American Missionary Fellowship

Saturday, RobAnne and I dropped off our daughter, Barrett, for her second year at Westmont College. It sure feels different dropping off your student for her second year compared to the first year! All the doubts and fears about whether she would fit in or whether this was the right school were gone, as she moved in with two marvelous young women for the first semester.

RobAnne and I met at Westmont, and the dorm Barrett moved into was the dorm where RobAnne lived when I first began to date her. It brought back a lot of great memories.

I preach a lot in different churches, camps, and events. Most of my life I’ve made a living speaking. I’ve seen a lot of churches, a lot of different expressions of our faith. Sunday morning I was preaching at our own home church on Samuel’s anointing of David.

One of the things that bothers me as I travel around the country talking to missionaries is the idea that we do not need to have a home church. I’m not talking about having a home supporting church. I’m talking about a church that you go to, a group of believers you connect to, a group of Christ-followers who voluntarily agree to work together to see the kingdom expanded.

Last week, I got to spend two and a half hours with Ron Cline at the headquarters of HCJB in Colorado Springs. It was like old times. I had about forty questions that I wanted to ask him, as he has led a large mission organization. I wanted to talk to him about missionary care, deputation, intergenerational ministries, and cross-cultural ministries.

I had all kinds of questions to learn as much as I could during my time with Ron, but I walked away with just one thing.

Capernwray Hall is an old manor house. It’s a lot of work to keep it up, and they make new improvements every year – a new dining room, new paint, a new garden. This year they surprised me with a brand-new speaker’s room.

The old speaker’s room was on the second floor. It was crowded, small, and in need of some work, but it was functional. There were a desk and a chair in the room that allowed the lecturer to study during the day. The problem was the chair was enormously uncomfortable. It was an old chair that was soft where it should be hard and hard where it should be soft. Quite frankly, every year it gave me a backache. Most of the time I would lie on the bed or sit on the floor to study because it was just more comfortable than the old, green chair.

When I arrived in the new speaker’s room, freshly painted with a new bathroom and new curtains, right off the courtyard, it was very well done . . . except for one thing: the green chair is still here.