“The very first tear he made was do deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know – if you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy, oh, but it is such fun to see it coming away.” – C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader
In Lewis’ tale, set in the fantastical world of Narnia, the boy Eustice has been transformed into a dragon by his greed. The change was unexpected and about as much welcome as when you burn your tongue on a hot cup of coffee or step into the shower before the water has warmed up.
After a series of events, Eustice finds himself in the presence of Aslan, the high king and true god of Narnia. In a way that only a lion can, Aslan begins to deliver the boy-dragon through a series of precise cuts with his razor-sharp claws.
The transformation is excruciating, but its effect is final. Eustice is once again a boy, delivered from the horrid reptilian body that once enveloped him.
This past weekend, I was invited to my own dragon-skin-shedding event.
It was an exciting time in my life. I was 20 years old and working long hours at Applebees as a closing server in the smoking section. I sold a lot of alcohol and had many opportunities to share Jesus with my co-workers. Most of them were party people who drank and lived loose lifestyles. Often the Lord would give me dreams or prophetic words which would touch their hearts.
Stephanie was one of my managers. Many a midnight she and I would be the last two people in the restaurant. I would be rolling silverware as she had her last smoke of the night. We would talk about God, healing, angels and demons. One day she gave her heart to Jesus. Elated, I proceeded to encourage her to come to the church where I was attending. She never came and I assumed it was some kind of “rebellion” in her heart. The idea of starting a church around her never even crossed my mind. I never thought about how scary it might have seemed to Stephanie to leave her own friends to integrate herself into “my” church.
Then one day she said, “hey, I wanna get baptized; couldn’t we just do it in my sink?” I enthusiastically promised her that my pastor would baptize her if she came to church. I could tell she was disappointed but I was convinced I had done the right thing. She needed to submit to the authority of the church before she could get baptized, right?! Besides, well-meaning leaders would deem me as being very presumptuous if I went so far as to baptize her myself, in a sink nonetheless! Who was I to do such a thing? That is the job of pastors and trained clergy, wasn’t it?
Shortly after our conversation about baptism I left Applebees. We kept in touch for awhile but then Stephanie moved and changed phone numbers so we lost touch.
I’m heartbroken that I allowed that opportunity to pass by. I know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him, but I hope to never make that mistake again. Perhaps my story can keep others from making similar mistakes.
Stephanie, wherever you are, tearfully I want to say that if you still have a desire to get baptized, I would love to baptize you in your sink.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20
“Do you like blackcurrant martinis? I can also make mango.” Dennis stood in his kitchen with a bottle of triple sec in his hand, a martini shaker in the other, and–yes–a bottle of Vodka sitting on the counter. Honestly, the question had taken me by surprise; not because of the offer of alcohol, but because of the context in which it was asked. Dennis had just been baptized.
Would we? Could we? The unexpected merger of things I once considered sacred and secular was taking place before my eyes. What surprised me more than this head-on collision was my response that came out so naturally that it caught me off-guard.
“Yeah, we’d love some – uh – martinis. Make ‘em blackcurrant! Thanks, man.”
My Friend, Dennis
Rewind.
Last summer, was a season of change. I had changed jobs, our home was up for sale, and we were thinking about pursuing organic church life, outside the walls of what both of us were familiar. It was during this transitional time Father brought Dennis across my path.
We are both contact center engineers. Cisco phone equipment is our specialty. We are the “Thank-you-for-calling-press-one-to-speak-to-a-representative”-kind of guys.
I had known Dennis from a previous job. He is a black-and-white kind of guy, straight-to-the-point. His colorful life has taken him on many adventures. Studying music at Berkeley and rubbing shoulders with biker gangs are a few of his intriguing tales.
During my first months at this new job, my friendship with Dennis had deepened. Something I found interesting about him was his unfamiliarity with the cliches and practices found in the Christian sub-culture.
When we talked about God, I was forced to speak in everyday language, kindly avoiding phrases like “washed in the blood” and “asking Jesus into you heart.”
It was not too long before Dennis had accepted Jesus as his Savior. He had read a small Gospel of John and responded to the gospel message on page three. The words had led him to Jesus during a difficult season of his life.
Waiting for the Fruit to Ripen
As soon as he came to Jesus, my Type-A personality took over. Several times a week, I would encourage him to get baptized. “How about this weekend?” I would ask. “We can come to your place. You can come to ours.”
Whether it was my relentless salesmanship or the busyness of his life – I’m not sure – Dennis was not ready to be baptized. I was disappointed. I had been reading about organic church life, keeping things simple and getting back to the New Testament. I wanted to be like Philip, finding people along the road, getting them saved, and then baptizing them. Move over Mr. Ford and the assembly line!
Yet, despite my best efforts to cast him as the Ethiopian steward (Acts 
and immediately baptize him in the river off of Highway 494, Dennis showed me that he had a mind of his own. He would respond only when he was ready (if ever).
During these times, I would pour out my frustration to Father. I respected Dennis and valued our friendship, but I wanted to see results. I was impatient. My wife, reading me like a book, smiled and said, “You know what I think?”
“What?”
“You can probably guess what I’ll say.”
“Oh no, not the quote…” I begged.
You must understand, my wife is very proud of the following quote. A friend of hers at Bible school authored it. Ever since, it has become one of her mantras that – I admit – has great depth and wisdom.
“Remember what my friend Lindsay always says, ‘Ripe fruit yields to gentle pressure.’” Elisa let out a little smirk, proud of identifying another opportune moment to evoke the mantra.
Those words resounded in my spirit. I knew she was right. If Dennis was ever to be baptized it needed to be based on his own decision, not out of obligation or compulsion. When the fruit was ripe, it would give in. Until then, all my pressuring would be bruising fruit that was not yet ripe.
I resolved that I would no longer bring up the issue of baptism. I would wait for Dennis to ask me about it.
It was immaturity on my part, you see, to expect Dennis to respond in cookie-cutter fashion to the descriptions we read of in the Book of Acts. Living organic Christianity cannot be done like one bakes a recipe. You can’t just add flour, salt, and butter and then bake for 45 minutes.
The call to organic life is a call into relationship. It is a call to willingly walk alongside others at the pace they’re comfortable with. It values slow progress with fellowship over blazing a trail in solitary seclusion.
A Day of Celebration
Two weeks ago, nearly six months after he accepted Jesus as his Savior, Dennis brought up the idea of getting baptized. We were standing outside as he took a smoke break, bundled up in the tundra-like winter of Minnesota, when he said to me, “Ya, man, I think I’m ready to get baptized – maybe next weekend.”
He explained how some difficult issues had recently surfaced and he realized that he needed to solidify his commitment to the Lord and have a fresh start.
That following Friday, my wife and I arrived at his apartment complex, full of excitement about how God had been working in Dennis’ life. We briefly talked about the meaning of baptism, identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Dennis full excited and said, “Yah man, new life, everything’s done with, starting over! I’m ready!”
He was most certainly ready. No one had coerced him. He wasn’t doing it to earn God’s favor. He was responding in obedience because the Holy Spirit had moved on his heart. The fruit had ripened and was responding to the pressure of the Spirit. He was hearing the voice of God for himself!
We took him down to the apartment pool and baptized him. Coming up out of the water, this 49-year-old man looked like a kid again. His eyes were full of life and he said, “Woh, man, I’ve got goosebumps all over and I never get those. This never happens to me!”
Alcohol and Jesus
We dried off and went upstair to celebrate. Dennis offered us martinis and thought to myself, “What the heck? This is a great reason to celebrate!”
We drank those martinis with gladness as we prayed and talked about our life in Christ. It was natural, free-flowing, and completely organic. It was the culmination of a hands-off, Spirit-led journey about waiting on God for fruit to ripen.
There was no guilt or awkwardness about merging Jesus with alcohol. Instead of bringing Dennis into a rigid system of rules and behavioral norms, the good news of Jesus had been injected right into his living room. The message of salvation and freedom had, just as it had two thousand years ago, become incarnational. The living Word had “become flesh” and walked into a cocktail party.
This journey into organic Christianity is more exciting and unpredictable than I ever imagined. But the beauty is in the simplicity. Love one another without any strings attached and watch the Father ripen the harvestfields.
The Word tells us in John 16:24; ” Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”
And in James 4:2, although he is speaking to issues of worldliness in this passage, I think I can apply the scripture; “You do not have because you do not ask” to this discussion.
I often have people ask me how I get the connections with folks to help them start simple/missional/organic life. My response; I ask God to send them to me, and I ask Him constantly for that privilege.
A few years ago, I tried to meet with, activate, gather people I knew had leadership gifts, or had been seeking simple church life into action. Very little fruit resulted from that. They were very frustrating years and I struggled with the desire within me to get people moving and functioning in the Kingdom.
However, I was seeing God use me in this motivation in other countries, where I was constantly in contact with people who were “ready” to go and it was just a matter of having enough time on my part to get to all of them.
I realized that in this “mission midset”, I continually asked God to lead me to the right people, or to bring them to me when I was on one of these “mission trips” that I did to extend the Kingdom and release the Body into their places within. Since I knew very few people in these countries, I was dependent upon God to bring these divine appointments to me.
When I was home in the States, I prayed similar prayers but in reality, relied more upon my knowledge and preconceived beliefs that God would of course use this or that person that looked to me like someone who was ready to serve.
I began to ask, and seriously ask…..beg, if you really want to know, for God to send to me “workers of the harvest” and especially those who didn’t require a long “detoxification”, a lot of personal healing, or paradigm shifting.
I can only say; God is faithful and has answered those prayers with “more than I could ask or imagine” Him doing.
Last night, for example, we met with a couple who contacted me a few weeks ago with interest in simple church. They are just an average, ordinary couple who when after listening to them discuss what they were desiring in living “church”, I said; “you can do that here, in your home with those elements you desire,”. They lit up with excitement and replied; “We can?”
“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened.” Mt 7:7
I just finished a book by Neil Cole called Cultivating a Life for God. It was a short read with a ton of great insights. Cole has a way of turning a phrase, as well as restating the basics of Christianity in a way that is fresh and insightful. The subtitle of this book is this: Multiplying Disciples Through Life Transformation Groups. He lays out a vision and strategy for discipleship that is simple, reproducible and transferable. It focuses on multiplication without being overbearing, as well as helps instill a value for the greatness of God’s word without being legalistic. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a simple and effective tool for making disciples that reproduce.
The United States is a mission field in desperate need of the gospel. Somehow we have managed to lose sight of the prime directive given to us by Jesus to go and make disciples of all the nations. There is hope. We can still fulfill the great commission in this generation, but we will need to get back the power that spread the gospel across the globe in the first century. We will need to see multiplication of disciples occur among all those in the church. Cultivating a Life for God takes an in-depth look at a tool called Life Transformation Groups and explains how this tool can release the awesome power of multiplication in your Church.
Click here to download the gleanings for “Cultivating a Life for God”(PDF)
(Right-click and select “Save Link As”)
GLEANINGS – What are They?
Several months ago, I decided to go through the time-intensive labor of typing out passages from books I read. The collection of quotes and comments came to be known as “gleanings.” If you want to read the gist of a book without flipping through all the pages, this format is for you. Consider it my version of “Cliff’s Notes.”
Churches have tried all kinds of ways to attract new and younger members—revised vision statements, hipper worship, contemporary music, livelier sermons, bigger and better auditoriums. But there are still so many people who aren’t being reached, who don’t want to come to church. And the truth is that attendance at church on Sundays does not necessarily transform lives; God’s presence in our hearts is what changes us. Leaders and laypeople everywhere are realizing that they need new and more powerful ways to help them spread God’s Word.
According to Neil Cole, if we want to connect with those who are not coming to church, we must go where people congregate. Cole shows readers how to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where culture is formed— restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, parks, locker rooms, and neighborhoods. Organic Church offers a hands-on guide for demystifying this new model of church and shows the practical aspects of implementing it.
While it may seem revolutionary, these simple, organic churches—bringing God’s message where people are rather than expecting them to show up at church—is in keeping with the message of Jesus, who lived among the people of his time. Organic Church shows how we can return to those ancient roots by letting the church be alive, organic, growing, spreading in the most likely and unlikely places.
Click here to download the gleanings for “Organic Church”(PDF)
(Right-click and select “Save Link As”)
GLEANINGS – What are They?
Several months ago, I decided to go through the time-intensive labor of typing out passages from books I read. The collection of quotes and comments came to be known as “gleanings.” If you want to read the gist of a book without flipping through all the pages, this format is for you. Consider it my version of “Cliff’s Notes.”
