I never expected
that ministry would lead me to living in the middle of nowhere. I grew up
within 20 minutes of a major city (Pittsburgh) and in college and seminary we lived in
sizable cities. So for 31 years of my
life I lived in cities and it was the norm. Several of my first ministry trips
were in large cities (New York and New Orleans) and I loved them. So I assumed that I was wired to be in ministry
in a city setting, even if it were a smaller city of say 100,000. I was wrong
(that is often what happens when we presume on God’s will!)
God led me to
the middle of nowhere. I say that because of two things that happened this week that reminded me I’m sort of in the middle of nowhere. I was having dinner with a denominational leader
and our pastoral intern. The denominational leader was getting an important
phone call on his cell and it kept dropping.
In his frustration he told the person on the other end, “I can’t hear
you, I’m in the middle of nowhere!” I
understood his frustration because I dealt with this on several occasions. But we were having dinner discussing how we can bring the message of
the gospel to these towns located in the middle of nowhere.
The second thing
that happened is that I heard my own preaching.
I don’t particularly like to listen to myself preach and I agree with
what Martyn Lloyd Jones said that I would not cross the street to listen to
myself preach. But I was going through
my filing cabinet and found a DVD of a sermon I did in seminary. I wanted to listen to see if
I could notice some improvement in my sermon delivery since then. I heard myself say in the sermon these words
(maybe prophetically to myself): “Are you willing to go and take that church in middle of nowhere and be that unnamed disciple
who never gets any glory but God gets it all?”
So here God has
me to the middle of nowhere. We are trying to buy a house in the middle of
nowhere. My kids are going to school and making friends in the middle of
nowhere. We are trying to put down roots in the middle of nowhere. Last night I
got to pray with a handful of people who live in the middle of nowhere and love
Jesus. I get to serve Jesus and His church in the middle of nowhere.
God loves the
middle of nowhere. He created the middle
of nowhere. Jesus gave His life for
churches gathered in the middle of nowhere. God calls some of His servants
to serve Him joyfully in the middle of nowhere. So for those of you who serve in the middle of nowhere be encouraged: God loves the place and the people in the middle of nowhere.
*(For those of
you who don’t know where I serve it is an extremely nice small town of
6,000. Orange City Iowa is a Dutch
enclave with a rich heritage of the Reformed faith. There is a college here
which gives it a younger feel most of the year. It would probably make it on the top ten list of
the cleanest towns in the world. I say
all this because I am aware that there are those who serve Christ much more in
the middle of nowhere than I do.)
That's a good word, Ryan. Thanks for sharing. Grace to you, brother.
ReplyDelete