4 Steps to Living Debt Free

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“Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.” (2 Kings 4:1-7 ESV).

According to the 2016 American Household Credit Card Debt Study, the average U.S. household owes…

– Credit cards: $16,061
– Mortgages: $172,806
– Auto loans: $28,535
– Student loans: $49,042

Americans are enslaved by debt. And the side effects are devastating. Clinical depression, anxiety, addictions, divorce, homelessness… these are among the terrible side effects of financial indebtedness. We’re like the widow who cried out to the prophet Elijah, worried that the creditors were going to come take away her children. We are in desperate condition when it comes to debt.

The truth is, our financial condition says a lot about our spiritual condition. I think that’s why the Bible has so much to say about money and about living debt free. We know that Christ came to set us free from our sin debt. So, why would we want to live with worldly debt? Yet, many of us are in bondage because of indebtedness.

How can we get free from this slavery to debt? How can we live in financial freedom? The four biblical principles found in the story of the widow and Elijah reveal how to live debt free. When we place our trust in God’s Word and in His provision, we can live in financial freedom.

4 Steps to Living Debt Free

  1. Recognize your debt problem. Debt is gambling with your future. The widow’s husband died and left her penniless and poor. He was a preacher’s kid, but he obviously wasn’t following godly wisdom with his money. But the widow recognized the problem. She knew that things had to change or her sons would be taken as slaves. The first step to getting debt free, is admitting that you have a problem. Facing the fact of your debt addiction is half the battle.
  2. Seek wise financial counsel. Most of us have trouble admitting when we have a problem, but we have even more trouble asking for help. Americans don’t like revealing their finances to someone else. We say it’s because we’re private about our finances. But I suspect it’s because we’re secretive. We don’t want anyone to know how foolish we’ve been and how far we are in the hole financially. The widow was both humble enough and wise enough to ask for help. Find a godly and mature believer who will counsel you with your finances. Ask for help.
  3. Follow their godly advice. When you go to the doctor they diagnose your problem and give you a prescription. But then, it’s up to you to take the medicine as prescribed in order to get better. You have to actually follow the doctor’s instructions. The widow did exactly what the prophet Elisha told her. She faithfully worked the plan that he gave her, depending on the Lord to bless her as she was obedient to His word. This is where the work takes place. And it’s also where the Lord begins to bless as you obey.
  4. Live beneath your means to stay debt free. Don’t make the mistake of going back into debt after getting out. Just as dieters are tempted to overeat after they’ve denied themselves and lost weight, so the one who has been keeping a tight budget to get out of debt will be tempted to splurge after they get free. Remember, it was the habit of living beyond your means that got you into trouble in the first place. Don’t go back into debt! Keep on living on less than you make. When the widow went back to the prophet to report her progress, he told her to sell the oil, pay off her debts and live off the rest. That’s good and godly advice. Now that you’re debt free…

– Pay God first (tithes and offerings).
– Pay yourself second (savings).
– Live off the rest.

God doesn’t want you to be a slave to the lender. He wants you to be free to serve Him. God wants you to live financially free, so that you can follow Him with all of your heart.

Replace yourself

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“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2 NKJV).

“In a healthy organization, if you replace yourself, you’re always going to have a place.” – Andy Stanley

“So,” You ask. “What’s up with the new website?”

Great question. Let me explain. I’ve always enjoyed teaching others how to study God’s Word and how to teach and preach it. But about ten years ago I started to really get serious about developing a teaching team at our church. I was approaching 50 years of age and I wanted to pass on what I’d learned to younger men. I also wanted to develop a stable of preachers that could share the pulpit with me and to move our church away from the possibility of being personality driven (When you’re the church planter, this is always a risk).

In short, I started to work on replacing myself.

Now, before you begin asking whether I’m dying, leaving or retiring. The answer is “No.” Only the Father knows the day of my death and I’m still full of spiritual fire and vision for leading our church.

No, the reason I’m working on replacing myself is because that’s part of what it means to make disciples. Certainly, I feel called to share the gospel, lead people to faith in Jesus, and to teach the Word to them in order to equip them to maturity. But I also have a special sense of calling to raise up “faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

In the last five years or so, the Lord has given me not only a great teaching team, but He has given me opportunity to train pastors and teachers internationally in countries like Guatemala and Uganda. In addition, the Lord has given our church a heart to plant churches in our “Judea,” which is Eastern NC. So in 2015, we launched a new church in Rocky Mount, NC. Having two locations with two pulpits to fill has made the need for replacing myself doubly important.

It was these new opportunities in both our Judea and in the world that got me talking to our Executive Pastor, Jonathan Minter, about how we could put my daily Bible devotions, blog posts and sermons online. I wanted a site that was searchable by Scripture, topic and date. A place where a Bible student, teacher or pastor might find help and encouragement in their studies and preparations to teach and preach.

So, here it is! It is still a work in progress. We still only have sermons back to 2012 (we plan to have them all the way back to 1992 eventually). We’re also working on including sermon transcripts of the sermons for those who might prefer reading the sermons over listening or watching them, or even reading along while listening.

I want to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for His grace towards me in not only saving me, but also giving me this wonderful desire to teach His Word to others. I also want to thank Pastor Jonathan Minter for his excellent and hard work in building this site. He is also a gift of God to me.

May the Lord bless those who find this site useful. May they be equipped and encouraged in its use. May God get all the glory for it!

And may this article encourage you to consider how you are working to replace yourself!

An equipping and sending church culture

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“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12 NKJV).

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you'” (John 20:21 ESV).

When we first planted Wilson Community Church twenty-five years ago, we were so small that it was hard to see anyone leave. It always seemed that the people that we sent out were our best people. They were the ones that were serving, giving, and helping grow the church. It was especially hard to see them go. In those early years, I used to pray, “God, I’m glad that you’re calling people out of our church to the mission field and to other ministries, but could you please send someone here to stay and help us?”

It took a while for me to recognize that God was using our church in just the way He intended: as an equipping and sending church. Once I gained the peace of this understanding, it brought me great joy. And besides, as our church grew I noticed that God was sending us great people too, people that had obviously been raised up at other equipping and sending churches.

One of those people that God sent us recently was a talented young man named Devin Gallagher. Devin joined the team to help plant our Rocky Mount campus with his mentor, Pastor Jonathan Combs. Devin and Pastor Jonathan had met at a previous church and had always wanted to work together again. So when the opportunity came up. Devin jumped on board.

Devin has served as lay staff, been a vital member of our worship team at both campuses, and has been key in establishing the worship ministry at our Rocky Mount campus. The Wilson campus probably knows him best as the “rapper” and lead guitarist in our annual Rockin’ Christmas outreach.

This coming Sunday will be Devin’s last leading worship for us. We have been encouraging him to continue his education and he has been accepted to The College At Southeastern. He will be moving to campus and begin classes later this month. We are thankful for his ministry with us and hope that we have helped equip him to take the next steps in his calling. We’ll miss him, but we joyfully send Devin on to answer God’s call on his life!

The truth is, this equipping and sending occurs every week. For we gather weekly for worship and small groups to get equipped and then we scatter afterwards, being sent back out to the mission field of our community. This is the biblical rhythm of a gospel centered church. This is the culture that Christ has given our church, so much so, that we decided to put a sign over the door that says, “Now entering the mission field.”

 

Leaving 2016

Posted by & filed under Religion, Uncategorized, Weblogs.

“For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:12 ESV).

We’ve all heard the cliche, “Out with the old, and in with the new.” Yet, people are not computers with hard drives that can be erased and new software installed. We remember. Even though the calendar may have changed to a new year, many of us remain stuck in the past. The dearer the loss, the deeper the engrained sorrow. The greater the pain, the more lingering its intense memory.

Some were married or had a child in 2016. Some got that promotion at work or were finally able to buy their first home. The year 2016 was a milestone year of happiness and achievement for them. Strangely, they will have no problem leaving 2016 behind and embracing 2017 with hopeful expectancy.

Yet, for those who lost a loved one this past year, those whose troubled marriage ended in divorce, those who lost a job, or heard the doctor say the word, “Cancer.” For them, 2016 is a year to run from, a year to forget. However, the harder they try to erase or medicate, the more they remember. They are stuck in the muck of past memory. And it keeps them from moving forward.

How can we leave the past, live in the present, and not worry about the future?

God told the prophet Isaiah how the Israelites should leave Egypt, which was a place of pain and slavery, and trust Him with the future. We can learn from God’s instruction on how to leave our hurtful past behind and trust Him with our future. Notice His three instructions:

  1. Leave yesterday in God’s care. God told them, “You shall not go in flight.” He didn’t want them running away from their past. Instead, He comforted them by saying, “The God of Israel will be your rear guard.” In other words, God said, “I’ve got your back.” When you look at your past, look at it through the lens of God’s grace and forgiveness. View it through the promise of God in Romans 8:28. Give God your past!  How?
  1. Trust tomorrow to God’s provision. Isaiah told them, “The Lord will go before you.” God told them, “I’m leading the way. I’m taking point. Follow Me.” Don’t let yesterday ruin your tomorrow. Just because there was pain and suffering in your rear view mirror, doesn’t mean that there’s more pain coming around the next turn. Trust God with your tomorrow. He’s already out there paving the way.
  1. Focus on living for today in God’s power. The Lord told them, “You shall not go out in haste.” Don’t be in such a hurry to leave yesterday behind and dive into tomorrow. Live in the now. Be fully present. Give God your past and future. Live for today praying, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). And daily denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him (Luke 9:23).

God has our backs, He is running point on our future, so we can focus on living today in His power. That’s how to leave 2016 and get on with living for today.

 

Giving good gifts at Christmas

Posted by & filed under Religion, Uncategorized, Weblogs.

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:10-11 (ESV)

How do you celebrate Christmas? Decorations, lights, a tree, special foods and candies… I’m sure all of these play a part. But for most of us the climax of the Christmas celebration is the time of exchanging gifts. Yet for many, this time causes anxiety. We hope we got them a gift that they like. We want to give good gifts.

Perhaps we should look at the very first Christmas, Christ’s birthday, to see what kind of gift God gave in Christ and consider how it affects the kind of gifts we give. When God gave us Christ…

  • It was a relational gift. The angel told the shepherds that Jesus had been born “unto you.” God didn’t send money or a card. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus. The Father gave the Son to us, so that we might become His children too. Christ is a relational gift to us.
  • It was a sacrificial gift. The angel said that the baby was born to be “Savior.” God sent His Son to die in our place. Kings are born in palaces, but lambs are born in a manger. This baby was born to be the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.
  • It was an incarnational gift. The angel announced that the one being born was “Christ the Lord.” The title, “Christ,” means “Anointed One.” It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew title, “Messiah.” Jesus was born as a fulfillment to over 300 Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah who would come in the lineage of David to lead God’s people. The title, “Lord,” is to say that He is God. He is both God and man. Jesus is God in the flesh.

When we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are adopted into God’s family and become children of God. As children of God, we can let Christ empower us to give as He did.

We can give relationally. Spend time with others, especially those who are lonely. Show them love and make them feel like family. Give the gift of your self.

We can give sacrificially.  Cut back on spending on yourself and your own family to make margin for giving to others. Give to your church, especially to ministries that will carry the “good news” of Jesus to others. Give to a hurting family in your neighborhood or church that is out of work and won’t have Christmas without help.  Cook a meal. Bake a cake. Make a craft. Give sacrificially.

We can give incarnationally. Give people far from God the gift of the gospel. Tell them about what Jesus has done for you. Live before them in such a way that they see how Jesus lives in you. We can give good gifts this Christmas that point to Jesus.

 

Questions about Rockin’ Christmas?

Posted by & filed under Religion, Uncategorized, Weblogs.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-22 ESV).

Why do we do Rockin’ Christmas?

The apostle Paul’s passion for sharing the gospel made him willing to become “a servant to all,” even becoming “all things to all people,” so that they might believe and be saved. We share Paul’s passion.

If we travel to Guatemala, we try to speak Spanish, eat tortilla and drink café con leche. If we journey to Indonesia, we say “Apa khabar?” (How are you?), and eat nasi goreng (fried rice with other stuff). In other words, we attempt to speak their language, eat their food, and learn their culture, in order to share the gospel with them.

But that passion isn’t limited to our international efforts. We use that same missional thinking at home too. That’s the reason for our Rockin’ Christmas program. Whether they’re Christ followers or not, everyone in America tends to celebrate Christmas, at least the cultural version of it. So, we’re playing a mixture of secular Christmas classics along with some sacred stuff too. We do this in order to reach people who celebrate Christmas, but don’t go to church.

How can you as a believer make the best use of Rockin’ Christmas?

  1. Pray that people who are far from God will attend. Pray for our workers’ health and rehearsals.
  2. Personally give an invite card to those who may not have heard the gospel. Offer to give them a ride or meet them there for a coffee in our coffee shop.
  3. Distribute invite cards throughout your neighborhood and at stores where you shop (ask permission).
  4. When you arrive, don’t take the best parking spots. Leave the ones near the front for guests.
  5. During the response time, complete a connection card yourself. When everyone  fills out a card, it makes it more comfortable for our guests to fill them out too.
  6. Don’t forget to bring your tithes and offerings, especially your Christmas Missions Offering. After all, it is Christ’s birthday that we’re celebrating!

I hope that helps answer a few of your Rockin’ Christmas questions…

What? You have another question?

Well, yes. Bubba Ray, Butch and Delmar will definitely be there.

Hope to see you there too!

Say “Bah humbug!” to spending that doesn’t satisfy!

Posted by & filed under Religion, Uncategorized, Weblogs.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:1-2 ESV).

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world” (C.S. Lewis).

I don’t mean to sound like a “Scrooge,” but I say, “Bah, humbug!” to overspending this Christmas.

Have you noticed that the more you spend, the less you are actually satisfied? There seems to be a crazy countering equation at work here. Once basic needs are met, spending on ourselves has ever diminishing results. Like a drug addict, our self consumption requires more and more spending to get the same effect.

How do we break this addiction? Simple. Or should I say, “Simplify.” Start simplifying your life. Live beneath your means. Don’t go into debt. Give your presence this Christmas, instead of more presents. Be with friends and family. Sing Christmas carols. Eat good food and tell the story of Immanuel, God with us.

So, what do you do with the money you don’t spend? Invest it in the Kingdom. That’s the only way to experience real satisfaction. Stop being a consumer, a taker, and start being a giver. Stop buying worldly things that will never satisfy, and start investing in eternal things.

Start a new family tradition this Christmas. Spend less and give more. Satisfaction guaranteed.

 

 

This is from an earlier post that first appeared 12/9/11.

4 Ways to Celebrate Your First Love

Posted by & filed under Religion, Uncategorized, Weblogs.

celebrate“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4 NKJV).

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30 ESV).

Have you noticed that we tend to celebrate what we love most? We might throw a party, sing songs, give gifts and eat cake. We might even write poetry-filled love letters when romance moves us. We can’t help ourselves. We celebrate, we worship what we love most.

Did you know that God cares about what we celebrate? I think it’s because we worship what we truly love. And God cares about that. He cares about our worship.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus told the church at Ephesus that although they had demonstrated perseverance and hard work for God, they had forsaken their “first love.”  It’s like Jesus was accusing them of letting all the romance go out of their relationship. It seems amazing, but God really wants us to love Him first. He loves us and He wants us to love Him back with priority.

So, how do we get the romance back? How do celebrate God’s Son as our “first love?”

In the book of Mark, certain religious leaders asked Jesus to give them the greatest commandment. In a sense he was asked to simplify all of the writings of Scripture down to one simple statement. Jesus didn’t hesitate. He gave them a simple command on how to make God their first love. We can hear and follow this same simple command to love God with priority by loving Him in four ways.

4 Ways to Celebrate Christ as Your First Love

1. Give God the first part of your week through passionate worship. Jesus tells us to love God “with all your heart.” The heart is a metaphor for the center of the self, which includes the will and emotion. One way that we can express our priority love for God with all our heart, is by willingly and passionately worshiping Him with the first part of our week, along with other believers.

Worship is like romance and like romance, we sometimes get it wrong. Two ways we can get it wrong are:

  • No passion. Our worship becomes a dry ritual. We just go through the motions.
  • No priority. We only worship when we don’t have anything better to do.

God wants both our passionate and priority worship. He is looking for whole-hearted worship.

2. Give God the first conversation of your day in focused prayer. Jesus tells us to love God “with all your soul.” The soul is another metaphor for the self. Unlike the heart, which represents the will and emotions, the soul seems to represent the personal identity or internal conversation of the self. As a lover might say to another, “A penny for your thoughts,” the Lord desires us to express our love for Him by sharing our inner thoughts with Him in prayer.

3. Give God the first thought of your day through biblical meditation. Jesus tells us to love God “with all your mind.” The mind is the seat of our intellect, the place where we consider and think. Just as we think about those we love, God wants us to think about Him with priority. A way we might express loving God with our minds is to meditate and study His Word.  When we study God’s Word, it helps “rewrite” our thinking. Studying God’s Word gives us both the mind and the language to love and worship God with priority.

4. Give God the first part of your substance through joyful offering. Jesus tells us to love God “with all your strength.” Strength represents our effort and indirectly the wages of our effort. When you love someone, you want to give of yourself to them. You want to share your time, talent and treasure with them. God asks that we love Him by offering ourselves fully to Him. We can express our priority love for God by giving Him the first part of our income and by giving Him the best part of our time and talent.

Are you celebrating God’s Son as your first love? Do you love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength?

I wonder, what does Jesus think of our love for Him?

The 4 Commitments of Life Changing Small Groups

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CG“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42 ESV).

We’re not a church with small groups. We’re a church of small groups. Our church started in my living room with seven people. So, we’ve considered small groups to be one of the keys to fulfilling our calling to make disciples from day one.

As our church has grown in attendance, we have continually launched more small groups, or “community groups,” as we call them. Over 75% of our weekend services attenders are involved in one of our community groups. We recognize the importance of growing big and small at the same time, so as our weekend attendance grows, we launch more groups. And we strive to keep our church calendar uncluttered to make it easier for members to follow the the weekly rhythm of meeting together in the “temple courts and from house to house” (Acts 2:46, 5:42).

But the real secret to our life-changing small groups are the four commitments of the first century church found in Acts 2:42. The Scripture says that they were devoted to 1) the apostle’s teaching, 2) the fellowship, 3) the breaking of bread and 4) the prayers. So, we decided to base our community group ministry on these same four commitments.

1. A Shared Faith (“The apostle’s teaching”). All of our groups study the sermon from that previous weekend. We plan our sermons a year in advance to make sure that we offer a balanced diet of expositional studies through books of the Bible, topical sermon series that address current needs, such as biblical parenting, marriage, and financial stewardship, and other sermon series that our teaching team prayerfully prepares to meet the unique needs or our flock. Our desire is that the community groups would help move the weekly sermon from head to heart, as members discuss and apply the Scripture to their lives. Our teaching team writes weekly community group discussion guides to help facilitate the shepherding of these groups. Having the whole church essentially studying the same Scripture every week is also a powerful unifier, which leads to the second commitment…

2. A Shared Family (“the fellowship”). The commitment to meet together weekly in one another’s homes creates a more family-like environment. The shared hospitality of sitting knee to knee with a beverage and Bible in hand makes for a more relational experience. The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia. This word could also be translated communion or participation. And that’s the key to this second commitment, we want people to actively participate in discussion and application of the Word of God to their lives. We’ve learned that people grow and are better discipled in circles than in rows. These groups help facilitate life on life discipleship.

3. A Shared Food (“the breaking of bread”). Sharing a meal together and regularly remembering the Lord’s Supper together is the third commitment. We train our community group shepherds to plan a weekly meeting that lasts around two hours. The first hour is to be devoted to fellowship and food, and the second hour to Bible study and prayer. There’s just something about eating together that breaks down barriers and enhances the sense of family.

4. A Shared Focus (“the prayers”). Praying together is the fourth commitment. We encourage our groups to keep this in balance with the other three commitments. We want our groups praying real and transparent prayers together. This takes time and trust. We’ve found that breaking up into men’s and women’s groups for prayer time often enhances the trust factor. Men and women are different. And they often have different prayer and communication habits. The key here is to be creative. Sometimes they might pray all together, sometimes in pairs or triplets, and sometimes according to gender.

When we first launch a new community group, we have them study Acts 2:42 together for the first four weeks before joining the rest of the church in studying the sermon. We’ve written a new group launch guide for this. We also encourage the group to appoint champions for each of the four commitments during the launch. The group shepherd will champion the apostle’s teaching, but will also name an apprentice. Then, they are to ask for volunteers to champion the other three commitments. So, each group has a fellowship champion, who keeps members informed of meeting times/places, birthdays and anniversaries; a food champion, who organizes the weekly meals; and a prayer champion, who records the prayer requests and keeps the group informed concerning the group’s prayer list.

By basing our small group ministry on the four commitments of the first century church, we have seen wonderful and miraculous life change in the members of our church. It is not always easy to stay committed to these four devotions. There is always a temptation to add or subtract or to emphasize one over the other. Sometimes it is like herding cats trying to convince people of the efficacy of this approach. But it has been our experience that when we steadfastly devote ourselves to these four commitments and keep them in balance, life change happens!

The joy and sorrow of cross cultural ministry

Posted by & filed under Current Affairs, Religion, Uncategorized, Weblogs.

CrossCultural“And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” (Acts 14:27 ESV).

I’m a little sad. We recently had to close the door on our Hispanic ministry.

We launched our Spanish-speaking worship services on Easter Sunday 2012 and within two years we were seeing around 60 in attendance on Sunday mornings. It was such a joy to greet our members in two languages in our lobby each week:

“John and Sally, Good morning! How are you? … ¡Buenos dias, Miguel! ¿Cómo estás? … Hello Mary …  ¡Dios te bendiga, Lucero!” I had to switch back and forth between the two tongues until I became tongue-tied. And I loved it!

I even had to add a third language for a while, as we had a Haitian church meeting in our building on Sundays during most of 2012.

“Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? Dieu te bénisse! Bienvenue!” I would say, trying to remember my high school French, as I greeted the Haitian earthquake refugees gathered in one of our conference rooms for worship.

Those were exciting, yet challenging days, as we managed to have four Sunday morning services (Two in English, one in Spanish and one in French) in the same building each week. The Haitian church met with us for less than a year. They had their own pastor that traveled around Eastern NC preaching at several Haitian churches. We did several clothing and food drives for them, as many of them came to the States with little or nothing. They constantly expressed their thanks for our help, but we never quite broke through the cultural barrier to get a sense of oneness with them. I’m sure it was difficult for both sides to try and understand the other. Cross cultural ministry is hard.

However, our Hispanic ministry was different. Sure, we still had cultural challenges, but with them we were determined to be one church. Our vision was” One church, two languages.” We had separate, language specific, worship services, but we did children’s ministry, baptisms, picnics, outreaches and praise services together. Their children attended the same classes as ours. Once they reached preschool age, their children were bilingual, and able to enjoy being together with our English speaking kids. We translated our membership class and other materials into Spanish. We even attempted to preach the same sermons.

Yet, staying on the same page visionally was a continuous challenge. As long as we met with the Hispanic leaders weekly, things seemed to go pretty well. But these meetings were very taxing on me personally, as every word had to go through a translator, and it took great amounts of time to avoid misunderstandings in communication. So, I asked them to appoint someone from their congregation that was bilingual, that could act as their lay pastor, and also be the one who stayed in constant communication with me. They agreed and identified one of their own, so we appointed him as a lay pastor for our Hispanic members. We even enrolled him in a Hispanic school for pastors sponsored by our denomination.

It wasn’t long after this that our vision for one church, two languages began to diverge. I suppose I should have seen it coming. I don’t think our newly appointed lay pastor ever fully embraced the one church vision. He wasn’t part of the core group that we started with in 2012. And as he grew in influence as the lay pastor, I think they began to think of themselves as more and more, a separate church.

Little things started cropping up to reveal our growing disunity of vision. The Hispanics started entering through a side door rather than coming through the front door on Sundays (The lay pastor said that it made them nervous to come in the front door because they felt that everyone was staring at them). They had a baptism service at a campground for Hispanic believers without including the English speaking church. They started expressing concern with having their kids attend English speaking Sunday services together. And many other instances of a diverging vision became obvious.

So, we met with the lay pastor and other key leaders and asked if they wanted to be a separate church. We offered to change our relationship from one to two separate entities and offered that they could rent the same space from us until they found a place of their own. We did this because we didn’t want to act in a patronizing way towards them, which is always a risk in cross cultural ministry. God had called them to be part of us, but perhaps He was calling them to be a separate church plant now. They declined. They insisted that it was all a misunderstanding and that they wanted to stay one church with us.

However, things really didn’t improve much after this meeting. Apparently, there was also a difference of vision within the Hispanic church itself. Some wanted to be separate and some wanted to be one with us. And so, in the Spring of 2015, after a doctrinal disagreement with another Hispanic member, the lay pastor left to start a new church plant and took the majority of our Hispanic members with him. This left about 15 Hispanic members behind, who were actually among the first core group that we had started with in 2012.

We attempted to hit the restart button on our Hispanic ministry after this. The remaining members gave it a courageous effort, struggling for a year to grow. But the growth never came. When our Hispanic worship pastor accepted a call to another church, that was the last straw. The remaining Hispanic members decided to fold and go elsewhere. Our final meetings with them were filled with both laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, as we remembered all that the Lord had done among us and all that we had learned from one another.

And so, I’m a little sad as we close the door on our Hispanic ministry. I’m not sure what it all means. I’m convinced that God called us to start the ministry. I know that for a short season, He gave us an “open door” of ministry with our Hispanic neighbors. I don’t know why it has seemingly drawn to a close. But we’ve learned a lot about cross cultural ministry during this time (mostly what “not to do”). And when the opportunity comes for another “open door” to Hispanics or Haitians or whoever, I want us to be ready to say “Yes” and walk through the door once again.