Under Quarantine

“Social distancing” and “flattening the curve” has rocked our world, hasn’t it? I’m no prophet nor the son of a prophet, but the fallout is likely to be much more severe than a cancelled spring break trip to a favorite Florida theme park or no state title games. In our church are those who have already lost their jobs and more who are fearful of how COVID-19 will fundamentally change life as they now know it. As I preached on Sunday, we are not fatalists; we are providentialists. We hope in the Lord.

We’ve lived with communally transmitted diseases all our lives. Remember chickenpox? I contracted chickenpox as a kid, maybe you did too. To relieve the itching my mom coated me with calamine lotion, and I stayed home from school for more than a week. That was 1971. The chickenpox vaccine became available in the United States in 1995. Prior to then, the CDC reports, “in the early 1990s, an average of 4 million people got chickenpox, 10,500 to 13,000 were hospitalized, and 100 to 150 died each year.” But that didn’t stop some parents from doing the unthinkable.

Believe it or not, some moms intentionally exposed their littles to another child who was contagious. For some parents the thinking was, “Let’s get this over with and manage it in a time and way that minimizes the consequences.” If a child contracted chickenpox before school age, she wouldn’t have to miss school and in many cases, the symptoms were less severe. Other parents practiced social-distancing while more practiced self-quarantine.

Chickenpox and the coronavirus are not the same thing, so please do not conclude I’m headed that direction. By all accounts, the virus for COVID-19 is far more serious than the virus for chickenpox.

In the Bible the general name given for a communally transmitted disease was leprosy. In some cases, the disease was deadly while in other cases it was a mild irritation. In all cases leprosy carried significant consequences including social distancing, self-quarantine, mandatory isolation, and loss of the joy of corporate worship.

The gospels record a number of occasions where Jesus interacted with a leper. As you navigate the reality of the coronavirus, you can decide for yourself if there is something pragmatic you should learn from Jesus’s interaction with a diseased person. I just want to express how much Jesus loves us.

In Mark 1 Jesus meets a man with leprosy. Mark records the man came on his knees to Jesus, begging Jesus to heal him. Jesus, of course, heals him by the authority of his word, “‘Be made clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him (1:41-42)”

Between the begging and the healing Mark informs us that Jesus, “Moved with compassion…reached out his hand and touched him.” I wonder, When was the last time that man had been touched by another human being? When was the last time he felt the love of another as flesh pressed against flesh? And I see in our Lord that he knows nothing of social distancing.

John writes about Jesus, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” There is no reason for him to live with us, and there is every reason for him not to come to us. Our sin makes us filthy, diseased, corrupt, vile, repulsive, odorous, and abhorrent. And yet, he comes to us. He becomes one of us. He lives among us, and then he dies for us. And soon he will take us to be with him. Some of us he will take to himself via COVID-19. Others will come to him from old age, congestive heart failure, a stroke, a car accident, or a still birth. But go to him we will because he first came to us.

Jesus loves you, Christian. He has not distanced himself from you in the past. He is not distancing himself from you in the present, and he will not distance himself from you in the future.

None of us knows what is going to happen to our churches, our jobs, our schools, our health, our finances, or our futures. And, yeah, it's more than a little scary and more than a little disruptive to our lives. But we are Christians, and we are loved by Jesus. And we know that whether we live or we die, we are the Lord's.

May you rest in Christ in the crazy times.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay

Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Simple Suggestions for Spiritual Leadership

My whole life pastors have exhorted me and the men around me to be spiritual leaders. As a kid, my home church would host a week of special meetings featuring the preaching of a traveling evangelist. Routinely, Friday night was family night. The preacher would challenge the men to lead “family devotions,” a time of Bible reading where the whole family participated.

My dad tried, he really did, but he was up against serious challenges. His eighth grade education combined with his very limited reading skills made reading the KJV aloud nearly impossible. His kids were in a Christian school where we had chapel five days a week and a Bible class every day. His wife was an elementary teacher in a Christian school. When it came to Bible knowledge, he was low man in the order. My memory is that my dad’s attempts to lead a Bible reading time lasted one or two days.

While I strongly encourage a man leading his family in Bible reading, that is not and should not be his only act of spiritual leadership. Here are a few simple acts for spiritual leadership.

Promote Prayer

There may not be anything more impactful that a man can do for his family, his friends, or his church than to pray for them. Consider praying at a set time each day, like on your way to or from work, over lunch, or at a morning break. You might pray impulsively when a child’s name comes to mind or your wife’s image flashes across your eyes. Pray when you are away from your family, and pray when you are with your family. Do not underestimate the impact on your children of them hearing you pray by name for them.

A great time to pray is right before they get out of the minivan when you are dropping them off at practice, rehearsal, a school or church event, at grandma’s house, or a friend’s party. Before the door opens, just say, “Let’s pray before you leave.” Then, pray for the child before she bounces away, asking for God’s protection and blessing on your little girl.

Grandpas (my bro’s in the club), here’s a great way for you to impact your grands. When you’re helping out by picking up the kids and taking them somewhere or bringing them home, let them here you pray for them. You’re the patriarchal Christian in the family. They will love that you pray for and with them. Do this enough and soon they will say to you, “Grandpa, would you pray for me? I need God in a big way.” What Christian grandpa wouldn’t smile at that request?

Resolve Conflict in Your Home

My marriage has conflicts because my marriage is made up of two sinful, selfish people. The same goes for my home. Most days require conflict resolution. The Bible tells me how to resolve conflict. Spiritual leadership takes the first steps to resolve conflict. Spiritual leadership doesn’t wait for others to resolve conflict with me. Spiritual leadership doesn’t put off on a spouse resolving conflict between children. Spiritual leadership works to bring resolution to conflicts that reflects God’s initiation of conflict with us.

Answer And Ask Questions

It was an awkward moment that I remember all too well. I was 11 or 12 and heard a sexual word at my school, a word that I didn’t know its meaning. I arrived home from school before my dad and was sitting in the living room watching after school television. My dad came in, and I dropped the bomb on the poor man who just wanted to rest from a long day of turning wrenches on heavy equipment.

“Dad, what does ‘a!G3@h%>’ mean?”

My question sucked all the oxygen from the room. To this day I recall my dad’s three-word answer. I learned there were some subjects about which I was not supposed to ask any questions, sex being one of them. When we don’t answer the questions our wives and kids ask of us, we teach them to live independently of us. They will find leadership in other places, and don’t be surprised when they decide you can’t help them with their problems.

Make Sunday a Great Day

Who is the most excited in your family about Sunday? Is it you, the spiritual leader? This is the day you get to bring your family to be part of a group that gets to meet God. What is better than that?

To make Sunday a great day, practice the principle Sunday morning begins Saturday night. Help with the baths. Get the Sunday morning clothes out before the kisses that end the day. Saturday night, find the shoes, coat, hat, and Bible that always seem to be missing when it’s time to load up the SUV.

Make the ride to the church building a great experience. Sing our songs, the ones your kids know, and sing them again and again. Make the ride the launch for your family’s worship. Then, before you empty the van, pray out loud for your family as you head in to the church building.

And one more thing, smile! This is Sunday, the day when we rest from our labors and receive from our God. Smile when you see your family first thing in the morning. Smile when you see them load up in the minivan. Smile when you buckle them in. Smile when you take them to their Sunday School class. You just dropped your kid off in a place where they will hear about Jesus. Smile when your family sits around you in worship. Smile when you leave the building after worship. Smile when you see your family together again having met with God. Show your family how happy you are for what all of you have received from God.

One last thought - it’s not too late to start. Maybe you’ve got some serious ground to recover. Maybe you haven’t been the spiritual leader your family, friends, or your church needs, but you can make up lost ground. By God’s grace you can be a spiritual leader. You can point people toward God, what a spiritual leader does.

We are in this together. You pray for me, and I will pray for you.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay

Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Game Is Over

Some people complain about how long the last minutes of a basketball game can take. At the high school level, one team can have as many as five timeouts remaining over the last minutes on the clock. When we are behind, coaches do everything they can to prolong the game. Timeouts make that possible. But, I’m out of timeouts. The game is over.

Last Saturday concluded my 32nd season on the sideline coaching basketball in some capacity, and with that I am retiring from the game. I tipped off my coaching career as a graduate student at the equivalent of the club level on the college campus coaching my own peers. The next season, an administrator gave a 23-year-old a chance to be a head coach of a small Christian school in southern Illinois. Later in Michigan, a coaching friend and I started a summer basketball camp now into it's 28th season. Most recently, I’ve spent the last 18 seasons at Simley High School, our local public school.

For many, joining a sport has a family connection, not so for me. My dad was a car guy not a ball guy. He could fix anything, but he couldn’t throw, run, jump, or shoot, like Not. At. All.

I have no older brothers and my uncles were into baseball, so I was into baseball. I don’t remember even touching a basketball before seventh grade. My size didn’t help. I was little, as in Tiny Tim little. In the ninth grade, I wrestled an exhibition weight class…85 pounds. A broken bone during the fall soccer season kept me out of wrestling, so I tried out for the basketball team. They must have been desperate because they kept me. As they say, the rest is history.

My playing career was nothing spectacular. I had decent athleticism, but not very big also meant not very good. Plus I was way behind in skill development. It’s why I’m probably a better player today at 54 than I was at 17. What was lacking in skill was overcome with an understanding and love for the game.

Over the years, I’ve won a lot and lost a lot, played against and with high level players, and matched wits with some outstanding coaches, sometimes getting the best of them and other times being taught a lesson by better coaches. I’ve played on dirt, gravel, grass, and carpet, had my shot swatted on the asphalt of Chicago streets, been dunked on in hot gyms and on the playgrounds of St. Louis, been called Michael Jordan while playing against diminutive Filipinos while on a missions trip, and have tried to explain the idea of traveling, double dribble, and fouls to Indian nationals who, during play, conveniently didn’t understand English.

The game has given so much to me. My older son, Michael, was a gym rat from his youngest days. Jeffery grew into a player and competed in the Minnesota State Basketball Tournament. Both Jennifer and Emily were mangers for our boys’ teams which gave me time with them on bus trips to away games. The minivan rides to and from practice and before and after games provided opportunities for daily conversations that shaped in part the adults they are today. And Brenda has been a team mom whether or not she had players on the team. I suspect she has made thousands and thousands of cookies and brownies for guys to consume after a hard fought contest.

More than individual games or spectacular plays, I remember relationships. Hundreds of players call me coach. During and after their playing days, I’ve counseled scores of players and influenced many as they’ve grown into men. Dozens of coaches are my friends and many of them have welcomed me into their lives on very personal matters. Players, parents, and coaches all know what my real job is, and God has opened so many doors to share hope with them that comes from Jesus Christ. It’s just a great game that I’ve loved for 40 years.

It hasn’t all been fun. There were three ACL reconstructions and some humiliating moments. I vividly remember my first technical foul my initial year as a head coach. It happened on our home court in front of all our fans, teachers, and administration. I remember the bad call and my worse reaction. I was so embarrassed at getting T’d up that I slipped out the back door of the gym avoiding all the parents and what I was sure would be the disapproving glares of the faculty. You’ll be glad to know I did not receive a technical foul in my final season.

If the game has given me so much, why am I calling it quits? Well, the decision was not entirely mine. For the previous 17 seasons at Simley High School, I coached with the same head coach. For personal reasons he had to step down from his position a month before the season began, a decision I fully supported and encouraged. I chose not to pursue the head coach position at our school. The responsibilities of that job just don’t fit with my real job.

Coaching is about relationships, relationships with players, parents, administrators, and fellow coaches. When a new head coach takes leadership of a team, he rarely keeps on his staff coaches from the previous staff. He has his own people with whom he is comfortable. That meant I was out, unless I was willing to coach a group of first year players. I agreed, but within a few weeks of the season, I knew this season would be my last. My coaching career was coming to a close.

This is not how I thought my connection to the game would end. Actually, I’m not certain I’ve given any thought to how it would end. What I know is I didn’t get to determine how it would end. That’s true in much of life. Professional careers end when companies downsize. Marriages end when terminal disease strikes. Friendships cease when one or the other moves away. And on and on the examples go.

We have these moments given to us by God. We have these skills and passions knit into our DNA by our Creator. Yours are different than mine, and mine are different than yours. Some cook, others draw, a few make music, some turn wrenches, others write, and a handful run, jump, skate, shoot, pass, tumble, and swing. Each of the skills was uniquely implanted by the Designer. We are charged to use our skills in the time allotted to us, “redeeming the time” as Paul instructs (Eph. 5:16). When we do, we glorify God and contribute to his creation as image bearers (1 Cor. 10:31). Our charge is to live faithful to God today, maximizing today every opportunity he puts before us to use our God given skills to make much of the creator.

There’s more to say about the game I love, but the clock shows nothing but zeroes. May God grant me grace to identify the next role he would have me play.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay

Pastor for Preaching & Vision

At Some Point We Need to Move Beyond Training Wheels

I suppose they’re out there, but I haven’t met one – a kid who doesn’t like to ride a bike.

Most of us started out the same way. As little tykes we got a hand-me-down from a big brother or sister or maybe there was a present under the Christmas tree or at a five-year-old’s birthday party. And with some exceptions, we all started out with training wheels. The training wheels made riding the bike possible, but no ten-year-old showed off his cool training wheels to the other kids in the neighborhood. Like when a sixteen-year-old gets his driver’s license, a kid loves the day the training wheels come off.

While training wheels allow a little kid to do what he otherwise could not, training wheels prevent a bigger kid from doing what he could. From extreme riders to Tour de France competitors to middle age men getting back in shape, none of them could ride with any measure of success if training wheels were a necessary part.

Further still, while training wheels get a little one on a bike, does anyone really view riding with training wheels as an accomplishment? When the training wheels come off, so much more can happen.

TRAINING WHEELS AND THE GOSPEL

In a similar way event evangelism is the gospel with training wheels. Holiday concerts, wild game dinners, Vacation Bible School, and a week of meetings with a traveling evangelist all serve Christians in local churches to assist them in the proclamation of the gospel. Event evangelism gets us on the bike.

Event evangelism can be the easiest form for making disciples, as simple as extending an invitation, Our church is having a concert this Wednesday night at 6:30. Can you come with me? It can’t get much easier than that, kind of like riding a bike with training wheels – just get on the bike and start pedaling. There’s not much else required.

Great things can happen from these invitations. People come at your invitation, hear the gospel, and believe. When we get to heaven, we will meet untold numbers of those who came to faith because they attended an event where they heard the gospel. When these events come around, we should take advantage of the easy gospel opportunity. If, however, we rely on events to communicate the gospel, then like a big kid still using training wheels, we will miss out on so much more that could happen.

A GOSPEL CULTURE

We are trying to develop a gospel culture in our church. We use events to help us and are thankful for every opportunity they bring, but we cannot be dependent on events to communicate the gospel to our families and friends like a little kid depends on his training wheels to ride his bike. We want the language of the gospel to be a part of our everyday conversations, “woven in” as someone recently stated. This is the pattern of the New Testament.

While Jesus preached to great masses, individual conversations with Zacchaeus, Matthew, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene and so many more were the way they came to faith. The same was true for Paul as he told the gospel to his jailors and to Onesimus.

TRUST THE GOSPEL

The Bible says the gospel is the power of God to salvation. Too often we mistakenly think we will mess up if we talk about Jesus. That’s a lie from the devil. The power that brings salvation is not in our capacity to deliver the message but in the message itself. Just trust God that His gospel is powerful. Tell people you want them to go to heaven, and tell them about Jesus. Leave the results with God.

When a church becomes a community of believers engaged in gospel conversations and not only a place for gospel events, that church will see so much more happen in the making of disciples. 

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay

Pastor for Preaching & Vision

When A Church Prays Together

No New Testament book references prayer more than the book of Acts. To be fair, Acts is longer than almost every other book and covers thirty years of early church life, so you might expect it to have more of one thing or another.

It’s trendy to read in the latest church how-to book or hear a national speaker call for a return to a “first century church” model. If the call is a return to corporate prayer, I say, “Amen!”

Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

As the years pass chapter after chapter, the practice at the beginning of Acts continues. From city to city the prayers of God’s people deliver the apostles from captivity, introduce the gospel to new frontiers, and support those whose labor is the preaching of God’s Word. A common feature in the prayer references in Acts is the corporate nature of prayer, that is, Christians praying together with other Christians.

When Do You Pray Together with Other Christians?

At First Calvary Baptist Church, we use the phrase, “Christianity is always personal but never private.” By that we mean while each of us comes to Christ individually, none of us lives the Christian life individually, and that includes our time in prayer. Reading beyond the pages of Acts to the rest of the New Testament, the common assumption is that Christians pray together. When do you pray together with other Christians?

In our church we emphasize corporate prayer in multiple venues. In our Sunday morning worship we spend a significant amount of time in corporate prayer. At the start of worship, we all bow in silent prayer before God asking for his blessing on our worship and his ministering to his people in our worship. Midway through our worship we pray together as a pastor or other mature man in our congregation leads us before God where we praise, confess, and ask together. At the close of our worship, we pray together in response to the Word of God we received together.

On Wednesday evenings a group of people gather together for prayer, remembering our ministries, our missionaries, and the people of our church.

On any given night of the week, one or more small groups meet and a significant component of their meeting is corporate prayer. One of the most valuable aspects of a small group may be their connecting with each other through corporate prayer and their conversing together with God in prayer.

On various days throughout the year, we will gather for 12-Hour Prayer Meetings or something similar.

Everyone agrees the New Testament teaches that Christians pray. Beyond that, we can make a strong argument that the New Testament teaches that Christians pray together. If you do not or cannot pray together with others on Wednesday night or in a weekly small group meeting, the onus is on you to find a way to pray together with other Christians. For good reasons if you miss a prayer meeting or your small group meeting, then determine to initiate corporate prayer with another Christian.

Why Is Corporate Prayer Important?

• When you pray together with other Christians, you become more keenly aware of the needs, burdens, and challenges other Christians carry.

• When you pray together with other Christians, you take your eyes off self and set aside a “woe is me” mentality as you discover others have trials not all that different from yours.

• When you pray together with other Christians, you fight against disunity in the church and promote unity among followers of Jesus Christ.

• When you pray together with other Christians, you encourage a weaker sister by your approach to God on her behalf.

• When you pray together, you remind other Christians that problems are not too big for God and that God is the solution not self.

• When you pray together with other Christians, you prompt in another Christian the truth that Christianity is always personal but never private.

I want our church to become a healthier body. I want our church to experience the blessings of God like what we read in the book of Acts. I want our church to be more effective in our gospel outreach. I want our marriages to grow stronger, our children to believe the gospel, the preaching in our pulpit to be powerful, and the relationships in our church to be wholesome. I’m sure you want all of this too. No church, including ours, will experience the reality of any of these apart from corporate prayer. Let’ s make it happen.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay

Pastor for Preaching & Vision