) Lord, may my life's work glorify You and bring glory to You.”

As we circled up and shared the Scriptures and impressions that we had individually felt a common theme did emerge that could be summed up this way: small things matter and cause significant change

Sandy:  “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” (Mark 4:31-32, NIV) All God needs is a small mustard seed of hope and he can turn things around.

Sara: “...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16, NIV) Even a little light can brighten the darkness. So may God help us to be his light wherever we go.

Randy: “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, 'children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.' Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” (Philippians 2:14-16, NIV). We need to be light.

These weren't the only things that each of them shared. There were more. But I think we could sense at least one thing God was saying to us on a snowy night in Chetek: Don't give up gathering together and seeking me. Stay alert and awake. Stay on task and be diligent. Remember “even a little light” can brighten a dark room.

“So let it shine, let it shine, let it shine...”