Transitions in Expecting and Attempting

I remember the assignment from Church History my first year in seminary some 42 years ago: craft a sermon based on the life and faith of someone from the past 2000 years of Christian history.

As a 23-year-old theology student, I saw this as a huge challenge. We had studied Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Smyth and so many others.  Who to choose?  And how to do justice to that person’s work and witness?

In the end, because of my felt call to serve in global missions, I chose William Carey, a poor 18th century English shoemaker who challenged his highly skeptical Calvinist Baptist colleagues assembled at the Baptist Association meeting in Nottingham, England, to receive God’s call to enter global missions based on his reading of Isaiah 54:1-3.

Carey’s “expect great things from God, attempt great things for God” became the rallying cry for Christians for generations to come who applied Isaiah’s ancient instructions to “enlarge the site of [their] tent” and “strengthen [their] stakes” to the opportunities awaiting them in global mission.  And as I constructed (and actually preached!) that sermon, it confirmed the rightness of my own sense of calling to Christian mission.

As Sue and I will soon enter the final chapter in our vocational mission journey, this text and Carey’s challenge come back to mind.  By the close of this summer – Lord willing and the creek don’t rise – Sue and I will transition our mission work with CBF from Virginia to our home state of Arkansas where, in a few years’ time, we hope to retire.  Hard to believe for sure, but we’ve arrived at the stage of life where vocationally folks are generally slowing down, drawing things to a close, handing tasks off to a younger generation, and looking back over a life of ups and downs and ins and outs, a time of thankfulness and anticipation of what’s next. 

But Carey’s challenging words, and Isaiah’s clear-sighted call, will not leave me alone. “Expect…attempt…enlarge…strengthen!”  What?!?  Are these really the words I should be hearing ringing in my ears?  Instead, it seems I should mostly be pondering words like:

• God’s faithfulness, shown to an outwardly confident but inwardly frightened young man who found himself arriving in Costa Rica in 1987 wondering how on earth to be a “missionary” tasked with doing theological education, religious education, and (eventually) mission administration in a second language, yet who came to see over time that God’s faithful guidance, correction, teaching and patience had been accompanying him and growing him every step of the way;
  

• God’s hopefulness, planted deep in my heart when, after 12 years in a country we thought we’d call home until retirement, circumstances led us sadly to return to the US yet finding that God would stir in us renewed hope for ministry as God brought into our focus the mostly Latino immigrant community living all around us in Fredericksburg, Virginia and challenged us to use our gifts in service there; and
  

• God’s abiding love, for us in leading to the formation of LUCHA Ministries and for our immigrant friends and neighbors served over the years by an incredible group of volunteers working to feed the hungry, to comfort the mournful, to advocate for the frightened and lonely, to represent non-citizens seeking immigration legal benefits, to empower women to learn life and vocational skills, to mentor children often left behind by US school systems, and more.
  

To be sure, God’s faith, hope and love do fill my heart as I look back at close to four decades of global mission service.  But even more so am I filled with God’s challenge, maybe with more clarity and greater urgency, to expect much, much more from God, to attempt by the leadership of God’s Spirit to reach further milestones for God, and to enlarge the ministry space God has called me to possess by the strength only God supplies.

On July 1, 2024, Sue and I will conclude our involvement and leadership in LUCHA Ministries.  And by September 1, we hope to have transitioned to Arkansas.  There, Sue will continue her work, initiated last year, as manager of CBF’s Strengthening Families Initiative, a multi-year project designed to strengthen families by focusing on creating new and innovative ways to assist communities and populations who are served by US-based CBF Global Missions field personnel. The goal is to help foster healthier families who are better equipped to successfully navigate the complexities of living in the US.

For my part, while I continue to serve alongside Sue as Area Coordinator for Mission Teams with the Internationals North America Team and Rural Urban Team, I have been asked to work with CBF and CBF-partner colleagues in developing a fuller understanding of how CBF engages in global mission for the benefit of our global mission work and of CBF-related churches and others who by their holistic witness interact and serve local and global communities in mission every day.  I can’t say that this new avenue of service is fully fleshed out yet, but I can say that I sincerely look forward to forming new and meaningful relationships throughout CBF life seeking to learn how to dive deeper into service of God and others.

I ask for your prayers as Sue and I transition.  And I ask for your continued if not increased support, first, to the CBF Offering for Global Missions which will continue to allow me to be fully present with the people and churches I seek to serve, and to the Mission Budget of Greg and Sue Smith that provides my programming funds. Without your support, none of what we do could be possible.

Thank you for allowing Sue and me to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God for all these years of service.  We look forward to what God is planning next!