After twelve years of attending a church we dearly loved, we knew we had to move on when there were four different church days per week because of youth groups. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t lived 25+ miles and over 35 minutes away. After months of attending multiple churches our customary 4 times, we were about to give up when a friend of Rebekah’s invited us to a church in a strip mall. Since we didn’t have anything else planned, we went and were pleasantly surprised by the terrific worship, an excellent theological discourse, and their unique but solid approach to youth. After we all piled into our 15 passenger “ghetto van” I was staggered by the feedback from all the family members. Let it be known that on that spring day of 2003 everyone of our family members agreed on something. If you can think of another time this happened, please remind me! It was unanimous. This was where God wanted us, we agreed — after only one visit!
Over the weeks and months ahead I paid very close attention how services were conducted, the ideological and theological mindset of the church, and its literature, as well as the demeanor of the senior pastor. I can honestly say in the decades since my graduation from seminary I have never met a man like him. He is anything BUT a high powered screamer and pulpit beater, or a charismatic cheerleader choosing his words carefully to ensure the congregation’s feathers were fluffed. As a matter of fact when friends of ours from our old church visited, they felt he was a little “too humble and unassuming.” To me that was what was so refreshing. To find a man who had achieved success in building a church but was not interested in numbers or programs but focused on the spiritual welfare of each person was amazing. I was simply unaccustomed to seeing this approach. What further cemented my love and admiration for Lee was his transparency to the whole congregation — not just a select few. I have never met a man so worthy standing in a pulpit.
After several years I was asked to serve on the church board. The depth of what I saw from the pew was more deeply illuminated in our board meetings. Though there were agenda items, the strategic planning to become the biggest and best did not exist. There was simply a receptiveness and desire to follow God’s leading. I believe that God used the years he dealt with Lee’s health issues to keep him in a position of malleability and openness to being God’s man instead of the fulfillment of his own ego.
I tell you this, my children, because I want you to be able to discern the difference between someone who is just a great orator and a true servant of the living God. The one who speaks the truth through the power of the Holy Spirit when he is told what to say will be the one who plants living seeds into your life that will be watered as God orders your steps. Can one man be both? Sure, but it is rare. I will choose the man who is sincere and speaks simply, truthfully, and honestly with a heart of humility. We can all learn from such a man — in the same way the Israelites learned from Moses (Numbers 12:3).
Love,
Dad