Charlie Wear’s Notes

If you are one of my loyal readers (I am pretty sure there are a few of you), you know that for the last year or so I have been up to my neck overseeing the web communication activities of my friend, Steve Sjogren. Steve is starting a church in the Tampa area of Florida next year and that’s one of the reasons Loretta, Ben and I moved down there last year.

One of the things I neglected to do was make arrangements for earning a living in Florida! I am a licensed lawyer in California and have done that kind of work for several years to finance my extracurricular activities. When I resigned my job and moved to Florida full-time last October I still had not been able to make application to take the Bar examination and practice law in Florida.

One thing has lead to another and I have had to curtail my Sjogren activities and take a temporary job doing legal work in California. Luckily I was able to bum an airline ticket off my brother, and borrow some money from friends to tide us over until I can get my first healthy paycheck in my new job. The upside is that I have a flexible job that will pay me regular money. The downside, I have to be away from Loretta and Ben for weeks at a time.

This is a bad analogy, but I think I have a glimpse of how those men and women who are in the military on temporary duty around the world must feel when they are separated from their family. Trust me, it is not very good. Luckily I have a great guy to hand off a lot of my previous activities to, his name is Scott Bane and keep an eye on him he is an up and comer.

I was sitting in the shade while Ben and Loretta were in the clubhouse swimming pool this afternoon. The clubhouse sits on higher ground in our complex and looks out over a lake at the golf course. With the clouds in the blue sky, the pool and the golf course it could have been a Hawaiian resort.

Loretta and Ben were holding on to each other and jumping up and down in the water. With clouds covering the sun for a few moments the water shimmered in silvery ripples and waves. I smiled. It felt good.

I like simple prayers. This is probably because I have a very short attention span. I have been known to knod off while others are speaking, and while I have been in the middle of praying! I confess. It is true. I don’t claim to be a "prayer" warrior, or for that matter a warrior of any kind.

I really enjoyed it when John Wimber would say that in a tricky situation he would recite his favorite prayer, "O God, O God, O God…"

One of my favorite prayers lately has been, "Jesus, take the wheel." Now you may think that this is trite, praying a catch phrase from a popular country song, but please withhold judgment. You see, I have a problem with wanting to drive, just ask my wife! I feel fine when I am behind the wheel. I don’t feel quite so fine when anyone else is driving too fast, or talking too much, or fiddling with the radio too much when they are driving. You see, I enjoy the illusion of control. Don’t we all?

Some of us have a stronger illusion of control than others, and some of us feel the need for that feeling more than others. Which is what I am praying about when I say "Jesus take the wheel." I am saying, "God, the situation is out of control, I don’t know which way to turn, which road to follow, whether to go forward or turn around." It’s at times like that, frequently actually, that I utter the prayer, "Jesus take the wheel."

Now, I don’t know if this qualifies as a James 5 quality prayer, not sure if it will be either "effectual" or "avail much." Certainly it won’t as a result of my "righteousness." I can say that it is Hosea 7, "heartfelt." (The Message) And certainly since the Father knows what I am intending, (Matthew 6) it should be okay for now.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ⁴¹  is love, ⁴²  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ⁴³  5:23 gentleness, and ⁴⁴  self-control.

Well, okay…one of the footnotes for the NET Bible translation of this verse says that everything following the word love could be read as defining the attributes of love. As a good human "doing" I would like to propose that we do a self-evaluation for each of these categories, on a scale of one to ten. Let’s be honest, okay?

Alright, there are eight attributes, that means that 80 is a perfect score, 0 would be quite a bit less than perfect. With me so far? Okay, let’s help out on the scale….

Joy: I have a song in my heart and a smile on my lips, that has got to be a 10…I frequently stay in bed until 2 p.m. and wear my pajamas all day while lying on the couch using the remote control…uh, a 0?
Peace: oh boy, I am going to pull the plug here and stop being clever…I’m holding myself up against these attrributes and I say woe is me…I have missed the mark, fallen short, where is my portable sackcloth and ashes and my velcro stripped rent-able clothing when I need it?

God help me! Live in me and through me, because when it is all said and done I am not very loving…I can’t decide if it is a good thing to want to be more "fruity." That is better than being fruitless, I guess.

And here is the kicker, there is no way I can "try" to be good…Trying is a waste of good energy…better to just give up! Yeah, that’s the ticket.

If you haven’t figured it out, these days I am up to my neck in editing and publishing ventures. As an agent I am negotiating book deals. As an editor I am shepherding several websites and blogs. I am also helping a close friend in a publishing venture. Roger Sachs has been "missional" since he was radically saved during the Jesus movement. Before his conversion, he had been a hippie and a drug dealer until he ended up in a Mexican prison. He was in on the early days of the Vineyard and Keith Green. He worked with Lonnie Frisbee in the 80s and 90s. He is not an international speaker, nor is he the pastor of a megachurch. But he is a guy who sold all he had, cashed in his family’s savings and bought round-the-world airline tickets to do missions work in New Zealand, Africa and England.

On that trip he found himself hiding out in a storm pipe in the African wilderness along with many other adventures. Over the years Roger has had a passion to write about these adventures. In his own, raw and conversational style he has told his story in his first book, Fire on the Mountain, available through Freedom Publications. This is the kind of book that "missional" leaders should read if they want to understand how truly radical following Christ can be.

In case you are wondering, I am up to my armpits in web site development, editing and publishing, and happier than a clam! Not making much money yet. But I am excited about the stuff I am doing. I have also opened a literary agency called Illuminate, LLC. Oh, and yeah, check out my latest web publishing endeavor: Fat Pastors.

I have a 33-yr.-old son and a 3-yr.-old son. When my oldest son was born, having fathers in the delivery room was rare and it never happened during a C-section. So when he was born I was in the Father’s room watching the Sonny and Cher show on television. When my youngest was born I was there for the whole ordeal.

And it was an ordeal. Lots of pain, and blood, and worries and fears and then…joy! Jesus told Nicodemus that to see the kingdom of God one must be born again! Now, stay with me here, I’m not trying to get too religious or hyperspiritual, but I have seen people enter the kingdom of God in a "spiritual labor and delivery room."

I used to wonder if there were places or people that had an evangelistic anointing, an atmosphere of evangelism surrounding them. Surely Billy Graham and his ‘crusades’ are an example. How many millions have walked down an aisle while a huge choir was singing "Just as I am?"

Occasionally I have attended the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California on a Sunday evening. Greg Laurie is the pastor. I have seen, week after week, 40-60 people come forward to "see the kingdom." One night, at one of those services, a visiting pastor delivered a sermon taken from the minor prophet Amos. This was one of the most negative messages I have ever heard. As a veteran Christ-follower I didn’t like it and didn’t find anything ‘evangelistic’ about it. But when he gave the altar call, sure enough, 60 or more came forward. This Sunday night service at Harvest has been an evangelistic "labor and delivery room" for over two decades now.

When the church I was pastoring closed and we morphed into a skateboard ministry, it was a while before we experienced an "atmosphere of evangelism." We had some forerunners of what might happen when I delivered my first "skater" altar call in what was our former church building. For most of the summer we had been opening the doors one night a week and allowing young people, with not very much adult supervision, hang out and skateboard on ramps and rails that we put in place of folding chairs and carpets. The unfinished concrete floor made for some great skating!

I had just returned from a missions trip to New Zealand with our Christian punk band. We had some good results and as I shopped at a store in Aukland, a cassette recording of punk music caught my eye. The title of the album was "Skate to Hell." I bought the tape and brought it back with me on the 11-hour flight. When I got to the church that evening I was given a few minutes to talk to the 100 or so kids that had gathered.

I held up the tape and said, "This tape says "Skate to Hell." But let me tell you, there is no place to skate in hell. In heaven, their are streets of gold, and plenty of places to skate. Jesus died so that you could "Skate to Heaven." If you would like to accept his gift, raise your hand right now and then prayer this prayer with me. About 75 out of 100 raised their hands and prayed the prayer with me that evening!

Now, I know that was a pretty simple way of "preaching the gospel" but what happened that evening was the foundation for our "labor and delivery room." Over the coming fall, as we were kicked out of the church building and moved to a ranch on the outskirts of town, I "preached" a simple gospel message week in and week out for many months, and we didn’t see many results.

We served the kids by providing a skate park, food, and a safe place to hang out. We told them that "God was building them this skate park." Week after week I gave a simple altar call and rarely saw any results. About a year later, after the next door neighbor and the city had tried to shut us down, we moved to a bigger location. I took a job in a city 150 miles away.

A youth pastor without a church named Mark began to come and give the altar calls. We were given New Testaments to hand out to kids who "came forward." During the next ten months we gave away about 3000 New Testaments.

When we started the skate ministry and began to serve the kids, we did it because we wanted them to "see the kingdom." It took months of serving and "preaching" and then it seemed that no matter what the occasion, if the opportunity was given, many would respond.

It has been over a year since the skate ministry shut down, but we continue to hear stories of the young men and women whose lives were touched. Building an atmosphere of evangelism, a spiritual "labor and delivery room", takes time. The seeds must be planted, they must be watered, and then God will bring the harvest in due time.