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Trust the Slow Work of God

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By Pastor Ryan White

I find myself regularly returning to a particular prayer in this season. It comes from the pen of the 20th-century French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Allow me to quote it in full:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

—Excerpted from Michael Harter’s Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits (2005)

This is such a paradox. Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross and His victory made manifest by the empty tomb were definitive and decisive. Truly, there and then Christ broke the power of evil, sin, and death and now is making all things new, even us. Yet this journey into newness is long. The process of sanctification is a slow and gradual, peppered with moments of breakthrough. It is almost as if Jesus is breathing His resurrection life into our mortal flesh one organ system at a time, chiseling us stroke after deliberate stroke into the image of the Son.

That means we will spend the vast majority of this life of faith as a humble work in progress. Most of our days will involve trekking uphill or slogging through the mud, not standing at the base of the waterfall and marveling at the vista. How are you doing with “the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete”?

I am so encouraged that when the Lord invites us into adventure, he promises, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). He is not speaking merely of temporary respites for refreshment along the way, but a deep and enduring centeredness and well-being that is ours through Jesus’s abiding presence. Even in the midst of exertion and uncertainty, we can rest in our belovedness. We can experience confidence because it will never be Christ who withdraws from us. He is ever faithful and will never leave us or forsake us.

As you wrestle with impatience, as you grow disappointed with your current progress, and you despair over the lack of transformation and victory, hear the words of the Apostle Paul and take heart:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

Your life is hidden in Christ in God. Much of the growth that is taking place—the maturing of your character, the softening of your heart, the transformation of your will and desires—is taking place out of sight, even for you. Your responsibility is simply to set your sights on Jesus daily and press into journeying with Him. Trust in the slow work of God in your life—and in the lives of others. He will carry to completion that good work He has begun in us. You focus on embracing today’s leg of the trail and tackling it with your Savior who loves you.

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Is Jesus Your Reason for the Season?

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By Bill Naron

Christmas approaching is another reminder that another year is ending. The Christmas season is a great time of year for reorienting our lives around the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, with only weeks left in the year, I find myself reflecting on the greatest point of growth in our family. One of the things that has tremendously blessed our family is the practice of family discipleship.

In the Scriptures in Deuteronomy 6:7, we are given the command to teach the words and statutes of God diligently to our children. In Ephesians 6:4, fathers are encouraged to not provoke their children to wrath, but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It was through these Scriptures that I realized I needed to more diligently pursue the discipling of my family. As my wife and I have tried to incorporate consistent and purposeful discipleship in the house, we have learned a few valuable lessons.

The first lesson that I have learned when it comes to family discipleship is that it looks different from family to family. This point may not seem so profound, but it has been huge for me. I spent countless numbers of hours online trying to figure out what a strong and successful family discipleship program looks like. I found some resources of liturgical readings, some great hymnal resources for families, and even found some blog posts that were filled with suggestions of how to successfully disciple your family. All of these resources are helpful, but what I have come to realize is that how you disciple is not nearly as important as what you teach.

In a lot of ways, we can become so stuck on making sure that we do something the right way that we miss the point entirely. The Scriptures do not call us to disciple our children in a specific way; rather, the concern is that we teach them the words of God. The goal of family discipleship is that Jesus would be at the center of everything we do. Discipleship takes people and helps them shape their lives around the gospel.

The second lesson that has been extremely valuable to me and my wife is learning to have grace for ourselves when Bible time is inconsistent. None of us are Jesus, and we are not going to hit the mark every single time. It is important that as one attempts to disciple their family that they extend themselves grace. The important thing is to make sure that Jesus is at the center of everything. I know from personal experience that when we attempt to consistently get into the Word as a family, it gets messy. This is because so many things are pulling for our attention.

This brings me to the third lesson that I have learned. In our pursuit of family discipleship, we have learned that we have to intentionally place priority on discipleship. Within the average household, each family member is splitting his or her time several different ways. For this reason, it is important that we set time aside and make sure that it is distraction-free. We typically schedule ours for nighttime, because this is what works best with the rhythm of our house. But this is not the only time it takes place. For instance, our family works through a biblical-character calendar. This allows us to take the character qualities we are learning about and identify real-life applications during our days and weeks.

This is a topic that I have become truly passionate about. I desire to see family discipleship become an integral part of the Church in America. I believe that the call in Deuteronomy 6:7 and the call of Ephesians 6:4 are easy to overlook. However, this is a huge responsibility that is placed on the shoulders of parents. Since we have started doing family discipleship more intentionally, our family has been tremendously blessed. We get to see our children grow in the way that they process spiritual things, and as we learn and teach them, we grow as well.

In closing, I want to leave you, the reader, with some encouragement this holiday season. My encouragement is to take the time you are given this season and commit now to a more diligent approach to family discipleship. I encourage you to figure out how your family discipleship will look. Try different approaches; you will never know how it will work until you try. Remember that it will be messy and inconsistent. It is a growth process for every family, so do not get discouraged. Above all, my encouragement to you, the reader, is to examine what is at the center of your family in an honest way. Ask yourself if your top priority is Jesus and how He shapes your family’s decisions.

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Sifting Rocks and Pulling Weeds

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by Dan Amos

I live on South Hill, so I am very familiar with rocks. We’ve landscaped with rocks mostly dug up from planting things, putting in a fence, etc. I’ve even developed a tool to help me separate rocks from the dirt. It sifts the dirt and leaves the rocks and weeds to separate into buckets. I’m pretty sure my wife thinks I’m crazy, but I get satisfaction out of taking a mess and coming out with a bucket of just rocks to add to the landscaping. The process is simple and gives me time to think, and one of the things I’ve been thinking about is this process as a metaphor for what Martin and Brian have been teaching.

Jesus was the ultimate evangelist. He had His discipleship ministry with a small number of people and He had His larger teaching and preaching ministry with the crowds. In Mark 4, he was speaking to a crowd from a boat on the lake about the soils as a metaphor for how his teaching would be received differently by people.

Some would hear and become mature disciples, while others would hear and not produce fruit because of Satan, failure to embrace what they heard, or distraction by the things of life. This last Sunday, Brian moved the thought along to those who embraced the Word and matured as disciples. He used the qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3 as markers of maturity for all Christians.

How did they get to this point? Were they just blessed from the beginning with the circumstances to allow belief and growth? Maybe partially, but they were cultivated. Maturing in faith is a community process. The pastors and leadership are charged with protecting the church, reinforcing the Word first heard, and protecting the hearers from being snatched away or failing to grow.

The rocks have to be removed. Disciple people to put down roots. Remove the rocks of infidelity, anger, drunkenness, and greed and replace them with a love of others and God’s Word.

Weeds are stubborn things. In Jesus’s parable, weeds are the worries of this life that choke out our spiritual growth. Some of them can actually look nice, but they will choke out good plants and take over. It can even seem noble to carry the burdens of others, but we have to guard against letting others’ life choices choke out our own spiritual life. Paul mentioned false teachers and specific individuals in 1 Timothy 1 and talked about distractions in chapter 2. Repeatedly throughout 1 Timothy, he talks about the things that pull us away from the truth and he exhorts Timothy to persevere and counter those who sow discord.

It’s about cultivation. Work the soil and make it a healthy place to grow.

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

1 Timothy 6:11-16

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From One Traveler to Another

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By Brian Sharpe

Have you ever had an “a-ha” moment while at a class or at a conference? I get them, more often than I think I should. I’d like to think it is because I am teachable and not because I need things spelled out for me by someone who gets it more than I do. Martin and I went to Minneapolis to the national office of the Evangelical Free Church (EFCA) a few weeks ago. It was a great time for he and I to meet with other pastors who are trying to lead their churches on a disciple-making journey. It is nice to know that we are involved with other churches that are trying to figure out how to lead this.

It is crazy to think that this journey is a 2,000-year journey and we are still trying to figure it out. You would think by now that we would know better how to make disciples more effectively and efficiently. I guess, in a perfect world, it would be. The reason we are still trying to figure this out is because it is a bunch of fallen human beings leading other fallen human beings on a journey toward the infinite God. The thing that gets in the way is not just how sinful we are, but also the lack of tenacity we have to take this journey with others.

This journey is not an easy one. It is one that is full of twists and turns. The journey is full of unexpected ups and downs. I think one of the main “ups” is success in life. Success is what we search for in life, but I am not sure we understand what success is. Success in our culture means that we make a living wage. We have a nice house. We have kids who will obey. Success is when we are comfortable and potentially happy. I am not sure this is the success that God talks about in the Bible.

Success in the Bible is fully trusting in God for contentment and joy. It is resting in God for your identity. Too often, we find our identity in what we have or what people think of us instead of on what our heavenly Father has said about us. We lose sight of this because of our success or what we feel is success.

For me, how I define success is that I have been faithful to God on this journey toward Him. Success would be that I can point others to Jesus and everyone that I am around would be marked by God through the presence He has in my life. That, to me, is success, and ultimately what I want to pass on to those I invest my life in. Nothing else matters.

Whether in abundance or in want, I want to find my contentment and strength in Christ. I believe that what is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4. From one disciple to another on the same journey toward our Father in Heaven, let’s focus on God’s definition of success — to find our contentment and identity in Him, and not in what the world defines as success.

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Changing Course, Making Disciples

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By Brian Sharpe

Twelve years ago I was sitting in my office and realized that I had no clue how to do my job. My proverbial “bag of tricks” that I entered into ministry with was all used up. What should I teach students? How would I train my leaders? I suddenly realized I had no real idea.

So, sitting there in my office in front of my computer, I began to search for solutions. God directed my attention to the Evangelical Free Church (EFCA) website, and I looked to see what they offered on their student ministries page. They spoke of training for youth pastors. Yes, I thought, I need fresh training.

So I contacted them and asked them about training. What happened next has been one of the most influential events that has occurred in my ministry life.

I received a call from the national director of student ministries for the Evangelical Free Church of America. We set up a training event at Elim, but beyond that, he invited me to work with a team of other youth workers to help further student ministries in the EFCA in our district.

The influence of this team has changed me in more ways than I could never express in this post. It has fanned within me a flame of desire to have others speak into my life. It put me around a table with a whole group of youth workers who had been where I was and had come out on the other side.

The effect this event has had on Elim is significant as well. Not only am I a better leader because of the people I have invited to speak into my life, but I have been challenged to ensure that disciple-making becomes at the core part of what I am about in student ministries, and in turn, what we as a church are about, as well. This focus has produced a lot of conversation among the elders, staff and ministry leaders about how we can focus on disciple-making.

Martin and Nate and I, along with the Elders, have sought to keep disciple-making a focus for us at Elim. This focus gave birth to the diagnostic tool that we are calling the Three Hands of Disciple-Making. This tool helps us evaluate the relationships in our lives, with a focus on who serves as our Pauls, our Timothys and our Barnabases.

As we have gone through this Three Hands process we have discovered that Elim can celebrate a lot of people who are investing as a Paul in others. This has led to the leadership trying to focus on helping our Pauls figure out how to be better Pauls.

We have walked this path of trying to be about disciple-making with some exceptionally helpful people. One was our district superintendent, Bruce Martin. Bruce has helped us on this journey to stay focused on helping develop people’s identity in Christ. Another is Jeff Sorvik. Jeff is leading a network called the Creo Network, which focuses on helping churches live on the mission of disciple-making. In order to be engaged in Creo you have to commit to create and execute a disciple-making vision. We have joined this network and look forward to working this disciple-making vision, not on our own but with other churches.

One of the commitments we have made in joining this network is to be engaged in a cohort group that is focused on building a leadership pipeline. Martin and I are excited to be a part of this cohort and the outcomes that could come from the investment in this cohort.

We value the input of other leaders in this process. As a church we talk about not walking alone, but living this life in community, walking with others. We are trying to model this by joining with our district leadership and inviting them into what goes on at Elim, and with joining the Creo Collective.

We are excited to see what God will do at Elim as we seek to honor Him and focus on being a disciple-making church. Elim exist to be an “oasis for renewal with God and one another.” As an oasis we seek to nurture passionate followers of Jesus. (We define a “disciple” as “a passionate follower of Jesus.”) Our heart as leaders is to nurture that passion in everyone who calls Elim “home.”

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“Three Hands, Three Strands”

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By Larry Short

Associate Pastor Brian Sharpe has created a booklet called “Three Hands,” with the help of others on our communications team. The artwork on the cover is a bit goofy, and I’ve made fun of it a lot (insert comment about living too close to Hanford Nuclear Reservation here), but the foundational idea, while simple, is incredibly important.

The booklet looks at the lives of some of those who were called, in the first century A.D., to “lean into” the task of taking the life-changing gospel (“good news”) of Jesus outward from their home villages and spreading it so that the world might be changed. This obviously took an incredible amount of passion, and conviction, and selflessness, and courage—all gifts brought from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who fell upon Christ’s disciples in Acts 2. Specifically, the booklet looks at the Apostle Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas, three men who made an incredible contribution to the spread of the Gospel. And, more specifically, it looks at the relationships between them and draws some simple ideas from what we see there.

Paul’s mentoring of Timothy was obviously incredibly important. It was far more than the relationship between student and teacher; it was discipleship. Paul frequently said, even as Jesus did, “Those things you see me do, go and do those things.” He modeled what New Testament life was supposed to be about, then encouraged others to follow his model.

And how does Barnabas fit in? One of the key things you see in Acts and beyond is that men such as Paul rarely went out “on their own.” They partnered with someone who could provide strength and encouragement. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says:

And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

The truth is, we are too often alone … and too often, inevitably, overpowered! The Christian life wasn’t designed to be lived alone. It was designed to be lived in partnership with brothers and sisters. Too many Christians in this “cowboy” culture we live in here in the U.S. simply blow off “church.” They don’t need anybody, they can go it alone. But truth be told, our need for others is far more significant than we know. We need that brother and sister who can tell us the truth when we need to hear it or can give words of encouragement when that is what we need. We need others to “stir us up to love and good works,” as Hebrews 10:24 says.

A two-stranded cord is far better than one.

But wait, that’s not what Ecclesiastes says, is it? Oh, of course not! Duh. The third strand represents He who enters into our fellowship and interweaves His life with ours. The Third Strand alone is unbreakable, so any rope with it woven firmly into place is a rope that should surely hold under even the greatest pressure!

So, back to the three hands. On that goofy cover I told you about, one hand is reaching downward, one reaching upward, and one to the side. The hand reaching up reminds us that we all need to have a mentor who can disciple us and prepare us for what God has assigned. Even Paul spent something like three years learning from others and getting prepared for his public ministry.

And we should all be willing to pour what we have learned into others, for our faith is just one generation away from extinction and we must not be the ones who fail to pass it down! The hand reaching down reminds us that we should all have “Timothys” in our lives whom we are pouring ourselves into. We should be showing (with our lives, not just saying with our lips), and we should be working toward a specific goal (as Paul did), to release those we mentor into ministry once they are ready.

And finally, we all need Barnabases. (Barnabi?) I have a close friend in California named John whom I met my first year of college. Our friendship has continued to grow since then, and there has been many a time when we have needed and depended on each other. Often he is a Paul, and I a Timothy; and sometimes it may be the other way around. But always, we are Barnabases, to whatever extent we can be, separated by 1,200 miles!

Brian asks, Who is your Paul? Who is your Timothy? Who is your Barnabas? There are no hard-and-fast rules, and this may be a season when all three relationships are not operating in our lives right now. But we should always be on the lookout for whom God might bring our way. And we must never neglect “the assembling of ourselves together” and simply putting ourselves “out there” in places where we can impact (and be impacted by) the lives of others! Are you allowing God to weave that three-stranded cord in your life?

P.S.: I’m excited about the men’s retreat this weekend! It’s always a wonderful opportunity for men to come together and form dearly needed accountability and discipleship relationships. Please be praying for the men of this church, that we would be transparent, open, vulnerable, and willing to be used of God in whatever ways He sees fit to further our capacity as His Church to bring Him honor and glory and to be the hands and feet of Jesus to South Hill and beyond!

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