"Are there not some who could fill your place?" (LMCO Pt. 1)

As November comes to a close, we look forward to the tremendous opportunity we are presented with next month. In December, like many other Baptist churches across the country, New Beginnings Church will be raising funds for the International Mission Board’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Although our congregation regularly supports IMB missionaries by giving a percentage of our monthly tithes and offerings to the Cooperative Program, the LMCO directly funds missionaries on the ground as they strive to bring unreached peoples to Christ. In fact, every penny given to the LMCO will go toward strengthening this kingdom work by covering missionary salaries and their housing expenses, education for MK’s (missionary kids), language training, transportation, security, technological needs, bibles and culturally relevant teaching materials, and much, much more.

The IMB is currently strategically engaged with more than 950 different people groups around the world. Of this significant gospel work, the LMCO makes up nearly 58% of the annual budget that helps finance these efforts. In light of this, I will be devoting the next month’s worth of blogs toward informing and reflecting on the woman for which this special offering is named. My hope is that we might be encouraged and inspired as we examine Lottie Moon’s life and her ministry in China. 

Charlotte “Lottie” Digges Moon was appointed to Tengchow, China one year after her sister, Edmonia. As we will explore in more detail in the weeks to come, Lottie was not the prototypical missionary. Actually, she may have seemed as unlikely as anyone living in her era to carry out this honorable calling. Nevertheless, she would spend the last four decades of her life doing just that. Why? Well, to put it simply, she came to the reality that her talents would be more worthwhile and fulfill a greater purpose in China than remaining here at home.

In what seemed to have served as a final affirmation of her call, Lottie received these words in a letter from her sister. “I cannot convince myself that it is the will of God that you shall not come. True, you are doing a noble work at home, but are there not some who could fill your place? I don’t know of anyone who could fill the place offered you here. In the first place, it is not everyone who is willing to come to China. In the next place, their having the proper qualifications is doubtful.” Lottie was a very gifted and skilled teacher. She was so good that many of the parents criticized her leaving. Why would she go and throw her life way? Why should she waste it for heathens on the other side of the globe? Folks found it especially hard to understand her reason for going. They figured their southern girls were more deserving of a good education. How dare she leave them!

Lottie realized that while she was indeed a gifted teacher, she was not irreplaceable. Additionally, why not spend her life on such a task? Sure it would require her very life, but it carried an immeasurable eternal value! Lottie counted the cost and determined that Jesus was worth it. I hope you can here the error in the objections of her contemporaries – how selfish, how uninformed, how unfaithful were their inquiries. Lottie helped lay a foundation for the gospel to go forward in China. The modern Chinese church is one of the fastest growing Christian movements in the world, which also involves sending Chinese-born missionaries to minister and plant churches throughout various parts of East Asia. Its roots trace back to Lottie and those faithful missionaries of her day.

So then, is there something more for us? More importantly, is there something more for you? Have you committed yourself to Christ’s commission? Are you willing to spend yourself for a something so much bigger than you and your dreams? Are our lives being spent in ways that magnify the Name that’s above every name? Faith doesn’t seek for safety in the comfort of familiar; it’s not concerned with stowing away in storehouses for a future that’s uncertain. Rather, it looks to the cross of Christ and the life of our Savior and finds hope therein. It is willing to pass on, even forsake, many a good thing for that which is best. Faith wrestles with and rests in the implications of the gospel. Though this kind of faith is not easy, it is our only reasonable response God’s grace, one promised to be worthwhile.

“Who imagines that because “Jesus paid it all,” they need pay nothing, forgetting that the prime object of their salvation was that they should follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in bringing back a lost world to God, and so aid in bringing the answer to the petition our Lord taught the disciples. Thy kingdom come.”” – Lottie Moon

 

Matt Fowler
Associate Pastor of Missions & Students
matt@nbchurch.info
@fattmowler

Bibliography:

Benge, Janet and Geoff. Lottie Moon: Giving Her All for China. Seattle: YWAM Publishing, 2001.

Early, Joseph E. Readings in Baptist History : Four Centuries of Selected Documents / [Compiled by] Joseph Early. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2008.

imb.org

The Shadow She Casts

It is hard to believe, but next Monday our baby Charlotte will be two months old. It seems like just the other day that my wife and I were talking to her while she was in the womb. She would move and kick in response to our questions and comments. We obviously interpreted these as positive replies (minus the judo chops to my wife’s ribs). Even before she was born, we saw glimpses of her personality and anxiously looked forward to meeting her in person.

We would regularly visit the doctor for check-ups. There we often got to see 3D sonogram photos (to my surprise we didn’t need those special movie glasses) and even a few 4D images. We had an idea of how she might look, as over time some of her facial features became more and more noticeable. We had felt her and we had seen glimpses of what she would be like. Still, we longed to see her face to face.

We had been given a delivery date and tried to plan accordingly. We made preparations for her coming. We purchased the final few items on our gift registry. Then we attempted to make space for her things (a bigger task than one might think). We tried to think through several different possible scenarios, as we wanted to be ready just in case she decided to come early or at a time less convenient.

Well, that’s exactly what she did. Sitting at one of our favorite restaurants enjoying a late breakfast date (on my birthday), through my wife’s increased contractions and pain level, it became pretty obvious that Charlotte was on her way. We went home, grabbed our car seat and overnight bags, and headed to the hospital. Sure enough, before the day was done, our fourth child was here (some kind of awesome birthday present, huh).

Right after she was born, just seconds after she had cried her first and most beautiful of screams (beautiful because it indicated that she was healthy and breathing – each one since has become slightly less enjoyable), the doctor laid her on my wife’s chest. Immediately, the one we had waited for and wondered about was here.

We could see her and touch her; we could hear her cry and sneeze; we could hold her. I cannot explain how excited I was that she was coming; yet my enjoyment of her actual arrival eclipsed my anticipatory enthusiasm. I had dreamed of holding her and snuggling with her on the couch. That first night I got to hold her while she slept. Char and I have since taken advantage of many opportunities to nap. And as great as I thought it would be, it has been even better.

As lovely as we thought she might be, she has been more. She’s more beautiful than we imagined, more precious than we hoped. While we technically still had things to do around the house, our hearts were ready for our little girl. Who we could previously only think about was finally here in the flesh. She was worth all the preparation. In fact, we could have done far more to welcome her into the world and still affirmed that claim – she would have been worth the extra effort.

And as I think about our newborn daughter, I cannot help but think about the shadow she casts, and how I see her coming in relation to our Savior. Do we not long to behold Him? Have our souls not ached for His appearing? We have tasted His goodness, witnessed His grace, and personally felt His tender mercies. Yet in all we have experienced, there is a longing for more. Enough of the fuzzy pictures and guestimates already, we want Him.

We have no exact date written in the Scriptures, just a promise that He’s coming again. And in that hour we’ll likely have plenty planned, many more things we had hoped to accomplish, yet it will all soon be forgotten. The troubles and cares of this world will be replaced with an overwhelming gratitude in His returning. Yes, in that day we will no longer cling through faith unseen, but we will know our hope by sight.

The temporary trophies and trinkets will fade in the grandeur of His glory. He will be greater than we imagined, far more than we had hoped for. Our mouths will drop in awe and wonder before filling with songs of praise. Our souls will acknowledge that He indeed is worthy – worth every cross we carried, worth every selfish desire we denied, worth every trial we fought through, worth every tear we cried, all the blood and sweat we lost, each hour of anguish we endured. It truly will be considered light and momentary. We will eternally exult in our good Father and worship His Name forever.

My wife and I thought we were ready to meet Charlotte, but we realized that in many ways our preparation was lacking. We longed to have her near, but the rich reality of her manifestation was more than we had asked. And yet she is not our Savior; she is not divine (her consistent 3am wake-up call is proof of that). She is a gift from above, meant to turn our gaze heavenward. For if such joy and depth can come through an imperfect child, how much more is to be found in the Christ. May our readiness not be in want and might our desire be for Him alone.

Whether He calls us home through death or we’re caught up in that day,

May our treasure be sweet Jesus, our Victory and Stay.

Matt Fowler
Assoc. Pastor of Missions & Students
matt@nbchurch.info
@fattmowler

Informed Thinking

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

What a wonderful prayer this is! Such desire must be pleasing to the Lord! Friend, I believe we would do well to join David in requesting the same today. Oh that our many words and thoughts about God would bring joy to our Heavenly Father, our Lord, our Rock and Redeemer.

While King David’s petition at the end of Psalm 19 is a precious ask in its own right, it is so much sweeter when read in light of its preceding verses. David describes the awe-inspiring splendor of God as witnessed through His creation. He describes how the Lord has made Himself known to all people through natural revelation (Psalm 19:1-6). He then testifies to the beauty of the God’s special revelation to Moses. He shows the priceless treasure of the Word – how it revives the soul, grants wisdom to the common, how it enlightens and endures, how it is sweeter than honey, more valuable than gold (Psalm 19:7-11).

With this in mind, David prays that He would think rightly on God. Sometimes God feels distant. It appears to us that He has grown bored or disinterested with His creation. We often wonder if we have somehow been forgotten. But here we see that is clearly not the case. God has made Himself known! We can see the works of His hands, the grandeur of His glory displayed in the things He has made, and know the certainty of His existence. Yet He has been so much more intimately involved with us. He has given us His Word – a Word that is profitable for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). This Word that David describes as perfect and true, pure and sure, has been given to His people. We do not have to wonder where God is or ponder at what He is like. We have that which He has revealed, and though we can only see in part, what we see is absolutely mind-boggling!

God is incomprehensibly big, powerful and mighty! And He is personally involved with His creation! We cannot fathom His thoughts; His knowledge is too great for us. Yet the One worthy our hearts affections has not only made Himself known to us, but He has also made Himself available. So when we pray, we can have great confidence knowing that we have been heard (1 John 5:14-15). This prompted Owen to write the following. “The truth is, we all of us know enough to love Him more than we do, to delight in Him and serve Him, obey Him, put our trust in Him, above all that we have hitherto attained.”

What David is truly longing for is an informed view of God to permeate His being – in every word and breath and deed. “Father, before I’m tempted to speak with empty words, revealing the folly of ignorance, remind me of who You are. Let me not speculate about You, but allow my soul to rest, fully conscious of what You have done. May I think on the ways You have disclosed knowledge of Yourself to us.” He is the Lord. He is our Rock. He is our Redeemer. May we consider the grace discovered in these truths and meditate upon their implications, and might such contemplation motivate faithful obedience that is acceptable in His sight.

Matt Fowler
Assoc. Pastor of Missions & Students
matt@nbchurch.info
@fattmowler

I love my church!

How much do I love this church?

As soon as I heard my wife say, “Phil, I’m sorry I have to tell you this. Your dad has died.” I instantly knew we would need to move back to Oklahoma from Colorado. My brother, due to his struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, moved in with my parents in June. In July, one month later, my dad passed away.
No one tells you that there is an unknown mantel of responsibility that is passed on to you when the patriarch dies. Sometimes, you discover the weight of the unknown mantel of responsibility when it lands on your own shoulders. It was the weight on my shoulders that caused me to instantly know that we were moving back to Oklahoma.
Sometimes, when God calls you to action He whispers (1 Kings 9:11-12). Most of the time when God calls you to action, He speaks through His Word and expects you to obey Him in faith (Romans 10:17; Revelation 14:12). This time, God called me to action, through deafening circumstances. Due to my father’s unexpected passing, my extended family needed me to come home.
The pastors in the Baptist faith move from church to church like free agents move in the NFL. You can’t ask for a transfer. You have to convince a church, which needs a pastor, to choose you. Pastor selection is like a blind date. There are awkward phone calls, awkward conversations, and if you make the cut, and awkward try out. My introduction to New Beginnings Church was awkward. There was a resume – no internet, no video, no .mp3 sermon, no GPS – just a resume. The first person I met from New Beginnings Church, I met at night at a 7-11 convenience store (creepy and awkward). New Beginnings Church had sent a “search committee” to hear me preach. They sat on a pew in the back of the church. Everyone knew why they were there.At this point in the blog I discover that this blog may be book length before I am finished documenting the last 20 years. So let me cut to the chase, let me stop the idle chatter, let me get to the point, let me not waste any more time.
I’m so thankful they picked me to be the pastor at New Beginnings Church.

• Thank you for listening to my sermons (more than 4000).
• Thank you for following my leadership.
• Thank you for loving, and protecting my family.
• Thank you for ignoring my mistakes.
• Thank you for serving along side of me.
• Thank you for allowing my wife to teach.
• Thank you for giving so generously for the cause of the Gospel.
• Thank you for trusting in God’s promises.
• Thank you for finding joy in God’s glory. (There are too many other things for which I am thankful to list here)

Ok. I’ll admit it. There have been other things and people that I find difficult for which to be thankful. Even so, I choose to be thankful for the things that are difficult too (1 Thessalonians 5:18). God had a purpose for those things, but He doesn’t ask me to dwell on them (Philippians 4:8) God has blessed me for 20 years as the pastor of New Beginnings Church. I pray He blesses me with many more.I love my church!

Dr. Phil Sallee, Pastor
twitter.com/philsallee
facebook.com/phil.sallee
philsallee.info
nbchurch.info
nbfamilies.info

Will we run out of stuff to say?

Today’s blog is written for a couple of different purposes. First, it is a heads-up that several future blogs may reference or revolve around the newest edition to our family, baby Charlotte. Yes, if you are keeping score at home, she is nearly 6 weeks old and has yet to have so much as a mention in any of my Monday posts (until now). That is partly because I have displayed great restraint but mainly because I have some thoughts simmering in the crock-pot of my mind. They’ll soon be ready, and well, just know that you’ve been warned ahead of time. Secondly, I write because since her birth, really for months leading up to it, I have experienced a rejuvenated desire to write and record some of the little gospel glimpses that the Lord has shown me. It’s these pictures of His truth reflected in every day life that have stirred my heart in some new, invigorating ways. And it is this very thing that I want to discuss today.

Have you ever wondered how a preacher is to come up with something new to say each week? I have. Heck, I still do. Yes, the Bible is an inexhaustible, life-giving spring that will never run dry; one could teach on every verse of every page for the rest of his life and yet never plumb the depths of its fullness. However, despite the enormity of Scripture, its message is central throughout. Whether looking forward to Jesus’ coming in the OT, reflecting on His life, teachings, and church in the NT, Christ is what it is all about. Man has made a mess of things, but God has given us the remedy in His gospel. He is reconciling all things to Himself. He has been gracious to us from the Garden until now, and He forever will be. So wherever one digs into the Word, if he thoroughly excavates the text, he will ultimately discover God’s redemptive plan unfolding. All roads lead to a bloody cross and an empty tomb.

So how then is one to teach this week after week without seeming redundant? How can one deliver this message of hope sermon after sermon, without it starting to sound stale? How does the precious story of Jesus maintain its precious status? How can one keep from becoming too familiar with the gospel? How can Christ’s cross be powerfully proclaimed from the pulpit year after year and not become a mere repetition of church-goer clichés that have lost their significance? Searching for the answer to these questions is vital, not only to those in vocational ministry, but also to each and every believing soul! This Jesus that has saved us, is saving us, and will keep us safe until the end. This truth we have in our mind, but how might we keep such knowledge treasured within our heart?

So for me, the solution to this inquiry has come through seeing God’s grace in our fourth child (again, you’ve been warned that the blogs will be coming), through my Grandpa’s life of ministry (to be shared on another day), and most recently through my pastor, Dr. Phil Sallee. He has served as the lead pastor of New Beginnings Church for over 20 years now! In fact, we will be celebrating this milestone as a church family next Sunday. As I’ve reflected on what I know of Phil and how I’ve seen God at work in his life and ministry, I’ve come to a conclusion. For us to sidestep the enemy’s blindsiding blitz that forces our neglect of God’s glorious gospel, we must strive to seek this sweet gift working in our individual lives daily.

This means that we must not only focus on the challenges before us, we must also see God as instrumental in our past as well. This includes seeing the Lord’s guidance in each step of life. For my pastor, there was a reason it took 3 baptisms before he finally found a faith that was his own. It means there was a purpose for Phil growing up on Tulsa’s eastside at a time when it more closely resembled today’s suburban South Tulsa (Aka = it was not the same “East Tulsa” that our Middle School Family Pastor, Mike Krebs, grew up in). It means observing God’s hand in Phil’s enrollment to Tulsa University, where he would eventually meet his bride, to observing God’s providence that not only led his family to Colorado for a season, but later brought him back home after the death of his father so that he could help care for his mother and brother. Seeing the gospel at work each day involves trusting in God to be completely sufficient. When called to take on a church plant that had formed after a church-split, a group that had formally met in a funeral home, there would be no other way for Phil and his congregation to succeed outside of leaning upon Christ.

NBC has grown during Phil’s tenure and has changed worship gathering locations on several occasions, moving from the dress shop, to the Bixby high school commons / lunchroom area, to the HS auditorium, to the middle school gymnasium, to the HS gym, to a plot of land out west of town that hosts the current campus.  Of course this came into being in not one, but through two separate building campaigns.  Without personally witnessing God’s gospel at work, Phil, and really any pastor, would have been sunk with all the details and capital demands. Yet, the church has flourished under his leadership, I believe, because Phil has seen God’s sustaining grace through it all. He has observed the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of people.

How again can one proclaim the Savior’s story over and again without the message somehow growing tired? I contend that he must notice the gospel shadows in his very home. For Phil, he has articulated to me personally, as well as our local body, how his relationship with his only son has provided special and specific pictures of God’s love. He has perhaps never preached with as much passion as the seasons revolving around the wedding dates of his daughters, in which he performed both ceremonies. Phil’s enjoyment of his granddaughters and the faithful love and support of his wife have resulted in fresh stories to tell, new arrows that point to the God of the gospel (not suggesting that those stories have not been retold a time or two).

But Phil’s 20 years have not always been easy. Friends and loved ones have passed; NBC has not escaped its share of tragedy. Staff and congregants have come and gone. Some moved on with a blessing and mutual appreciation, yet on the way out, others took verbal jabs aimed at wounding a pastor that loved them. There may be no greater megaphone for God’s grace than to forgive those who would intentionally injure. I’m in no way claiming my pastor is perfect and without fault. None of us are. What I am saying is that 9 years of knowing this man coupled with 4+ years of serving alongside him in a full-time capacity have allowed me to see a lot. I’ve seen forgiveness extended when it was not easy. Why? I think it was only because of Phil’s awareness that he has been forgiven of so much more. If a man will daily see his own depravity and unfit status to preach, well, as some have said, he is finally at that point, on the path to being ready to preach. God has gifted Phil with this kind of spiritual introspection.

Being able to tell the old, old story in a variety of ways involves spending time in the Word – feeding on it, meditating and reflecting upon it, fleshing it out in life but also with a pen. Though I have not and will not read each blog (you guys are lucky if I even proofread my own), I know that weekly, Phil devotes a great amount of time to writing. He processes through what he is seeing and experiencing in life and Scripture and shares with us how it should turn our eyes heavenward. It is only in genuine exegetical exploration that one can find reasons for rejoicing in the Minor Prophets. You remember the Malachi series, right? Now we’re in Joel…Joel!!

I could go on and on with more examples, but then you might miss the point. How does a guy find something to say week after week? He learns to cling to the gospel daily. So then, what are you to take from this? Surely I’ve not spent an entire block of time talking up my pastor for the sake of his self-esteem. Surely there’s a lesson in this for me and you. Think for a moment, what stirs your affections for Jesus each day? How or in what ways does this happen? We must desire to master the art of seeking our Savior in all things. For when we see Him presently revealing His goodness in our lives, we can’t help but share such grace with others. When we see Him, we share Him and thank Him. This concept I’m describing involves more than what some preacher might find to say or blog about. If we are to have longevity and vitality in ministry, we must first find the gospel as active and growing in our own lives. What is true for Phil, is true for me and it is the same for you as well. Are you seeing what God is trying to show you today? Do you currently see His undeserved favor at play in your life?

As John Piper says, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” When He allows us to see these things, how do we respond? May we think on God’s grace that is made evident each day, and might the awareness of His merciful hand continue to change our lives. Oh that we’d live many, many years making His gospel known in ways that draw others unto Him, all while breathing life into our very souls.

Matt Fowler
Assoc. Pastor of Missions & Students
matt@nbchurch.info
@fattmowler