Ten years ago this month the Waldo Canyon fire threatened Glen Eyrie, the historic property now owned by The Navigators. You can still see stand near the Glen Eyrie castle and see burned-out trees on the ridge just a few hundred yards away. My friend Brett Clark just wrote a compelling account of those days, including the little-known story of a lone maintenance man who prayed. The article is worth the read in its entirety. Here are a few snippets:

By Tuesday, June 26, as the fire moved closer, the smoke was getting thick at the Glen. We had to get the last of the skeleton crew out. One of the last guys we were trying to locate was 32-year maintenance crew member Doug Dick, who had been hosing down parts of the Glen with water. Doug, it turned out, had gone up to Dawson and Lila Trotman’s graves to get a better view of the fire. When Doug came down the hill toward our truck, Derek asked, “What were you doing up there?”

Doug started choking up. “I was praying. I had my hands outstretched and, in the Spirit of Elijah, I prayed: ‘God, would You protect this place, so we can keep using it for Your glory?’”

When we left the Glen, this was the last image I captured…

In 1953, Dawson [Trotman, founder of The Navigators] had prayed, “Lord, if You entrust this all to us, I want to dedicate it now to You as David did, to be used for Your glory, to make known Your holy name in all the world.”

In 2012, 59 years later, Doug prayed something similar, crying out to the God of the universe to spare the Glen. The image is forever etched in my mind: Doug kneeling and praying over the smoke-filled panorama of the Glen with outstretched hands, praying in the spirit of Elijah, “God, would You protect this place so we can keep using it for Your glory?”

Here is a picture of Doug Dick taken that day after the Glen was evacuated. Just “an ordinary man.”

Brett continues:

When I look at that photo [of the fire near the Glen]…, I’m reminded that, humanly speaking, we knew there was no way the Glen would survive. But God had other plans. The next day, as the Navigator family continued to pray, we were overjoyed to learn that somehow, the Glen had miraculously survived. I took this photo the next morning.

Brett ends his reminiscence this way:

Ten years after the Waldo Canyon fire, I’m reflecting on how God answered the prayers of the Navigator family, as well as the prayers of a quiet, humble maintenance guy who selflessly served Glen Eyrie guests for more than 40 years. The Glen and Eagle Lake continue to impact the lives of thousands as we use these two beautiful properties for His glory.

As we face the challenges of today, let’s take some extra time to praise our God for His great mercy and faithfulness to His promises.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. —Ephesians 3:20-21 NASB

And I would add:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5.17, 18, ESV)

Two weeks ago, on June 14, we had the “Super Moon,” so designated because of the moon’s close proximity to earth. There will be another on July 13. Now that we’re in-between, it might be fun to remember:

The picture on the left was made with my iPhone the night before the actual full moon. The orange glow was caused by the haze from the western forest fires. Yes, it’s the moon, not the sun. The picture on the left is the actual super moon shot through our trees with a bit of cloud below.

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way? (Psalm 8.3, 4, MSG)

Yesterday we looked at how NOT to live from Ephesians 4.17 – 19. Paul continues with the solution: a foundation in our relationship with Jesus:

But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4.20 – 24, ESV)

How did we “learn Christ”?

• Put off your old self
• Be renewed in the spirit of your minds
• Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness

Several weeks ago I shared Andy Stanley’s take on our standard of behavior:

WHEN UNSURE OF WHAT TO SAY OR DO, ASK WHAT LOVE REQUIRES OF YOU.

Here in Ephesians 4, we can read some clear examples of what that love might look like. Note that in most cases, our standard is what we’re supposed to do, not just a list of things NOT to do:

• Speak truth, no lying (verse 25)
• Be angry in a controlled way (verses 26, 27)
• Give, don’t steal (verse 28)
• Speak to build up not tear down (verse 29)
• Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit (verse 30)
• Avoid bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice (verse 31)
• Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving (verse 32)

And, as always, we should live this way in front of everyone, in-person and online, with those we like and those we don’t. I’m speaking to myself.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2.14 – 16, ESV)

Why are we surprised when unbelievers act like, well, unbelievers? What would we expect? Writing to the Ephesians, Paul outlines the problem clearly just as he did in writing to the Romans:

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4.17 – 19, ESV)

As in Romans 1, the downturn begins with their attitude about God. Throw away God, and we get everything, including a society whose official position is that we don’t know what a “man” or “woman” is. I don’t know that we’ve changed much from Noah’s day except that God has a people demonstrating a different way of life – more on that tomorrow.

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6.5, NKJV)

Yesterday, I turned David Shropshire’s comment on How to Stop a Movement into its own blog: More Movement Stoppers.

Today I just want to share examples from my own experience of David’s movement stoppers: leaders who don’t want to decrease and potential laborers waiting for permission

David wrote, “Leaders who don’t want to decrease,” who want to “accumulate a following of people…” It’s a long-time problem, and Jesus warned his future apostles to have no part in it:

They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called “Doctor” and “Reverend.” Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates…” (Matthew 23.6 – 8, MSG)

A friend of mine, a trained and experienced disciple-maker, offered to help a pastor disciple the men in the church. The pastor was quick to respond, “If anyone teaches the men in this church it will be me!” I heard another pastor say in a sermon from John 21, “My job is to feed the sheep; your job is to serve the sheep by, for example, keeping the nursery on Sunday morning.” With pastors like this, it’s no wonder we have a hard time training and sending disciple-makers.

The other issue David points out is “…a lot of potential kingdom laborers who have the false impression they need a human’s permission to labor in the harvest.” I’ve seen that too. Several of us were talking before a Spiritual Formation Team meeting in a large church while waiting for the associate pastor to show up and start the meeting. The lady had discovered a Bible study she really liked, and she intended to ask permission to gather some friends together and lead them through it. I said to her, “Who is going to stop you?! You don’t need permission!” I don’t know if she ever got “permission” and if she ever formed a group to help her friends.

The Apostle Paul desired and expected church members to be on the frontlines with him – participants, not spectators!

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. (Philippians 1.27, ESV)

Sometimes a comment from one of the Ewellogy readers is worth a blog in itself, especially since some folks may not see the comments. Such is the case with my friend and long-time Navigator-trained disciple-maker David Shropshire’s comment on yesterday’s blog How to Stop a Movement. He adds two more movement stoppers:

Wow Bob!! You gave us something to think about. One thing that really impressed me about the Nav guy who discipled me many years ago was that his goal for me was to become a co-laborer rather than to remain ‘under’ him. Or as John the Baptist put it when his disciples were leaving him, “Jesus must increase and I must decrease.”

I agree ‘the way we do church’ (an institutional rather than organic mind-set) can hinder a generational movement, but the biggest problem may be leaders who don’t want to decrease. The temptation is very great to accumulate a following of people to remain under us, rather then to see them as co-laborers and encourage them to stir up their spiritual gifts. Another problem I see: there are a lot of potential kingdom laborers who have the false impression they need a human’s permission to labor in the harvest, when the Lord of the harvest has already given permission. – David Shropshire, June 24, 2022

Thanks, David. Good stuff. Leaders who don’t want to decrease and potential laborers waiting for permission: two more movement stoppers!

The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. (Matthew 10.1, MSG – Jesus sent out the twelve before they were ready!)

Yesterday we began thinking about why generational movements are difficult to sustain. We like to sit under teaching, but when it comes time to become teachers ourselves, some are reticent. Is the way we do church the problem?

I’m haunted by something I read in the business book The Starfish and The Spider: the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. The metaphor is that if you cut an arm off a starfish, it just grows another arm. Some species are such that if you cut them in two, you end up with two starfish. On the other hand, you cut the head off of a spider, and it dies. The book opens with the story of Cortez raiding ancient Mexico. He kills Montezuma and conquers the Aztecs. However, when Cortez advances into New Mexico, he encounters the Apaches who have a distributed leadership organization. You kill an ad hoc Apache leader, and the Apaches keep going.

But as I’m reading this, I thought, “There are no Apaches in New Mexico today. What happened?” Answer: in the 1800s the U.S. Government located Apache leaders and…gave them cows. Cows? Yes. A resource that the leader could distribute or withhold at his discretion, thus giving the leader more power. The Apaches stopped reproducing new leaders, and eventually the U.S. government eliminated the Apaches.

Suppose you’re Satan, and you’re trying to stop the growing early church. You kill a few apostles and persecute others. The ordinary people just scatter “preaching the word” (see Acts 8). You destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but no matter, the church has by that time spread out, and one of the main sending churches in Antioch. You kill most of the rest of the apostles. No matter, the word continues to spread. What to do?

You find existing church leaders and give them buildings.

With a building, the mode of ministry changes. One guy is the teacher. The building becomes the focal point of activity, most of it for the members. The Jesus movement loses momentum. This didn’t happen just in the 300s with Constantine.

The Navigators, an organization built on spiritual reproduction and multiplication, experienced the same phenomenon. On Navy ships during WW2, there were many groups of men gathering to study the bible together. When the group got too big, they would just divide since everyone knew how to do bible study. In some groups, however, there might be someone like me who seemed to know a lot about the Bible. “Bob, why don’t you teach us? You really know this stuff!” So the group changed from a participation activity to a spectator sport, and that branch of the movement stopped growing.

Something to think about. Paul certainly expected the Philippian believers to be active participants in the mission:

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (Philippians 1.27 – 30)

And Paul expected a growing cadre of teachers:

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2.1, 2, ESV)

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2.3 – 5, ESV)

P.S. I don’t mean to imply that churches and their buildings aren’t doing a lot of good. They are. A large part of my ministry is helping church leaders build the generational piece back in.

Yesterday I reminded us, yet again, that we ought to be about equipping ordinary believers for real ministry. Besides Ephesians 4.11, 12, here’s the clear word from Paul to Timothy:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

Paul -> Timothy -> Reliable people -> Others

Four “generations” in one verse. The early church had generational ministry going on. Ordinary believers, scattered as reported in Acts 8, founded the church in Antioch as reported in Acts 11.

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 11.19 – 21, NIV)

What happened? We were discussing this problem in Fort Payne, Alabama, a couple of weeks ago, when the pastor suggested, “Maybe church happened.” He might be on to something. Let’s pursue it a bit more tomorrow.

But let me clarify, we’ve always had church. After all, Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Paul founded and wrote letters to churches. The Revelation was written to seven churches. But Jesus didn’t come to build a church building. In fact, he said his church would be successfully assaulting the gates of hell:

…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16.18, ESV)

What’s the difference between Jesus’ Church, the other New Testament churches, and our churches today? And in what sense are our churches the problem? Stay tuned.

There’s so much in Ephesians that we can’t come close to getting it all, but we certainly don’t want to miss our marching orders – by “our” I mean church leaders:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4.11 – 16, ESV, emphasis mine)

Last Tuesday we introduced a little template: A, B, C, D, E.

• A: Apathetic
• B: Beginning to seek
• C: Confessing Christian
• D: Developing disciple
• E: Excelling reproducer

Our goal is not merely to “get ’em saved and baptized” – helping them move from A to C. It’s not even enough to see all of them in small group Bible studies – helping them move to D. It’s to “equip them for the work of ministry” – an A -> E ministry. I started our year together by writing three blogs on this important topic, beginning January 9, 2022. I commend them to you. One of the main lessons is that while moving from A to E takes time and training, part of the training involves being on mission immediately.

Jesus sent people out on mission way sooner than we tend to do. I don’t know why churches are so slow to pick up on this. The lesson from the demon-possessed guy of Mark 5, Matthew the tax collector in Mark 2, and the woman at the well in John 4 is clear. New believers can start missional (“E”) right away. As motivational speaker Tony Robbins says:

When would now be a good time?

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!” The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. (Matthew 9.35 – 10.1, MSG)

I’m beginning to think that “one body” is one of the main themes of Ephesians. We talked about lost insiders (Jews) and lost outsiders (Gentiles) coming together in “one new man” in chapter 2. Then Paul makes it clear in chapter 3 that we’re all in this together. The despised outsiders are…

…fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3.6, ESV)

And look how he starts chapter 4:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body… (Ephesians 4.1 – 4, ESV)

There is one body. There is no:

• Black versus white
• Republican versus Democrat
• Rich versus poor
• Liberals versus conservatives

We are called to treat each other

• with all humility and gentleness,
• with patience,
• bearing with one another in love,
• eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Can we keep the desired behaviors in mind as we interact with those different from us? Those we disagree with? (I don’t write this stuff…I just report it! Especially when God draws it to my attention.)

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.26 – 28, ESV)