10ThirtyOne To Glory – Pastor Dave's blog

“What’s ‘pushing back the darkness’”? asked a lady.  The elevator doors closed.  The cable lines began to whirl and so did my thoughts.

Welcome to a day chronicled of council life at the C&MA General Council in Kansas City, Missouri.  This is my first attendance at a General Council so my wife and I were looking forward to it.  We’re greatly appreciative that our local church made it possible for us to attend.  Shout out to the Atlanta Road Alliance Church!  So let the chronicled day in the life of C&MA Council begin…

Let’s just say that before I even touched my feet onto the berber carpet of my hotel room this morning out of bed, there were reports on the news that tornado’s were going to touch down on Kansas City.  It was bound to be an interesting day, as it always is with God’s providence!  But first things first, we needed to register for Council.  After spending my quiet time with the Lord at 20 stories high from my room, and grabbing breakfast and coffee, we headed over to the convention center to register alongside the other C&MA workers who had their maps out getting their bearings.

The great thing about Council so far is that you meet many C&MA workers or should I say friends, or dare I say, well, family.  That’s what it is.  It’s similar to a giant family reunion (minus the giant spaghetti dinners).  It’s a common threaded theme that’s woven through these type of events.  For example, after we registered we ran into Andy Kerr on our way out.  And as we we were talking, a friend of his he knew from Beirut, named Haytham stopped to talk with us.  Small world.

Now, remember those tornadoes I mentioned?  Well, in the middle of our conversation, a convention center worker walks past us and said we all have to go to the basement because of a tornado warning that is a real possible threat.  Interesting.  So, we all head down to the dark cavernous basement.  But, it turned out to be okay because we talked with a convention center worker that we met earlier as we sat on the cold concrete floor.  Soon we get the “all clear” and we head back to the hotel to plan our attack for the rest of the day, now that we have our Council schedule.

Council doesn’t officially start until the evening session at 7:00 pm, so we decide to get lunch at Jack Stack Barbecue by the famous Union Station and then head over to the WWI Museum.  It’s Kansas City so we have to get something barbecued!  We arrive and the welcoming aroma of native Ozark hickory smoke delivers on it’s promise of melt-in-your-mouth flavor of a perfect burnt ends barbecue.  This beef had bark like an oak tree.  And of course, I see Bill Schmeissing from our Mid-Atlantic District there.  He couldn’t resist the barbecue too!

After lunch, we headed outside to a mix of sunshine and ominous dark and puffy clouds.  We walked over to the WWI museum.  To tell you the truth, I was blown away by this museum.  I love reading about WWII, but I never knew that much about WWI.  The museum, to say the least, was impressive and well worth the time to understand the nature and dynamics of the “war to end all wars”.  Learning about the various threads of tension that existed before WWI erupted eerily sounded much like our times today.  WWI was a dark time in Europe with trench warfare and new mechanized ways of fighting.  But there is much to be admired and challenged by brave men that rose to the occasion to fight against the darkness and tyranny of a nation.  Move your mind to a more spiritual context:  Should we not, as Christians, be emboldened and passionate for the Great Commission that Christ has given to us to make disciples of all nations?  Do we not have the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” to present to those lost in the darkness of their sin and self-justifying righteousness before God?  To be continued…

We wrapped up our tour with the WWI museum and hiked uptown back to the Convention Center; back to the family reunion.  The various ministry booths are now open so we decided to check those out.  We ran into Jason Ostrander and talked with him for awhile on a range of topics (from short-term missions to how some people say “coupon” differently.  It’s “coo-pon” not “cew-pon”!)  We then moved on to meet some new people and talked with Peter Burgo, editor for Alife magazine (the C&MA magazine).  They do a great job with the magazine and we checked out some of the new material they’re putting out for churches called “C&MA DNA”.  We then floated around to some other booths, talked with others, and then decided we better find something to eat before the 7:00 session starts.

Starbucks made the cut.  We head into the store, and of course, who do we meet?  Todd and Debbie Adams, missionaries from Indonesia.  My family and I had the wonderful privilege of having Todd stay at our home while he visited our church on tour.  It was great to see them.  Ironically, he was trying to call me to let me know that he finished the books I purchased for him, but it turns out he had the wrong number!  I just couldn’t believe that he finished the books in that short time span!

After splashing down a granola with coffee so bold to make your chest hair stick out, we headed back to the convention center.  And as you might have guessed, we met up with some more friends!  Moses, Bill, Allen, Rob, just to name a few, and Dr. Corbin, our District Superintendent and his wife, Linda.  In the midst of our conversations, we are told that the session is about to start.  So, like a herd of cattle, we move into the large auditorium hall for the beginning of the first evening session.  And of course, who sits behind us, but Mike Mercurio!  Did I mention that he married my wife and I?  Yep, he did.  The session began with an A.B. Simpson re-enactment and it was great to see all the missionaries, chaplains, and other international workers carrying the flags in the beginning of the service.  Ravi Zacharias spoke and he addressed pushing back the darkness from one’s own heart before we even look at pushing back the darkness in our communities, nation, and world.

One point in his address was observing the peace God brings in the midst of pain.  He mentioned a verse that has stuck out to me and that I shared with my daughter Sam recently.  It’s from 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  You see, our daughter Sam has been going through some testing for a medical condition that she will have for life.  And the thing that has been asked from every person we have met throughout this day was how our daughter was doing.  It was touching to hear how many people said they were praying.  God’s grace in Jesus Christ truly is sufficient as He many times supplies it through His people.  And this blessing flows from the fountainhead of the cross, including the blessing of Jesus’ presence ministered through His people.  God may not take away the pain, but the wonderful abiding presence of Jesus Christ is sufficient enough to walk through it.

And now, it’s off to bed as I type these last words by my desk lamp.  I close in remembering the famous quote by Sir Edward Grey on the eve of WWI. “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time.”  Yes, we must not forget that we live in a world in spiritual darkness, but we have the light of Jesus Christ.

So, come back to the lady on the elevator… “What’s ‘pushing back the darkness’”? asked the lady.  The elevator doors closed.  The cable lines began to whirl and so did my thoughts.  The answer is not “what”, but “who” pushes back the darkness.  It’s Jesus Christ.