Traveling Man, Traveling Band
Writing while riding in a suburban pulling a trailer on a bumpy stretch of interstate in West Virginia does not come easily. But here I am, typing away on my sweet new Mac book on a ten-hour drive with the guys in Finding Madison who travel with me. My son Josh sits in the back reading Plato for a college class. Kyle Webb, the seminarian, has taken his turn at driving (he somehow gets to drive more than anyone else). Josh Hicks the bassist, a philosophy major at UNC-Greensboro, normally converses with me about philosophy or other matters of culture, or discusses with Kyle technological matters far beyond me, or engages in heady conversations with all of us on matters related to music and the arts. At the moment he is discussing with Kyle an idea he has on how he could develop a new technology for the iphone to help fund law school. Jeff Capps, a Southeastern College grad who now lives in Texas, flew home while we made our way up and down the Appalachian Mountains from Ohio to North Carolina.
We just passed the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, heading back from Gravity Weekend near Cleveland, Ohio, just outside Cleveland. This is my second year at Trinity Baptist Church for their DiscipleNow they call Gravity, and has been a delightful visit again. Several youth met Christ this year, some who stood and testified openly of this fact Saturday night. I particularly enjoyed seeing students who are growing following their salvation at last year’s Gravity Weekend. The Senior Pastor, affectionately called by his people Dr. Bob, is a Canadian with a sharp wit and a deep love for his people. His congregation has grown from two services to three in the past twelve months, and has recently purchased land nearby as they have outgrown their current place. Dr. Bob and I discussed how the Cleveland area stands as a mission field, but how over the past two decades southern cities like Atlanta and Raleigh have become more like Cleveland in its unchurched status than Cleveland like cities from the “Bible belt.”
I love this church—it is a great place to preach with a wonderful group of youth who love corporate worship and straight preaching. Youth pastor Jason Greene, one of my students who graduated from SEBTS about three years ago, makes me grateful for what I do. I pray God will give me a thousand to teach just like him. Jason by his own admission lived completely apart from Christ until his 19th year when Jesus radically changed him. Upon graduating from Kent State and Southeastern Seminary he returned to his home state to serve at Trinity. He and his wife have three precious little girls, the last one born just three days before our weekend.
I confess that driving 600 miles with a band, pulling a trailer, and serving as a glorified roadie Fridays and Sundays (I wrap wires and haul gear like the young guys) can get a little old. I take some delight in my role not only as preacher and leader of the gang, but also in my role as Assistant to the Sound Engineer (Kyle). Note: that is Assistant TO the Sound Engineer, not Assistant Sound Engineer, for you Office fans. But there is something visceral about ministry like this, something wholesome about busting a knuckle on the trailer hitch or helping to sound check after a long drive that keeps me grounded. Sometimes people tell me I am cooler than I know I am, or more this-or-that because I like writing books and teaching and preaching all over the place. I really love the guys who travel with me, these four and a few others who sometimes join us. I love traveling with them. I love it even more when my wife and daughter go with me, which is most of the time.
Back to youth pastor Jason. He is a young man of such integrity, who truly wants to grow as a man of God, always asking questions and listening. A youth pastor who really loves his students and their parents and the local church, imagine that. Jason makes me happy I teach when I get frustrated with folks who simply seem not to get it. He worked me like a mule all weekend—I spoke seven times in about 40 hours: three times to the students, once to parents, and three times Sunday morning. Everything was done with excellence, from the place we stayed to the schedule we followed. Weekends like this are very tiring but even more gratifying.
I get no greater joy in ministry, other than traveling with my family, than going to a place one of my students serves and seeing real, valuable, fruitful ministry in Jesus’ name, especially outside the south. The weekend before I served with a current DMin student at his church near Tampa, Florida, with a group of folks who are starting to understand what missional means. This weekend I enjoyed ministry with a church that gets this also. I see promising, hopeful signs all around me, and typically in local churches at the front edge of ministry in cities where the need for the gospel looms large and secondary issues matter less.
Off to the last full week of classes and a lot of ground to cover in a little bit of time, to Mother’s Day weekend (I stay home all weekend then), and then to more blessed ministry here and there. God is good to use a hick from Alabama like me for His glory in many ways and places. Now it is time to stop typing as it is my turn to drive….