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Renewal (Lynchburg, Part II)

Truthfully, and while my head said go, my heart was in need of something more. The 2008 Innovate Church Conference at Thomas Road Baptist Church was to be held the very week (Monday - Wednesday) that my wife, Linda, and I would take our oldest son, Zack to college (Friday) for the first time.* Jonathan Falwell was very kind to personally invite me; and I did want to renew contacts with faculty and friends I had known in the past. In addition, and since I was not scheduled to speak, I saw the potential for time alone simply to listen, to learn and maybe (just maybe) to hear God speak to me personally.

And so I arrived looking for signs … that I made the right decision; that it would be worth my time, that God, indeed, had something to say to me.

Monday afternoon, I walked to the church and entered Thomas Road for the first time in 25 years. Not familiar with the new campus, I entered the one million square foot facility through a back entrance. Having misread the schedule, I soon realized I had arrived three hours and before its official start. At the time, five pre-conference seminars were being conducted for those who had pre-registered (and paid) online. I had not.

Turning to leave, then, I ran right into Doug Randlett, Pastor of Ministry Development at Thomas Road and once my favorite professor at Liberty! With a warm welcome, he ushered me into a session being led by Lance Witt entitled, "Confessions of a Driven Pastor."

I said to Doug, 'I'm not a driven pastor. In fact, when I think of a driven pastor, I think of someone determined to build a church of 10,000, buy land, build large buildings, etc. That's not me." Yet Doug countered, "Yes, you are. See that pole in the middle of the room? If this was your church and once you recognized it as a distraction, you would want someone to remove it immeidatley; and if they didn't do it fast enough, you would do it yourself." He was right.

And so I listened as Lance identified seven potential "holes in the bucket" of a driven pastor:

1. Wearing busyness as a badge of honor;
2. Managing one's image rather than feeding one's soul;
3. Lettiing ministry replace your own pursuit of God;
4. Using vision to cloak personal ambition;
5. Isolatiing oneself relationally;
6. Being an approval junkie;
7. Growing your ministry rather than God's people.

His were challenging words of experience; and I left with much to consider.

In the main session later that evening, Rick Warren encouraged pastors to remain faitfhul in the midst of discouragement, criticism or whenever we feel outright tired or flat, etc. He spoke to the danger of fleeing in the face of opposition and/or prior to God’s clear leading: “When the pastor stays,” he said, “the problems leave. Plant your flag wherever you are and stay the course as God has led.” And recalling the rise and fall of Samson, he cited the dangers of attempting to accomplish for God in your own strength what once you accomplished in the anointing of the Spirit.

If I had gone home right then, it would have been enough. God was speaking, I was here for a reason.

Personal renewal.

The late Keith Green must have had the same need, knew the feeling ...

“O what can be done for an old heart like mine, to soften it up with oil and wine? The oil is You, Your spirit of love; please wash me anew in the wine of Your blood.”

*Our son, Zack, is a freshman at Taylor University, a freshman quarteback on the football team.

Home, Where the Heart Is (Lynchburg, Part I)

The moment I stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac, I could feel "it." Something special in the Lynchburg air. In the unseasonably cool and gentle breeze. In the lush green foilage of Virginia, the surrounding mountains ... memories of last I was here.

Then, it was the summer of 1982 and I was forunate enough to hitch a ride one late summer's night, traveling back with him - on his own, private jet - from a ministry event in South Carolina. Now, stepping off a US Airways prop-driven plane, I am here again; and he - Dr. Jerry Falwell - is gone.

Home.

Indeed, it is only the second time I have returned to Lynchburg in the past 25 years. And this time, I have come at the invitation of Dr. Falwell's son, Jonathan, to attend the Innovate Church Conference at Thomas Road Baptist Church. Best of all, I am here not as a speaker, but again as a student and disciple, to both listen and to learn, to hear God speak to me as He often did so many years ago in college and as an eventual graduate of Liberty University.

The fact is, I remain in heart and soul, one of "Jerry's Kids," motivated and believing that I can change the world, A Champion for Christ. More than anything else, this is the "it" I feel.

And I got "it" from him. Here.

Home.