A Landmark Day

Yesterday--9 July 2009--four of our 38 shepherds at the Highland Church of Christ went to San Antonio to spend the day with Lynn and Carolyn Anderson. With myself were Jim Clark, Bob Gomez, and Jerry Strader. I have been a shepherd since 1976, Jerry since 1974, Bob for approximately twenty years, and Jim for approximately ten years. [Forgive me if I miss the "exact" dates a little]. Our purpose was to anoint Lynn and Carolyn with oil [since we trust God and strive to follow the biblical teaching of James 5:14], pray for them [again for James 5:14-15], and encourage them in the name of the Lord [believing the teachings of 1 Thessalonians 5:11].

For many ways, this was indeed A LANDMARK DAY. There is no way I can "capture" everything that occurred, but here are a few "highlights" that EVERYONE needs to note and remember.

1. Approximately, Lynn was diagnosed as Stage 2 of lung cancer, which the doctors just learned he is about 60% successful. Lynn had just been through surgery, and is now going through rehab. Soon, he will undergo several weeks of chemo. We knew all of this in the past three weeks except the latest information, which changes the issue a little. But we fervently BELIEVE that God is the great HEALER of all human beings, and so we go to anoint Lynn and Carolyn, pray, and strive to encourage. Lynn has always had a positive attitude. One of his responses was: God will remove my disease, OR God will remove me from my disease [which, of course, leads to death]. All of us have to face this reality as some point in life. I resonate with Lynn and Carolyn's situation right now, because approximately 14 months ago I had open heart surgery and a stroke. My wife and I were and are in a similar type of situation.

2. We have learned over approximately 40 years that GOD ALONE can deliver us. The Highland Church of Christ [everyone--not just the shepherds, not just the preacher, not just the deacons, not just the teachers, but EVERYONE] determined that we will trust God no matter what happens. As we reflected on the 19 years that Lynn and Carolyn functioned as pulpit minister, we remember some of the experiences we underwent. Many criticized and slandered and defamed and tried to fire Lynn. But, guess what, we are GOD'S ETERNAL FAMILY, and so we stayed in the floods and the flames and ONLY BY GOD'S GRACE AND POWER, we are now much, much better than where we have ever been spiritually in our lives--and the Highland Church of Christ has grown tremendously. There were many changes during those years:
a. Emerging out of the wonderful series of sermons on Romans about God's grace just before Lynn came, we changed from a work centered religion to a grace centered spiritual family.
b. We changed from an "elder" mindset to a "shepherd" function as a part of God's family. The elders are not CEOs any more, but "servants" of the whole flock.
c. We changed from "deacons" as "officers" to REAL "ministers" [kinda "biblical" in concept and daily life functioning] involving males and females. [Oh--check the biblical term--a "deacon" is a "minister," NOT an officer in the church].
d. We changed from a "preacher" focused church to a "proclaimer" servant family. Oh, by the way, our FAMILY--our SPIRITUAL FAMILY--our ETERNAL FAMILY is very precious to us. We have one Father--God; one elder brother--Jesus Christ; one Holy Spirit--and the rest of us are "parts" or "members" or "functions" or "sons" and "daughters" in the body or in the family. So, this is not "top to bottom" from elders to deacons to teachers to members. EVERYONE is an important functionary in the family--kinda like a human body--eyes and ears and a nose and hands and fingers and legs and feet and toes, etc. I think that may be somewhere--maybe in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.
e. We changed from differentiated groups like older people, young married couples, high school, toddlers, etc., to an intergenerational concept of life--kinda like a family. Oh, we still recognize and work with all these groups, but they know they are a vital part of the family--from the very youngest to the very oldest.

3. How did we respond to our critics and slanderers and "preacher firers" and opponents? It was tough--very tough. But we "bit our tongues." We realized and still realize we are human and thus we are sinful and we are wrong. But BY FAITH from the Bible, our response was to our critics: We love you. We pray for you. We wish you well. We wish we had time to argue with you and debate with you. But we have only 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year, and we think we should spend our time serving God and serving others. So--we have given our lives to God for the service of others. We probably made the wrong decision. But, in our feeble thinking and efforts, this is what we are going to do. [Oh--I think someone said that Jesus criticized and slandered and "fired" and crucified RELIGIOUS people in his own lifetime--HMMM!!!].

4. Lynn and Carolyn left Highland almost twenty years ago, but they know that they are a vital part of our FOREVER FAMILY at the Highland Church of Christ. It was marvelous to us that Lynn and Carolyn's sons and daughters and son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws and grandchildren surrounded Lynn and Carolyn all through this. Several of them were with us yesterday. A real family is always there. There is no competition or wrangling or bitterness. Just love.

We are so blessed by God for all these experiences over the past 40 years. We hope and pray that all of you have a similar experience. Let me share YOUR EXPERIENCES.

John Willis