Thoughts From Chris

Somehow I injured my foot the other day.  Not sure how I did it.  No idea.  On Wednesday it hurt all day long.  On Thursday it got progressively worse – so much so that I broke down and made a doctor appointment for today (Friday).  I go to the doctor for something, probably less than once a year (in other words, rarely).

Over the last few months I have been training my kids in areas of being Spirit-led.  One of those areas has been in the power of prayer.  Last Saturday we went downtown again and hung out at the bus stop.  My eight, seven, and five year old laid hands on many people and prayed for them.  They prayed for people who need jobs, cars, physical healing, spiritual direction, housing, etc.   I love the exposure they (as well as I) are getting with people who have all kinds of needs. We are all learning tons.

Anyway, last night, God once again reminded me that I have not asked anyone to lay hands on me and pray for healing. I simply planned to seek a doctor (without seeking God first).  I then asked all three of my kids to lay hands on me and pray for healing.  They all did. 

I woke up this morning, planning to go to my appointment. God had other plans, however. My foot is significantly better, and I have no need to seek a doctor.  Would it be just as better today without that prayer last night?  Only God knows.  My conclusion is that God used the prayer of my kids to bring healing.

I think we have so much to learn about what God can do through faith, trust, and a life of truly seeking him.  God certainly doesn’t always heal, but how many times would he, if we seek him?

(Lastly, I am teaching a new welcome class this Sunday afternoon and next Sunday.  Anyone who wishes to sign up can do that by contacting Sue at sheckley@gracegathering.com.)

I write as someone who is humbly seeking the power of God – and who has a long way to go.

This past Sunday we addressed the three most controversial spiritual gifts in the church at large today: divine healing, speaking in tongues, and prophecy.  It was not the easiest message to give, I was more nervous than usual, but it was a message that became very personal for me. 

I think there was a divine collision between very personal things God has been teaching me and the reality that I have come to the passage in the book of Corinthians that is the most controversial and potentially divisive passage in the letter:  three full chapters on the role of spiritual gifts in the church. 

That divine collision came out this past Sunday as I shared some personal ways God has been stretching me in the area of living by his Spirit.   It was a humbling experience as I shared, but it was extremely encouraging. 

I have also made it known publicly on a few occasions that God has given me a vision for my family in the arena of living by the Spirit that I have never had before (it is a major part of what God is doing in me personally).  I did share a personal story of something we did as a family this past Saturday.  Many people since then have asked me very practical questions about that experience, so I have decided to give the details here so that others who wondered can here some of the answers as well.

Our family has spent the last couple months seeking God in prayer like never before.  Two or three times a week we come together in our living room, talk about how God has been prompting us and teaching us by his Spirit, and then getting prostrate on the ground we spend time praising God and praying to him.   It has been catalytic in many ways. 

As we have read and talked about Scripture together, we have noticed that Jesus and his disciples often laid hands on people and prayed for them.  From those observations I decided that we would begin doing this as a family for other people, and last Saturday was our first tangible experience. 

I talked to our kids ahead of time (their ages are 5, 7, and 8), and coached them on how to pray for people when they give a specific prayer request.  On Saturday afternoon, we went to downtown Fort Wayne and hung out at the bus station on the corner of Clinton and Superior (by Frieman Square and Headwaters Park). 

We had a big cooler of bottled waters.  We handed out the waters to people for free and often we would ask people as we gave it to them if they would like prayer for anything (probably about half said yes and half said no).   For those who said, yes, we asked what we could pray for, and then we laid hands on them and prayed for them.  Sometimes I would ask one of my kids to pray and sometimes I would ask two or three of them to pray. 

After we hung out at the bus station for a while, we then went to Headwaters Park and gave away the water there and prayed for people.  Toward the end my kids were starting to feel a little more comfortable, and they were able to walk up to people on their own.  At one point my oldest went to a group of 8-10 adults who were having a picnic and ended up leading a prayer with all of them. 

Before we started we all spent time as family praying silently and asking God to give us impressions of situations or people we might encounter while we were downtown, and all three of my kids shared impressions they had.  We did not see any of them specifically come to pass, but we will continue to develop that potentially prophetic gift.

It was an amazing experience both for myself and our family.  We were all nervous, we had never done anything like this before, we did not really know what to expect, but it was incredible.   We plan on doing this kind of thing on a more regular basis as we try to step out in faith and learn what it means to be led by God’s Spirit and be a blessing to others.

The last practical thing I will say is that my kids really didn’t want to go at first, but we went anyway.  In fact, I had to break up an argument on the way there (after all they are kids).  As we were leaving at the end, however, all three of them were chiming in that they really liked helping people and they were glad we went.  I think the ice cream treat on the way home was the icing on the cake as well!

I would love to hear from you regarding this idea, something pertaining to that difficult sermon from Sunday, or an idea you and your family have experienced along these lines.  Most of you receive this letter via e-mail, but if you click on my blog itself at www.thoughtsfromchris.com  you can post a response or thought yourself that everyone else can read to any individual post I send.  Just click the word “comment” at the end of the post.  I would appreciate hearing from you.

Lastly, Scott Jester will bring the message this Sunday, and then the following two Sundays will be completely lead by our teens.  We will then move back into chapter 13 and look at what is commonly called the love chapter of the Bible.

May God teach us to live by his Spirit and express the gifts of his Spirit with all humility and love!

My apologies for being out of commission for two weeks away from my blog.  After I got back from England we moved less than a week later.  Yeah, I timed that right, Kathy did most of the packing while I was away (not to mention she took care of our four kids – three of which are currently in swimming, tennis, and baseball simultaneously).  Yes, she is superwoman!

I wanted to share some pictures and a few more stories from England, but I cannot find my camera.  It is packed away in a box somewhere.  Hopefully, I will find that soon, and will then share more stories. 

In the meantime, I am back in the saddle – both on my blog and this Sunday as I return back to teaching.  We are moving into I Corinthians chapter 11 in our Messy Church series.  This will begin this very interesting and complex discussion about gender roles among men and women (both in home and church), God being the head of Christ, and guys not wearing long hair (how long is long? I interpret that as being no longer than three inches above the waist – so I am still good), and this interesting concept of head coverings for women for the sake of angels and respect for authority. If you know what all this means, please enlighten me before Sunday, so that I can at least look like I know what I am talking about.   Hmmm … Should be an interesting Sunday.

Praise God that the Mexico team arrived home safely.  The trip went exceptionally well, and not only was sickness significantly minimized from last year, no one even fainted on the plane on the way home (I still contend I did that so that we could have the emergency landing and get off the plane more quickly).  As the team this year focused on teens in Mexico, there were unique stories of God’s blessings.   We hope to hear more of them soon. 

As a reminder to Grace Gathering folks, we will be praying for senior high students and their parents this Sunday publicly in our service.  We are going to do it a little differently than we have with the other age groups, and I think it is going to be a special blessing to our teens.

Looking very forward to it!

Scott and I just returned from our trip. I have been to many church conferences over the years and I have visited many churches.  I don’t think I have experienced a church as healthy and exciting as the one we just experienced in Sheffield, England.  We lived out this church throughout the week, and it certainly felt like the name the experience was called: The Pilgrimage. 

No church is perfect, and St. Thomas would be the first one to tell you about their weaknesses, but I have been inspired in ways I did not anticipate.  They are so intentional and focused on who they want to become and what they want to do, they refer to themselves as partly a church and partly a missionary community. 

The three areas most notable to me were the following:

1)    Very biblically grounded and very strong on character discipleship.  The quality of their disciple making was amazing to me. They are building strong and solid follwers of Jesus. 

2)     A refreshing sensitivity to the leading and power of the Holy Spirit.  This church truly believes and practices the gifts of the Spirit and does it in one of the most balanced and healthy ways I have ever seen.

3)     The development of a mindset that in all they do, they are missionaries on a mission field. Within the DNA of the church, most people actually believe that God has sent them to be missionaries to the people around them and to their city.  This leads to serving people, loving people, and sharing the gospel with people as well.  They believe they are to be conduits of God’s grace and blessing to those around them. 

On the last day one of the leading pastors summed up the experience by saying something to the effect: “We want to bring the foundation of the Word and the ministry of the Spirit together in harmony within the context of a missionary environment.”

This was so much more than learning how to make house churches more effective, or how to follow a certain church model.   They talked very sparingly about that kind of stuff (although we did get some practical suggestions that will help in that regard).  What Scott and I experienced was what the church can look like when authentic discipleship, Spiritual filling and sensitivity, and a missionary mindset all become a lifestyle among the people and not simply a check off list. 

As Scott and I debriefed on our eight hour plane ride home yesterday, we both were convinced that Grace is already heading in this direction in so many ways. 

As we shared Grace’s story with leaders from around the world last week, so many people were amazed and excited for us.  While  Grace will never mirror this church in England, nor would we ever want to as every church is unique, I felt like Scott and I went up on the mountain and God showed us what Grace could like 5 years from now if we continue to get on our knees and seek his face in these critical areas. Let me tell you, it would be an exciting place to be.

My first and most important takeaway, having experienced this pilgrimage, has nothing to do with how I want to lead Grace Gathering, however.  My first area of focus is to better lead my family in these areas, because if I am not leading my family, I have no business trying to help lead God’s church.  I have a long way to go in this regard, but I believe it starts there and will eventually spill over into the church as God’s Spirit moves.  I am looking so forward to the journey!

Look forward to sharing more over time.

Final Note:  Please be praying for the 60 people from Grace who are in Mexico right now.  They are focusing on ministry to teens there. I think Craig Eakright is blogging their trip.  You can read that at craigeakright.com.

Scott and I have been staying with a couple who have been in leadership here at the church for over 30 years.  They are so hospitable.  I feel bad for Scott, however, because he has never had this much British tea or British beer/wine in his life (every day).  It is definitely a part of the culture here.

This morning we started with a time of worship through music.  The worship has been incredible and very moving.  As we sat down there was another man sitting next to me.  We had never met but as he got out a piece of gum he offered me a piece.  I took one and also gave one to Scott.  As we began to chew it, both Scott and I looked at each other and mades some very strange faces.  It was awful.  It was like putting black licorice and a teaspoon of salt in our mouth at the same time.  His name was Jacob and he is from Copenhagen, Denmark.  A great guy (see picture below) but terrible gum!

I also got a picture this morning with the two lead pastors of each church location.  The way I would describe these two guys are three words: humble, wise, and Spirit-filled.  Scott and I have had opportunity to talk to both of them, one on one, separately about Grace Gathering.  They have given us great insight that I think will help us as we move forward as a church family.  Look forward to sharing more …

We have made it here in England.  We spent the first day trying to get over jet lag and stayed with a friend of mine, Dwight (above), who lives in Ely, England.   Dwight is also the dark hair guy in the first picture of the previous post holding the British flag with me.  He came over to travel with me while in college, met an English girl, and eventually married her.

Ely is known as a place with one of the largest Christian cathedrals in the country.  As we went inside, it was really kind of a lesson on the history of western church over the last 1300 years.  England has all of these intricate and powerful symbols of architecture and religious power – very beautiful and massive.

However, from everything I have read, life transformation from the advancement of the gospel in the country of England has been decreasing for decades.  England is a post-Christian society.  In fact, life transformation from the advancement of the gospel is currently decreasing in every country within the western world.  The church, however, is growing in tremendous ways in the non-western world.  More about this topic to come later …

Saturday night we arrived in Sheffield with our host family – a great couple in their sixties who have a tremendous heart for God. 

We went to three church services throughout the day yesterday and attended an outreach event with our host family (long day but powerful).   They invited all of their neighbors within close proximity of their house to an afternoon dessert.  What was amazing is that most of their neighbors actually came.  Our host family pointed to each house in their neighborhood to Scott and myself and gave us a bio on each family and how they were praying for that family.  Scott and I were amazed.

Last night at one of the services, the church highlighted seventeen Clusters (our term is Team) – a group of 2-5 house churches each.  Each coach gave testimony of what God had been doing within their cluster/team.  It was very exciting, and the whole church celebrated with great joy!

Lots more to share, but that is it for now.   

Today Scott Jester and I head for England to experience a church that is impacting many in the kingdom through house churches and missional communities. 

The last time I left for England I was in 1990 as a sophomore in college (see pictures above).  I spent two semesters over there studying for my degree in philosophy.  It was quite an experience.  Things like:  watching John McEnroe live on centre court at Wimbledon, watching the Rolling Stones in concert at a famous soccer field, seeing Eric Clapton at Royal Albert Hall, sitting in the House of Commons with Margaret Thatcher, hitch hiking through England, Scotland, and Wales, not to mention a total of 11 weeks of traveling in 17 different countries.

What was most significant, however, is that I arrived in England spiritually lost, and I left England spiritually born.  While studying philosophy, God opened my eyes to the greatest philosopher ever:  Jesus Christ, the king of the universe.

Today I head back to England for the first time in 18 years. Many things have not changed:  I am still a philosopher at heart, I still have a lot of questions, I am still on a journey of discovery, and God is still working in my life.

My discovery process, however, this time is not the inauguration of a relationship with Jesus, but the discovery of his church and what that can authentically mean when it is within community and when it is on mission.

The journey is as important as the destination.  I look forward to what God has in store during this 10 day journey.

Grace Gathering Note:  As you pray for Scott and myself, please also pray for the 60 people our church will be sending to Mexico on June 13.  Lastly, Steve Longbrake will bring the message these next three weeks.

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe God has blessed me with Kathy for 14 years. Our marriage has been so blessed by God. I do not deserve my wife, and I don’t deserve our children.

I know that she, as well as they, belong to God, and I try to hold all of them with an open hand. Kathy is my greatest confidant, counselor, and friend. I try hard not to take her for granted, but I know I fail to do that too often.

Even though we are married today, I know that one day in eternity we will simply be brother and sister. I am not sure I understand all that, but one thing I know: I want to be faithful to God as I try to unselfishly love her and our children while I live this short life here on earth. I am thankful for both her grace and God’s grace as I make a flawed attempt at leading my family in Christ.

Today on Mother’s Day we not only spent time with my mom, we spent time as a family watching another mother in her element.  We have a nest that a bird has been making on our porch the last couple of weeks  (see above with the baby birds awake).  Today we watched the mother feeding her babies as she flew back and forth to her nest with food. 

Another example of God’s beautiful creation and the joy of motherhood!