West Cocoa Chat

I haven’t forgotten about my “Trek Summit pictures.” They will be coming. I hope I don’t sound like a bragging parent with my next statement. If I do, feel free to hurl blog tomatoes towards this post. I don’t think I’ve begun to grasp the magnitude of what Steven and Zack have done for the Carrollton Church.

Here are 2 very young men, 18 years old, who allowed God to give them a vision of continuing to help the Carrollton Church as well as the city of New Orleans. Further, they took this vision and acted on it. They acted on it even when their own parents, their number one advocates, the home team if you will, had their doubts. To say that is embarrassing on my part would be an understatement. I was almost an instrument of preventing the family of a man in prison, some people who have to wash and dry their clothes in a Laundromat, and a still recovering church in New Orleans from being encouraged by 2 young, determined Christians.

Isn’t this “where the rubber meets the road” stuff. We say we want our kids to mature in Christ and we say that we’re permission giving when it comes to church leadership but are we? Thank you God for teaching this guy a lesson, again.

I spoke to Steven last night. He led singing and Zack taught the class. They plan on working with one of the Carrollton’s volunteers, someone we came to know affectionately as “Santa Kirk.” They plan to return to the Laundromat tonight. Thank you for your prayers and continue to remember Zack and Steven.

A roll of quarters sounds like a basic survival tool in the Big Easy or any big city. In this case they are meant to break the ice.

One of the serendipities of attending the Spiritual Growth (besides hanging out with yours truly) Workshop for Zack and Steven was attending Randy Harris’ keynote address last Friday. Randy told the story of some of his students taking a roll of quarters to a local Laundromat. As folks would come in to do their laundry they would offer to pay for their washing and drying as well as offer conversation if they so desired.

I was sitting beside Steven and Zack when they heard Randy’s story. Their little beady eyes lit up and I could see their wheels turning. So last night they headed out to a Laundromat with a roll of quarters, a stack of Bibles, and a burning desire to share themselves and the Gospel with anybody who would listen.

I’ll try to give you an update when I hear from them today. God bless.

Update - Just got off the phone (noon) with Steven. About 10 folks allowed them to pay for their laundry last night. They invited all of them to the Wednesday night dinner and service (which they are leading) at the Carrollton Ave. Church tonight. I asked Steven if anybody "blew them off." He said everyone they spoke to was willing to engage them in conversation. I don't know the names of any of these folks but we lift them up to Jesus. May their encounter with Steven and Zack be the start of their walk with the Lord.

I want to thank everyone who commented, prayed for, and, or, read about Steven’s and Zack’s mission trip to New Orleans yesterday. They made the drive from the Cocoa Beach area to the Big Easy in 10 hours. I’m sure as I told someone they were “running in the lead car draft” on the way up. Zack’s Mom said she didn’t want but wouldn’t mind a speeding ticket as long as they were safe and no accidents.

They had promised Joyce Massey who I mentioned yesterday, that they would do something for her in New Orleans. Joyce is involved in continuing the ministry of her late husband, Jim Massey. (http://www.jimmassey.org/) She also has an active Prison Ministry. She has been ministering to a man named Percy. Percy is in Prison for murder. The circumstances of his conviction are shaky but that’s neither here nor there. Joyce has been with Percy every step of the way as he pursues parole, which he was most recently denied again.

Some of Percy’s family lives in New Orleans. Joyce had asked Steven and Zack if they got a chance, to try and visit them. She described them as sweet people who if somebody reached out to them, might start attending church. I’m probably not doing a good job of describing to you how much these folks mean to Joyce. I tell you what; let me allow Joyce to tell you through an email she sent me last night:

Dear Anne and Cecil (Barbara, too),

I just had the nicest surprise telephone call from Zack and Steven. THEY ARE WITH PERCY'S FAMILY! I did not expect that to happen till later in the week! I spoke with Percy's niece and she was so excited she could hardly talk. Zack (or Steven, I couldn't always tell which one I was speaking with) said they had just been hanging out there for the past hour or more. What "cool" young men they are! Percy will be so very happy over this news.

I don't have the Travis' email address; so if one of you has it, feel free to pass this on. For now...I am in love with two more wonderful young men who love God and are fearlessly serving Him.

What a wonderful evening for me!

Mom/Joyce

I have to tell you that Joyce’s email brought tears to our eyes. If Steven and Zack accomplish nothing else, their trip has been a success.

Have a good day family and please continue to keep Steven and Zack in your prayers.

First, make sure you check out my last post with the latest installment of our Trek Pictures.

When I went a long time without posting before Trek, Greg (http://gregengland.com/) asked, “Is there nothing going on in your life worth blogging about?” Honest question and the honest answer is yes, there have been some fantastic things going on in our lives and the life of our church.

The first one I’ll post about started back in June and came to a point at 5:30am this morning. When we came back from helping the Carrollton Church (http://www.carrolltonavenuechurch.org/) in New Orleans, Steven and his friend Zack decided to go back on their own to continue helping this brave and visionary church, which is still trying to recover, 3 years after Katrina.

I think the logistics of their “2^nd Missionary Journey” to the Big Easy was that Zack prayed for God to send him an assignment, He did, then Zack went to my son and told him this should be a group (in “teacher-ease” it would be called “Cooperative learning”) assignment. Steven accepted and then they laid the “assignment” on us. Our initial reception went something like this:

Dad: “Polite silence” followed by a verbal, “O.K.” followed by the thought, “It will never happen.”

Mom: “Polite silence” followed by a verbal, “Are you sure about this,” followed by the thought, “My baby (who is 18) is not going to New Orleans on his own.”

Even a couple of weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains, Steven and Zack were praying, witnessing, and planning for their trip while I was doubting. May God forgive me for inserting my faith for the faith of the coming generation. This thought came crashing through my brain at the Spiritual Growth Workshop (http://www.spiritualgrowthworkshop.com/) on Friday night.

Randy Harris was the keynote speaker and he taught from Acts 17:16 – 34. Look at the first few verses:

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the (emphasis mine) God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹Then they took him and brought him to a (emphasis mine) meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." ²¹(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

²²Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

Randy’s first point was this, “Be there!” We have to get outside our churches and go to the places where you’ll find the lost. Greg, you’ll love this as he even mentioned how some of his ACU Students were getting their bar-tending licenses to facilitate this. After Randy’s message, Steven and Zack went up to him to talk about the New Orleans trip. Randy was impressed and what impressed or maybe “depressed” me was there was nobody over 25 talking to Randy. Everyone who went up to him after his keynote were of the “young people” variety and I wonder.

So, back to Steven and Zack – remember our doubting. When they pulled out of here this morning they had collected $2000 to give to the Carrollton Church! They also had boxes of Bibles that they plan to hand out as they work the city as well as give to the Holly Grove Church that Carrollton is planting in inner city New Orleans. They had gift cards and the prayers and blessings of our church and those they met at the Spiritual Growth Workshop.

Oh, a special thanks to Joyce Massey. Joyce always has a booth at SGW where she continues the work of her departed husband, Jim Massey. Jim was a teacher and scholar in our brotherhood and produced numerous materials to bring the lost to Christ as well as materials for Christian education. She allowed Steven and Zack to work her booth and tell folks about their mission trip.

So that’s it – 2 young men, both 18, on their way to New Orleans to help 2 churches and a still recovering city. They go without the “can’t do’s” that dominate many of the generations of Christians that now stand as their “mentors.” Rather, they go with a “can do anything through Christ” attitude. Yes, they may still take their hits and life may deal them some defeats. My prayer is that may it never be me or their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that, as I heard Jim McGuiggan once say to a group of teens, “dumb them down.”

Please keep Zack and Steven in your prayers as they travel to New Orleans today and all this week. God bless.

At our devo at low camp, our guides told us that the next day's hike, roughly 6 miles, would be the hardest day yet as we would be at 11,500 ft and the edge of the treeline. This is were the main "thievery" commenced. It was before we left for High Camp that our young men, began taking things out of the girl's packs to lighten their load. The weight of some of the boy's packs to put it mildly was formidable.Preparing for the hike to the "high camp." From left to right: Chad facing away, Bret, Sharon, Mark, John, Kris-kris, Janel, Daniel, Zack, and Steven.

Suffice it to say that our Wilderness Trek could not have come off without the help of Debbie and Mike, former members of Central, and Harry and Marsha who are Debbie and Mike's good friends, all who live in Colorado. In the days of high gas prices, they took the time to pick us up at the airport, house us in their homes on the first night, and then drive us to the Trek Outpost in Salida.Some of our guys in Mike and Debbie's pool during our first day in Denver. How about that for a "Wilderness Trek." That night would be our last night to sleep in a bed.


Left to right at our Camp fire at low camp - Zack, Chuck, Josh, Craig, Kyle, Steven, Danie, and our guide, Melanie, tending the fire. Notice the cool reclining chair she is sitting in that also doubled as her sleeping pad. I'll have one myself if I ever do this again. By the end of the week I was so tired of sitting on the ground, rocks, or wood that I began to fantasize about my recliner at home.

My next post will be about the hide to "High Camp" and our climb of Mount Tweeto.

That’s what our Trek Guides called us, “One-Percenters.” They told us less than 1% of the World’s population climbs a 13,000 or higher peak. Our group joined the “1% Club” when we all made it to the summit of Mount Tweeto at roughly 13,700 feet.

I cannot begin to tell you how physically demanding our “5-day Trek” (http://wildernesstrek.org/) was. As we laid sprawled out on the summit of Mt. Tweeto, one of our teens asked, “How can we convey to people how hard this has been?” I gave the following suggestion:

1. 1. Have said person walk over to a table.

2. 2. Have said person bend over the table.

3. 3. Have said person stick out their tongue as far as possible.

4. 4. Hit said person’s tongue as hard as you can with a hammer! (Repeat as needed)

Needless to say as hard as our 5 day (4 days of repelling, hiking, climbing, and backcountry camping) – 15 miles worth of hiking was, it was well worth it. This was no doubt the best youth or adult function I’ve ever attended or been tortured by. If you’re still reading you’ll want to know why, yes?

O.K. – one word my blog family – UNITY! Remember Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20 – 23:

²⁰"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I in them and you in me. May they be brought to (emphasis mine) complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Complete unity.” I praise God, our Heavenly Father for the timing of this trip for me and our teens. You see, our movement’s rapid early growth and attraction was the very thing Jesus prayed for – “complete unity,” not uniformity for that is impossible. Our Wilderness Trek in the Colorado backcountry was a living, vibrant picture of what Jesus prayed for in John 17.

Our group of 20 adults and teens did not possess uniformity in physical, emotional, and spiritual ability or gifts if you will. But without even attempting to orchestrate unity it just happened.

It occurred with our teen boys as they began asking, taking, and even “stealing” items out of the girl’s packs to make them lighter so they could carry their burdens.

It occurred many, many times on the side of a mountain when those in the front of the line would stop their progress to turn around and yell encouragement to those in the back of the line. I will forever have those Rocky Mountain “Come on so and so, you can do it” ringing in my mind or all of the “Good job's” or “I’m proud of you” that were passed back and forth.

It occurred when some of our boys who has already reached a stopping / break point, would literally run down the Mountain to grab somebody’s backpack and help them to the break point.

There was one point were Steven at about 13,000 ft. was running back and forth doing the above. We finally had to tell him to sit down and take a break. Unity family manifesting itself in unconditional love!

Unity occurred as we stood around a campfire at “high camp,” 11,500 ft, and confessed our sins to one another amid loggerhead pines. Unity and not uniformity will propel people to open up and allow the Holy Spirit to begin to heal them.

Yes, God’s timing is great. You see, our church, not a perfect church, not a model church, but it is our church and it’s on a journey towards what I think is Biblical, New Testament, autonomous non-denominational Christianity. I believe that buried within that concept is what Jesus prayed for in John 17 – “complete unity.”

“Complete unity” is what occurred on our Wilderness Trek but I believe we don’t have to be on our way or on top of a 13,700 ft. Peak for that to occur. My prayer is now that we’re off the Mountain, that we bring the lessons learned on the Mountain back to good old flat Florida.

Thank you for reading. I’ll give you a more detailed (with pictures) account in my next post. God bless.

I was having a conversation with a brother the other day concerning worshiping acapella vs. those who worship with instrumental music. The context of our conversation had to do with our (churches of Christ) fellowships’ strained (although they are trying to improve on many fronts) relationship with our fellow brothers in the Conservative Christian Church, fellow heirs of the American Restoration Movement.

He made the comment that those in our fellowship that hold to the notion that worshiping with instruments is inferior or worse, is a sin, in his words, “Have been burdened by a curse to our brotherhood.” I agreed with him and both of us have a unique perspective having attempted to merge with a local Conservative Christian Church a couple of years ago. In our “dance” with each other we re-discovered that except for the instrument, we are identical. Their doctrine of baptism into Christ for the remission of sins as well as other tenets of our faith are exactly as ours.

I was reminded of the following from Galatians 2:11 - 14

¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he (emphasis mine) began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Part of our heritage is one of “patterns.” Now, most of us know the fallacy of this kind of thinking since trying to establish a “pattern” within our own fellowship has resulted in Mac Lynn’s abbreviation code for all of the different varieties of churches of Christ. Nevertheless, I see a pattern.

It seems that Paul is really hacked off at Peter. When Peter is with Gentiles and he can hang out with them and even enjoy some Gentile cuisine. When his fellow Jews show up he switches his taste to kosher cooking. Now, that seems to be the pattern – when you’re with Gentile Brothers, be a Gentile and when you with Jews, be Jewish.

The problem – it seems when Peter is with the Jews he completely cuts himself off from the Gentiles. The Gentile “Brothers” that Paul has been working so diligently to bring to Christ. What’s worse, other Jews such as Barnabas are also withdrawing from brothers in Christ as well.

I think there is a pattern to be discerned that transcends this little discussion between our fellowship and the Conservative Christian Church but for purposes of our discussion, we’ll keep here for now. Does not Paul seen to send a message to us today to accept our brothers in Christ even if they’re “different.”

BTW - This business of eating, what you’re eating, and whom you’re eating with was a doctrinal issue to many of that day. Yet, Paul seems to say that we can and should be able to do both. When I’m with my brothers in the churches of Christ and even those who insist that worship be acapella, I can do that. And when I’m with my brothers in the Conservative Christian Churches who worship with the instrument, I can do that as well. The sin seems to come in when I do one and cut off the brothers who are doing the other.

In the early days of the American Restoration Movement, brothers on both sides of this issue remained brothers for where an “inference” needed to be made, tolerance was the norm. Somewhere down the road “tolerance” was traded for “pattern” and a strict allegiance to my pattern was demanded or fellowship was severed. That my friends is a curse that we’re still trying to undo today within the confines of our church. We have no business trying to effect change at other churches. They need to be the Body of Christ as they see fit within the bounds of Scripture in their community as we strive to do the same.

To denounce a fellow church in any kind of public forum or in another church would seem to fly in the face of Scripture and risk the wrath of Paul as he got in the face of Peter for doing the 1^st century version of the above.

Those are my thoughts. We as in 20 of us from our church, leave for Colorado on Friday for a 5 day (http://www.wildernesstrek.org/) Wilderness Trek in the Colorado Rockies. Keep us in your prayers and God bless.

He’s back! Sorry for the absence. Greg sent me an email basically insinuating that nothing must have been happening in my life due to my lack of blogging. How about a collective, “Cecil, get a life!”