The Blessings of Reminders

These past two or three weeks have brought us several reminders that we are following God’s leading and are in the center of God’s will. Here’s two or three examples.

On Sunday we received a special gift of $300 from a church that loves us and believes in what we are doing. This was a benevolent gift. It happens that our small but growing financial support was running a little short this month and we had bills that needed to get paid. We were humbled again to know that God answers prayer by moving the hearts of his people to give to needs that he reveals at just the right time.

Today I am grading papers from a Church Planting Bootcamp class that was held last April. God blessed us first by my being asked to serve as the Instructor of Record for this class of seminary students. Second, I was unexpectedly asked to help teach a couple of sessions in addition to coaching the 20 students. Third, I am being blessed by reading the papers, one of which is a launch plan on how each student will uniquely begin a church plant among a people and at a place the student might start a new church. I am awed by such potential for God’s kingdom expansion represented in each project. Wow!

Also today I received an e-mail from a denominational leader in Canada who wants to discuss how I might be best used to help coach and train his group as they seek to plant more churches to reach new people and people groups.

A few days ago I opened a Twitter account and have begun to use it to encourage church planters, pastors and church leaders through a powerful social network tool that many new generation church planters are using for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom. I was reminded again that through such tools as Twitter and Facebook, blogs and web sites, your kingdom ministry can truly be world-wide and cross-cultural.

Thank you, Lord.

EFCA Conference Highlights

The Evangelical Free Church Conference was held in Columbus, Ohio on June 14-17th. Here are some quotes and highlights from the workshops, meetings and plenary sessions:

“Look and pray for opportunities to be salt and light in your community.” – workshop on building bridges of outreach in your community

“As a pastor, you should know your community better than anyone else.” – Rick Warren as quoted in The Church of Irresistible Influence.

“God has made us fully adequate to serve him.” – Tim Addington

“The Apostle Paul was not a pessimist because he understood the supremacy of Christ.” – John Ortberg

“There is a God and it is not me.” – John Ortberg

“Transformation takes every bit as much grace as does salvation.” – John Ortberg

“Grace is opposed to earning but not to working.” – John Ortberg

“Spiritual growth is hand-crafted, not mass-produced – God alone knows what each person needs.” – John Ortberg

“We have to learn to gage spiritual growth in a way that does not cause the Pharisee (in us) to win.” – John Ortberg

“The world is not likely to hear the gospel of transformation told by someone whose life is not being transformed.” – John Ortberg

“The greatest need in a changing world is courage.” – Tom Nelson

“Courage comes from a careful attention to God’s Word.” – Tom Nelson

“Will you live safe or will you live brave?” – Tom Nelson

“It’s not a day to play little games.” – Tom Nelson

“Our power is directly proportional to His presence.” – Samuel Rodriquez

“God anoints what He appoints.” – Samuel Rodriquez

Multiplying Church Planters

We call it a Bootcamp because it is intensive and it requires much from the participants. Such was the case at the second Church Planting Bootcamp that I was able to help teach and lead in the last three months.

This Bootcamp was held on the Biola University Campus in Los Angeles this week and was again sponsored by the Evangelical Free Church of America. I was there as a coach and one of five instructors with 21 students participating. This event was very multicultural and inter-generational. Like the Church Planting Bootcamp in Canada in April, I came away very impressed with the multicultural potential of church planting. God is up to something in the great mission field known as the Pacific Northwest.


The new theme that has emerged over the last few years is the church in mission in North America and the church as missionary in its context. Instead of the members of the church sending missionaries to foreign lands, the church members here are now seen as missionaries and the church is seen as a mission outpost in an unbelieving world. The students at the Church Planting Bootcamp are trained to be missionary leaders with a vision and strategy for reaching people who are unchurched and unsaved.

Students at the Bootcamp learn that North America is now known as the only place in the world where the Christian church is not growing and the population is now equal to the third largest mission field in the world! Church Planting Bootcamps are filled with eager learners who are answers to your prayers. Will you join with me in daily prayer that the Lord of the harvest will send forth workers into his harvest field to make disciples of Jesus who plant and multiply more churches (Matthew 9:36-38; 28:18-20)?

A Tribute to Vinny Carlson

Every pastor needs a Vinny in his life and ministry.

I will greatly miss Vinny Carlson. How Marty and I will miss being there in Holdrege to remember his life and celebrate his homegoing with his family and all who will gather at Holcomb, his beloved church. I will miss the stories told by his family and friends as he is remembered, because I also remember his stories. We will miss being there for the laughter and the tears, the joy in the Lord that can only come at times like this to all those who personally know and love the Lord Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

We will miss yet another reminder that for believers in Christ Jesus, a homegoing into Glory precedes a homecoming of the glorious One together with Vinny and Harriet and all believers who have “departed” for a short while. Vinny loved to think about that glorious day in my many conversations with him.

I will never forget the day that Vinny came to me and said, “I think it’s about time for me to be baptized.” Being a church leader at the time, it took courage for him to make that public stand for Jesus, but he was a humble and courageous man of God. When God convicted him, he had to obey. However, Vinny wanted me to make sure I didn’t drown him in the baptismal tank so he threatened to wear his ski jacket for the ceremony. From what we could tell from our visit to Holdrege last fall for Holcomb’s 110th Anniversary, Vinny entered heaven with his humor intact. On that visit last summer at Christian Homes, we had to almost run to keep up with Vinny and his walker as he took us to see Grant Bergman. Vinny brought a smile wherever he went, but especially at the Christian Homes where he will definitely be missed by residents and staff alike. And you know what? I believe Vinny was the kind of man who put a smile on God’s face just like he put a smile on the faces of all he knew.

Every pastor needs a Vinny in his life because he adopted the pastor into his family. We always knew the place to be on Christmas Eve was at Vinny and Harriet’s house where we were family to them. Our extended family lived far away from Holcomb, but Vinny and Harriet became parents to us and grandparents to our three daughters. We were just part of the family – a family where everyone knew we were loved, accepted and appreciated.

When I remember Vinny, I recall the humble man of God who tolerated my attempts at golf, invited my family to his lake house for rest and fun, showed me by example how to minister to the elderly, taught me how to lead a church board with grace and truth, volunteer because God’s work needed to get done, show up for church even when I didn’t want to because he loved his Holcomb Church family – every single one of us, and protected his pastor from undue criticism. And Marty will always be grateful for the priceless gift of two tickets to go to Memorial Stadium and watch his beloved Cornhuskers play her beloved University of Maine in 2005. The Big Red won 25-7 and I still had a very happy wife!

We will miss Vinny because we always knew that he was praying for us each day. And oh how pastors need prayer and need to know that we are being prayed for. Every pastor needs a Vinny in his life and we were blessed beyond measure to have God’s original.

Vinny loved his God, loved his family, loved his church family, loved his pastor, loved his Christian Homes and his community. He loved life and is now enjoying eternal life with his Jesus, and we will miss him until we see him again in Glory. Well done, good and faithful servant of the Lord. Now, who will follow in Vinny’s footsteps?

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thes. 4:16-18)