the very best wine

As I have assumed the Executive Director role at the Lighthouse www.lighthousekc.org
I have been drawn toward the story of Jesus recounted in John’s Gospel, chapter 2. In this story our Lord turns water into the very best wine. He chooses to accomplish this task by asking the servants to fill several large jars with water. John records that the servants filled the jars “to the brim” and then He turned the water into wine. The effort of the servants was needful, but not sufficient. In addition, their commitment to fill them to the brim made possible all the more wine for all to enjoy. Our (my) labor and obedience is needful for this ministry, but it is not sufficient. Only the divine intervention of Christ will turn our labor into “fine wine.” This ministry requires much of its leaders, volunteer, partners and donors all of which is needful, but without the Spirit of God it is not sufficient. I can say without reservation that on numerous occasions in recent weeks I have witness diligent, committed labor and giving by our Lighthouse family, and time after time I have seen the very hand of God respond to that commitment and pour out His blessing on this ministry.

It has been my privilege to serve in a variety of ministry settings over the past 25 years, but none compare to the urgency and uniqueness that is the Lighthouse. Yesterday I picked up the phone here in the office, the caller was leader from a teen shelter. She said she had a 15 year old girl at the shelter that was pregnant and she had no place to go, no one in her family would take care of her. After I explained the nature of our ministry and our willingness to reach out to this young lady, the caller was so impressed by the compassion and scope of our ministry, she asks if she could get a job with us.

Twice in recent weeks we had an opportunity to minister to two young ladies who were instructed by their parent to get an abortion, or don’t come home. Because of your passion for life realized by your commitment to this ministry, there is a place for young ladies with no where else to go. There is a place for that precious new life to be loving received. Because of your sacrificial work and the blessing of God – there is truly a Light House for those who need shelter from the storm.

Our expenses at the Light House, just like yours have increased in recent months. Gas, utilities, food, insurance all cost more today than a year ago. The need is great and it is growing. There are so many young ladies who have no where to go, there are so many precious little babies who need your help…for these little ones it truly is a matter of life and death. Ask God what He would have you do, be like the servants in John chapter 2, bring in the “water” and let God perform a miracle. To put it plainly...if God moves your heart..don't miss out on the miracle, give and I promise it will be used to directly impact the life of a young lady and her newborn baby, meeting their physical needs at the same time communicating to her the truth of the Gospel

I see the light!

2008 marks my 30th year of church planting. As a college freshman in 1978 I was called to become the first pastor of a brand new church (split) in Liberty, MO. We met in a storefront above a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner office. Since that time I have had the unbelievable privilege of planting a dozen churches and serving as a church planting leader Nationally, Statewide and most recently locally in the Blue River-Kansas City Baptist Association.


I have had the incredible excitement of being around hundreds of church plants in these 30 years and hanging out with some awesome leaders like Peck Lindsay, Charles Channey and Paul Johnson.


By all accounts it appeared that my remaining years on this earth would be focused on church planting. My DOAM retired at the end of 2007 and I had submitted my resume to the Associational search committee. Many of you, my closes friends had provided letters of encouragement to me and recommendations to the committee. I was really blessed by your support.


Recently I picked up a book at the suggestion of the new President of the North American Mission Board, Geoff Hammond. While hearing Hammond speak to a group of us a few months ago he remarked that a book by Erwin McManus had impacted his life in a big way. That book was "Chasing Daylight'


I quickly found the book (go out and buy it today!) and began to read it, and then share some of its insights in my sermons at Wornall Road. (I have been working for two years to replant an urban church called Wornall Road, and I am having a blast! God has shown up among us and the last two years have been amazing)


As I am reading a preaching the topics in this book, God is revealing much about Himself to me and much about my life to me as well. McManus concludes that sometimes the very blessing of life became a hindrance to living a life of faith. In other words the more we are blessed with, the more we risk losing when God calls us to an uncertain future. McManus reminds us that we often require provision as a basis for vision, when in fact the scripture makes it clear that vision proceeds provision. McManus unpacks these truths in the context of the story of Jonathon and Saul found in I Samuel chapters 13 and 14. As you recall the Philistines were causing trouble as Saul was camped out under a pomegranate tree with his army of 600 Saul was afraid to move, he was afraid to loose his army. Meanwhile, his son Jonathan instructed his armor barer to go with him to fight the philistines because God may give them the victory….and off the two of them went, headlong into an uncertain future, but moving directly into the will of God. Too often churches and leaders are so concerned with “holding on” to what we have that we fail to see the opportunity that lies before us in the risk of the journey. You can listen to the sermon (shameless plug) on this topic on the Wornall Road website at www.wornallroad.org, go the audio archive and the title is “an uncertain journey” dated November 11. Little did I realize the impact of that sermon on my own life.

I told you this book was having a profound effect on my life…really profound. I had always assumed that in one way or another my future was here, serving in the Blue River Kansas City Association. I assumed that my future was as a church planting leader, as catalytic missionary or as director of missions. After all God had blessed me with a secure position surrounded by people who loved me and affirmed my ministry. In these past days as I read this book and focused on the Biblical text contained in it I became aware that God had some task for me far outside of my comfort zone. I began to understand that God was calling me to leave a secure and certain future and follow Him with the same abandon that I did 30 years ago as an 18 year old church planter (with very little to lose I might add).

To that end, in recent days God has made it clear to me that it is His plan for my life to leave my work here in our Association in order that I might accept the invitation from the Light house ministry here in Kansas City to serve as their next Executive Director.

The Light house is one of the largest and oldest ministries to mothers and their babies in this region. Among other things, the Light house provides a residential home for teenage girls facing an unplanned pregnancy, they have assisted in more than 1000 births of babies and as a state licensed adoption agency they have placed more than 300 babies in adoptive homes. The Lighthouse also provides parenting skill training for new parents as well as abstinence programs throughout our community. The Light house exists to provide hope and life in the name of Jesus.

The Light house has a staff or more than 20 people and a residential home in the Hyde Park area of Kansas City. It seems to be a risk for Jill and me to move into this new and demanding ministry role, but we are certain it is exactly where God wants us to serve.

I will still be available to preach, lead conferences and do some consultation with churches and leaders on issues of church revitalization and church planting. Contact me if I can assist you or your church in any way. And of course, I would welcome the chance to share with you how your church could be involved in the life saving ministry that is the Light house.

I have never been more thrilled and terrified about a ministry in all of my life! Just as when Jill and I moved to Canada 8 years ago, we know this is a risk....but we embrace it to the max!

I have seen the light! and the Lighthouse is my new calling.

It's been a long, a long time coming - sam cooke

I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church in the 1960's in a small county seat town. The issue of race relations, or more to the point the issue of civil rights was something we watched on TV, it seemed far removed from our everyday small town life. It was not until Dr. King put a prophetic voice to the cause and it was not until the TV images of fire hoses and beatings of black men and women were broadcast into our homes that we began to realize the true nature of racism in this land, or perhaps more to the point, we could no longer deny its brutal existence. There were a few pioneers in those days, white evangelicals who marched with the civil rights leaders working for a just cause. There were certainly those in the old Home Mission Board of the SBC in the 1960's who worked for change, many of them risking their own "careers" in the process....but by and large the majority of white Southern Baptist came to this issue with too little too late. Today, things are changing. I am the Associate Director of Missions for a metropolitan Association of 130 Baptist churches in the greater Kansas City area. Of those 130 churches, more than 20 are predominantly black. This past year our Association elected a black pastor to serve as its moderator. Still, there is much that needs to be done, but more about that in a latter article. For now just read this words by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and let the truth of these words sink into your heart, as they did mine.

Judge Thomas said:

“It seemed self-evident ... that the treatment of blacks in America cried out for the unequivocal condemnation of a righteous institution that proclaimed the inherent equality of all men. Yet the Church remained silent, and its silence haunted me. I have often thought that my life might well have followed a different route had the Church been as adamant about ending racism then as it is about ending abortion now.”


-- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who attended but dropped out of Catholic seminary, writing in his new memoir, “My Grandfather's Son.” He was quoted by The Washington Post.