May 9

We’re starting to recognize that regardless of location or time in history, there is one tried and true method of growing faithful disciples of Christ: start your church in a country that persecutes Christians. We hear stories of this phenomenon particularly in places like China, but we still tend to think of it as a fringe trend- a series of unrelated incidents. However, the truth is that the Church Universal’s story begins in the story of a persecuted people. For the first 300 years of Christianity, the Roman empire and Jewish authorities pursued Christians with varying degrees of intensity (historical details are debated) because we didn’t quite fit in with or submit to commonly held customs and beliefs. We were a counterculture revolution that challenged the foundations of societal, political, and economic reality. Yet through it all, followers of the Way (i.e. what the followers of Christ were called before they were labeled Christians) grew by leaps and bounds across the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. I think I finally understand why persecuted churches tend to thrive. Persecution breeds desperation; desperation inspires focus; focus causes intentional activity; intentional spiritual activity is the beginning point of discipleship. Though Charlotte Madison’s first few days were quiet, calm, and collected, the last 36 hours have been more than intense. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that when Charlotte gets frustrated (particularly as it relates to eating), there is almost nothing that will calm her down. Margaret and I had our first sleepless night as we tried everything in our fledgling parental arsenal to calm her down enough to eat or sleep. To say we were desperate by 4:30 in the morning would be an understatement. But in that place of desperation, you begin to search the depths of your experience to figure out if there is anything remotely useful. For whatever reason, it often takes a place of desperation for me to remember that I’m a man of faith- faith in a God who provides everything His kids need in life, even nourishment for a newborn. As that focus and reliance on God takes its place among our parental tools, we have the opportunity to be intentional about how we invite God in and make ourselves available to the movement of the Spirit in the smallest of life’s crises. We don’t yet know exactly what it means to be faithful in parenthood, but we figure that’s a pretty decent place to begin.