The Fruit of Faithfulness

This last Sunday after service Karen and I had a group of friends from the old days of Calvary Chapel (the REALLY old days – the 70’s) over to our house for some great food and even better conversation. A whole group of them had come to Seattle from all across the nation to celebrate old friendships and to catch up on what God is doing in their lives.

I have to admit that, as a pastor, there are few things that encourage me more than to see people that used to be a part of our ministry walking faithfully with God. Since I see my calling as helping people to become more Christ-like and to walk in discipleship for the long haul, it’s especially gratifying when we can look back on more than 30 years of history and hear them say, “Yes, God really used those times to mold and form us. The experience in Calvary Chapel taught us what church life ought to look like.”

Now that I’m “advanced in years” (see my last post), it’s even more surprising to me to think about how much God used our church plant and that he entrusted me with the leadership when I was only in my 20’s! Good grief… I didn’t have the good sense to know how young I really was. It all seemed pretty natural back in those days. We were really just a bunch of kids, trying to DO church and to do it in a way that was authentic in two ways: we wanted to be true to the principles in the Word and true to what God had made us to be.

One of my prayers for my younger pastor friends is that, 30 years from now, they’ll have some of the same kinds of encounters that Karen and I just had. I hope they’ll have the same joy that wells up inside of them as the kids they are ministering to now sit down with them over a good meal, comment on their graying hair, and then say, “I’m praying that our kids who are teenagers now will have someone speak into their lives the way you spoke into mine back then.” When that happens, Tony & Ashli, Shelly, Jadon & Dani, maybe you’ll blog about it. And if I’m still alive and kicking and still walking around Greenlake with my cane, I’ll read your blog and say, “Good for you. That’s the fruit of faithfulness!”