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January 25, 2000
Dear Friends,
It's the middle of summer here in São Paulo. Temperatures are up,
the sun is scorching, and it rains nearly every day. Our summer rains
are not pleasant rains. They are torrential. They sometimes give no
warning that they're coming. And they dump so much water on our city
that roads flood, houses and apartment buildings slide off
mountainsides, and children contract water-borne diseases.
Our tropical summers keep us on our knees as well as keeping us on
the lookout for ways to help those who are suffering. But there's
something that throws missionaries off kilter even more than climatic or
political problems in our host country. It's the fear that things are
not well at home. Our being here depends on your well-being there. Any
progress we make here is the direct fruit of your prayers and investment
in our ministry. If you get down, or go under, we start to fear that
we're already sunk.
But this, of course, is thinking and feeling and reacting in the
flesh. And we know that's literally a dead-end road. Trusting in what
we see is to negate the greater reality of what we can't see, but which
we know is Good and Faithful and Ever-present. The Lord has brought us
here. He can keep us here. We need to remind ourselves that God is
still the Lord of wind and rain and leadership changes in our home
church.
So, our dear, dear friends at home, please know that our love, and
thoughts and prayers are with you every day as you and we together face
the implications of saying goodbye to Ron, Anne, Katie, Andrew, Michael
and Emily. When the threatening waters of doubt and questions about the
future rise toward us, let's remind ourselves and each other of Who it
was who brought us to where we are in the first place.
"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' Blood and righteousness;
No merit of my own I claim, but wholly lean on Jesus' Name.
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand!"
With you in Christ Jesus,
Larry and Stephanie
For the eyes of the Lord range
throughout the earth to strengthen those
whose hearts are fully committed to him.
2 Chr. 16:9
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by Bart Houseman
In even the best of churches, the job of pastor is almost impossible.
He must preach but not be preachy; he must be clear but not pedantic; he
must be thorough but not boring. He must be exciting and calming; he
must lead vigorously but not authoritatively; he must be firm but
flexible, bring new ideas without stepping on tradition. He must oppose
sin but not be too critical; he must be well-read but available at all
times for consultation; and he must know my name even if I show up only
on Christmas and Easter.
And Ron Scates has done it all. Ten years ago he came to a church
that was, by the grace of God, poised for flight, and he came in and
gunned the engines. With Ron at the throttle, Central Pres. has gone to
new places, touched new lives, found new ways to voice the Good News to
others, and has helped all of us at Central to understand what it means
to be Open on the Godward Side. Now, as he is called elsewhere, we find
that Central Pres. is more diverse, more vigorous, more creative, more
effective for the Lord than a decade ago.
As I stand back and think about the last decade, I've been stunned by
this observation: Although Ron came in and gunned the engines, the
engines are us. Although Ron can be credited with initiating Central's
growth, the thing that has grown is us. The church that today is
stronger than a decade ago is nobody other than we ourselves. The spine
of our church is not the pastor - it's us. And even as we bid the well
loved Scates family adieu, the spine, the strength, the potential for
service isn't leaving at all. Because the church is us. Well - not
exactly.
It was some time in the early sixties there was a church that had a
really fine pastor, but lost him because of a call elsewhere. No, not
the 1960's - I really mean the early sixties - and the church members
all spoke Greek. The church was the church at Philippi, the erstwhile
pastor was an energetic fellow named Paul, the Apostle, and he had
managed to get himself stuck in jail for an indeterminate sentence.
Upon learning that his former church was feeling kind of lost, at loose
ends, leaderless, and helpless, he wrote one of the most gentle letters
ever to come from his pen. And what we know as the
"Book of Philippians"
is Paul's careful operating instructions to a church
without a senior pastor.
Roughly and briefly, here are his five rules:
- Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
- Don't be frightened by opposition.
- Be united in spirit and in purpose.
- Humbly consider others better than yourselves.
- Look to the interests of others.
And, most important, here is Paul's key advice to a church that had
to learn not to depend on a pastor for the church's salvation from
failure: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God who works in you to will and to do what pleases him." So there's the
secret! Nothing less than God working among us! The key isn't a clever
pastor, not even some hot shot, leader-type members. It's God himself!
All we have to do is stick to the five principles to accomplish "the
salvation of Central," and we'll discover that God is accomplishing his
purposes with us.
So, fellow Centralites - our job (to paraphrase Paul) is to stay
cool, stay tight, do stuff that would make Jesus proud of us, see how we
can be good for the other guy, and fear God, not failure. And if we
keep our ear to the ground, we'll hear and feel the Rumble of the Spirit
of God moving among us.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God,
You will receive what he has promised. - Heb. 10:35, 36
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by Ron Scates
be required to carry Central through this time of dramatic change.
However, we need your help, and foremost, we need your prayers. The
Session has met twice and had a joint retreat with the Diaconate since
Pastor Scates announced his new call. During this time we have made
several key decisions. We intend to hire an Interim Pastor during this
time of transition and, we have asked Elders Doug Turner and Curt
Russell to chair the search process. Please pray for them and the
committee they will be forming. We have also decided to hire Dr. Paul
Borden to conduct a Church Information Survey. Dr. Borden provided the
same service over 10 years ago when Pastor Scates first came to Central.
The insight provided by this survey proved to be invaluable in helping
us to better understand Central. This information will help us
tremendously in finding the Senior Pastor who best matches what Central
needs. Finally, the Executive Committee met with both Pastor Scates and
Pastor Cooper to discuss how best to handle the time period between when
Ron leaves and an Interim Pastor can begin. We agreed that Pastor
Cooper will take on many of the responsibilities of the Senior Pastor
including preaching. Please pray for Pastor Cooper as he takes on this
important focus at Central.
