The Cabin and the Gift Basket: a Thanksgiving Reflection

 About a decade ago, a very kind lady in our church heard that I was struggling to find time to finish my  Masters thesis in the midst of juggling ministry and family. She approached me and told me that her father pastored a church about an hour away from us that had a small cabin on the property. She said she had asked him if I could come up to study and write for a couple of days a month, and that he was happy to provide the cabin to me free of charge. The cabin was in Lake Gregory, a quaint little alpine town with a picturesque lake in the San Bernardino mountains.

To say I was grateful would be an understatement. I was overwhelmed by her thoughtfulness, her father's kindness and the church's generosity. For a few years, once a month, I would drive up to that cabin on a Thursday afternoon, spend the night, work through my day off on Friday and drive back in the evening to be with my family and church for the weekend. The cabin was a gift of predictable solitude. I would pray and sing on the drive  up and down the mountain. It wasn't just productive. It was life giving. Although it was a working retreat, I would look forward to that monthly pilgrimage up the mountain to that cozy little cabin. I'd always make a point of stopping by the church office to pick up the key and express sincere gratitude for this wonderful gift.

As if this were not gift enough, there would always be a gift basket on the kitchen table when I unlocked the cabin. The basket would have all manner of little treats in it; coffee, soda, gum, candy, chocolate. It was a most unexpected surprise to find that this church had not only given me the use of their cabin, but had thoughtfully considered how to make my stay even more comfortable with this gift basket. Over the months on the drive up to the cabin I would find myself anticipating that gift basket, wondering what they had put in it this time. To be honest, as the months past by, I began to think more about the gift basket than the gift of the cabin. I'd arrive, collect the key from the office and make a bee line to the kitchen table to see what was in the basket this time around.

Eventually, the day arrived when the inevitable happened. I collected the key from the church office and upon opening the cabin, I discovered, to my dismay, that they had forgotten to give me a gift basket. I searched the cabin high and low but my gift basket was nowhere to be found. I felt disappointed. Sadly, even a bit sorry for myself. 

After some time, self pity made way for conviction. I had become ungrateful and entitled. There I was, sitting in a comfortable, warm, free cabin, feeling sorry for myself that I did not have my little gift basket. I had forgotten the enormous gift of shelter, comfort and peace in my fixation with a passing caffeine and sugar rush! I sensed God speak to me in the moment about how the cabin and the gift basket revealed a broader pattern of ingratitude in my heart. I tended to fixate on His sweet, temporary blessings, taking for granted His immovable blessings toward me in Christ. His salvation, His grace, His presence, His Word and His people were something that I so easily took for granted. And yet, they were by far the more enduring gift. The gift basket of material possessions, ministry success, new adventures, physical health and pleasure were all common graces, but they were fleeting at best. I had become forgetful of the Lord's great benefits and fickle in my gratitude.  

I love Thanksgiving as a holiday. I love the traditions of turkey recipe swapping and tables laden with green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and pecan pie. I love settling in to watch the football feeling stuffed after the meal, enjoying a lazy afternoon with family and friends with nothing more on the agenda than perhaps a second helping of pecan pie. I love that we take time to go around the table to express gratitude for God's provision. That's how Thanksgiving originated, after all. But I'm also aware of the irony that Thanksgiving morphs very quickly into Black Friday. One moment we're expressing  gratitude for all that we have and the next we are rushing to the nearest mall or laptop to get the best deal on what we simply cannot live without. Discontentment crouches at the door of Thanksgiving. 

So, at this time of year I use the cabin and the gift basket lesson as a kind of Thanksgiving audit of my soul. I will begin by giving thanks to God for the gift basket:  For the common graces of where we live, the food on the table, the money in our bank account, the roof over our heads, the health in my body. I thank God for his ministry blessings and the new adventures I've enjoyed. I thank God for the rich gift of marriage, family and friendship in our lives.( To place these precious relational blessings on the same level as financial blessing would be foolish, but my point is that none off these blessings are guaranteed to be permanent.) Then I thank God for the cabin of His immovable blessings in Christ; His gospel of grace, His Word and His Spirit, His family and His kingdom. While I am thankful for both gift basket and cabin, I try to ensure that my joy is anchored in the immovable cabin rather than the movable gift basket. When I do this it helps me to avoid self pity when the gift basket seems less full or even absent. (That family member I wish was at the table with us, but is not. That check I am waiting for that has not arrived. That purchase I am wanting to make but cannot afford) Giving thanks for the cabin helps me avoid fixation with the gift basket. 

So, I commend this audit to you at Thanksgiving, both for your joy and God's honor. May Jesus shape in us a powerful posture of gratitude that rejoices in the Thanksgiving tradition, but endures beyond it.  

"Thanks be to God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." (Ephesian 1:3 )

Happy Thanksgiving! 

No Longer Children: reflections on a decade of church planting

Branded on the leather key chain to the keys of my 2008 Ford F150 are the words "Southlands: A Gospel Constellation." It speaks of our multiplying vision. We are not trying to grow to be one giant planet of a church. Instead, we want to be a constellation of churches shining the light of the gospel into the darkness of this world. 

My truck is as old as my American sojourn. In 2008, we joined a church that had multiplied 12 times in 14 years. Southlands was a bit like my old truck. Sturdy, willing, productive but showing some signs of wear and tear. She was a medium sized church -  about 500 people, which is remarkable really, when you think that only 1% of American churches under 1000 ever plant churches. She was the little engine that could.  

When the apostle Paul described a mature church in his letter to the Ephesians, he seemed to mix his metaphors with ships and children. 'Then we will no longer be children, tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine." What he seemed to be driving at, was that stability is a mark of maturity. A mature church has  enough ballast in its boat to navigate through the storms of heresy and theological faddishness without getting blown over, whereas an immature church is easily blown off course, or pushed over like a little toddler trying to stand in the ocean. 

What is true of doctrinal maturity, is also true of missional maturity in a church. One may need to navigate different seasons and weather conditions, but mature churches can hold their course against rip tides and cross winds, tacking along until the tides turn and the winds are at their back. There was a year that we somehow made it into Christian Leadership magazine for being one of the top 100 multiplying churches in the nation, but honestly, much of the time we have flown beneath the radar, and our journey has been a bit like that of the missionary William Carey who said, "My only genius is I plod."

By God's grace we have multiplied 8 times in the last 11 years and are preparing to plant again next year. One of those churches was folded back into the base at Brea during the pandemic, having lost its venue and many of its people due to the strange socio-economic dynamics of that time. But all of the others have grown in health and strength, some steadily, some slowly and a couple more rapidly. What makes me most joyful is that one church has already planted another two churches amongst unreached people groups in Thailand. I heard about one of our plants that is around 150 in size that baptized 11 people last Sunday. This is the dream. This is the why of church planting. Ultimately it is not about pins on a map. We plant new churches because we believe that they are the most effective way of fulfilling the Great Commission. As Ed Stetzer, a prominent missiologist and president of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism once said, "In winning new converts to Christ, church plants are light-years ahead of the average church because of their focus on reaching the unchurched. Healthy new churches have an outward focus from day one, communicating every month that the goal is to be a multiplying church.” (He is now the Dean of Talbot Seminary)

Another benefit of multiplication is that it creates a healthy vortex that draws spectator Christians out of the stands and on to the field of play as active disciples. This is true of leadership, volunteerism, generosity and prayer. In multiplication, the saints are equipped to do the work of ministry with a greater sense of urgency because multiplication creates a crisis of need. Larger churches that meet in one place tend to gather a larger crowd of consumers  who assume that the work of ministry will be done by professionals. This is true of smaller churches too, who can assume that it is only larger churches that will multiply. This is why I wrote Broken for Blessing  (Broken-Blessing) about the underrated potential of the medium sized multiply church. 

One of the tensions we've had to manage as we've matured into multiplication, is what I refer to as managing home and away game wins. Until 2010 we were like a team that won its away games but lost many of its home games. We had to push pause on planting for three years to regain home game wins - like financial and leadership health and seeing new disciples come to Christ regularly in our own zip code. Still today, more than ten years later, we are trying to find a sustainable rhythm of multiplying that enables the sending base to thrive, not just survive. That can be tricky, but we remain convinced, that like the boy with the loaves and fish in the feeding of the 5000, Jesus is asking us to put our loaves and fishes  in his hand to be broken, blessed and multiplied. He is able to multiply what we give him to feed the hungry multitudes with His life, and is able to replenish what we entrust to Him in good time. 

But the question remains, to every disciple and every church, "What will you do when Jesus asks you for your lunch?" When we respond willingly, we are caught up in His stunning multiplying miracle. 

A Fresh Commissioning

 I am so grateful to God and to Southlands for the gift of a sabbatical once every 7 years. This is our second sabbatical, and it is a chance to visit family in South Africa, reconnect as a family and lean in to slower rhythms of grace for God's refreshing and fortifying before the next season of life and ministry. 

The start of this sabbatical brings with it a convergence of change for us as a church and for us as a couple. I would describe this convergence of change as a season of fresh commissioning. 

How so?

First, this month we moved from One Church Multiple Congregations, to A Family of Churches. For ten years we have been planting Southlands congregations with Brea carrying a central burden of finance and administration. This has enabled congregations to get up and running without being weighed down by too many administrative details.  Now, both Southlands Chino and Southlands Santa Ana have experienced sufficient growth and strength to be able to carry their own administrative and financial responsibilities. So, from here on, we will be able to maintain meaningful rhythms of togetherness such as prayer, fasting, worship, leadership training and church planting, while giving full autonomy to these Southlands churches. It is like the training wheels are coming off each bicycle, and I believe we will all ride faster because of it, while continuing to ride together.  So, we celebrate a fresh commissioning for our Southlands family of churches. 

Personally, Rynelle and I have also experienced a fresh commissioning, having been asked to lead the Advance Global team. We have led as part of this remarkably gifted team for around 8 years, and it is an honor to provide a catalytic, collaborative leadership role to men and women of such great capacity and integrity.  To be clear, we have not been asked to lead the movement, but rather to lead the team that leads the movement. Advance is a family of around 150 churches on a mission to plant and strengthen churches into over 20 nations around the world currently. Our team has experienced God's enlargement, peace and joy in this leadership transition, and we are so grateful to have been helped by our broader partnership with New Frontiers. We are beginning to witness real momentum and gospel opportunity as we emerge into a season of greater clarity as a movement. 

I will continue to provide visionary leadership to Southlands and will continue to lead the team of elders,  but this is also a moment of fresh commissioning for our Southlands leaders to step into greater roles of responsibility and authority. I want to ask you to give them your full support as we all follow Jesus, our Chief Shepherd. We are in a season of God's life and growth and I am confident that Jesus does not want that to slow down because of our new role in Advance. I believe it is a moment of fresh commissioning for all of us in the Southlands family as we embrace God's call on us to be a resourcing church for a global movement.

Ryan TermosHuizen had this word for us that frames our season well, I believe.

"The name Southlands is about a people, but not about the boundaries of your mission. You will be enlarged to reach the highlands and the lowlands, the inlands and the coastlands. North, South, East and West freshly impacted. There will be an increase of people coming in for seasons of healing and learning. There will be fresh growth and generosity for the nations to be well served. I think of swimmers whose lungs are freshly filled with capacity for fresh air for a new race. God wants to fill you with fresh capacity for fresh wind for a fresh race." 

Southlands, let's inhale the life of God's Spirit deeply, so that Jesus enlarges our capacity as a people commissioned to see the gospel take root and bear fruit all over the world.