Brett Morey

Every Wednesday night I take my children home from church while my wife is at choir rehearsal. As I drove them home last night my 4 year old daughter asked to hold my iphone to play a preshool game that I had downloaded for her.

She played the game and then handed it to her 2 year old brother. In that moment it hit me that I had placed my $300 phone into the hands of a 4 year old and was now in the hands of a 2 year old. What if they dropped it or broke it?

That’s when the most profound thought came to mind. God has left his jewel called the gospel in the hands of spiritual children.

What if we drop it or break it?
What if we scratch it or gum it up?

My kids had no concept of the value of the phone they held. Do we understand the value of what God has handed us?

A couple days ago I was talking to someone about the numerous teens that have made made professions of faith through recent FCA events. I’m don’t know what the total number is but over 300 kids have committed their lives to Jesus in the past 3 weeks.

I have a lot of respect for the man I was talking to and that is why I was kind of taken back by his reply. He asked this question: “How will they disciple them?” It was a good question but the tone of the question was bothered me. He made it sound like it was irresponsible to lead people to Christ unless you had a discipleship plan in place. In other words, it is more responsible to let them go to hell than for them to be saved without a discipleship plan.

The truth is, I have heard this same type of talk about other para-church ministries as well as some churches. I don’t understand the logic. It also brings a popular Bible verse to mind:

“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” - Phil. 1:6

We give God the credit and the glory when people come to faith in Jesus. We say that we are used by God but only He can call people to faith. The Bible tells us that it works the same way on the other side of the cross.

It is God, not us, that is ultimately responsible for people’s discipleship. We are used by God but only He can grow people in their faith.

The question is: If we can trust God to begin the work of salvation can we trust Him to complete it?

I have to say that a lot of what I do in ministry doesn’t feel like the “real thing.” I spend a lot of time dealing with lost religious people, immature Christians, and Christians that are as frustrated as I am with the two previously mentioned groups.

Last night I had the opportunity to do something real. I joined my FCA buddies for the Douglas County football kick-off rally. We had 4 high school football teams (over 300 players and coaches) meeting together in the same church gym at the same time. We ate, we enjoyed a great worship band, and a message by Scott Pope.

And the result… 75 testosterone filled young men gave their lives to Jesus Christ! It was exhilarating to see those guys stand up in front of their peers to take a stand for Jesus.

After the 75 were taking to another part of the facilities for counseling we had a time of prayer with the other players and coaches. I had the opportunity to pray with some of the guys.

The moment I will never forget is praying with 3 of the toughest looking young black men I have ever met. I wrapped my arms around these guys and prayed God’s power and blessing on them. As I finished my prayer, with my head still bowed, I opened my eyes to see three pools of tears on the gym floor. I looked up into the faces of these young men to see tears streaming off off their cheeks. I don’t know if there is a “right” thing to say at that moment but I told them the main thing that I wanted them to know. I told them,

“God loves you more than you’ll ever know. You are worth more to Him than you will ever know. Even if you never hear it at home, at school, or anywhere else… You, my friends are loved.”

Thank you God for moments of real ministry to make up for the minutia of self-indulgent religion.

In the movie City Slickers, a “city slicker” named Mitch rode his horse alongside an old cowboy named Curly. Curly breaks their silence with a conversation that has been quoted a million times:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
[holds up one finger]
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean —-.
Mitch: But, what is the “one thing?”
Curly: [smiles] That’s what *you* have to find out.

Every person has a “one thing.” Every person may not know what that “one thing” is but they have it. That “one thing” is the thing in life that we live for above all other things. I’ll let you figure out what your one thing is.

Every church has a “one thing.” It can be defined as the church’s ethos.

e·thos (ē’thŏs’)

n. The disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture, or movement

The ethos’ of different churches are:

• tradition
• education
• social justice
• politics
• expressions of worship (music or preaching or any other elements)
• many other things

I have no doubt as to what the ethos of the church is that I pastor. I also know that I have dedicated my life to change it.

I want our “one thing” to be Jesus. I want Jesus to be our disposition, our character, our fundamental value. I want us to be a people that is defined by Jesus in everything we love, everything we become, and everything we do. I want our life as a community of faith to exist as a continuation of the earthly ministry of Jesus.

Why do I desire it so badly? According to the Bible it is, by definition, what a church is.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” - 1 Corithians 12:27

Yesterday afternoon I received an email that very quickly forced me to deal with the realities of life. My mother sent me an email to let me know about my grandfather’s failing health. As a pastor I deal with people in poor health regularly. I’ve held the hand of 5 different people as they died. But this news was different.

You see, my grandfather has been one of the most stable people in my life. As a child, I would follow him around and tried to be just like him. My “Papa” has always been a kind and gentle man even though years of being a farmer had given him a great physical strength.

In my mind, my Papa is still that 6 foot tall muscular man that can do anything. But in reality he has become old, very weak, and frail. When I read these words from my mother, I was overwhelmed with a sense of reality:

“We just got papa out of the hospital. His intestines had gotten twisted and he was having really bad stomach pain… They ran a tube down his nose into his stomach for a couple of days to straighten them out - thank God it worked because if it had not, they were going to have to operate. The doctors were concerned about him making it through surgery. Also, during his stay, he had a light stroke affecting his right arm. He wasn’t able to walk when we got him home Friday, but we have gotten him up a few times and he is using a walker.”

My hero is winding down. But somehow he will always be the man that I as a little boy followed around trying to match footstep for footstep.