NEW BLOG

Hey y’all. I have a new blog site. It’s at http://jeffreylavalette.com stop by and say hi.

-JL

Toledo is a Post-Christian City

As I endeavor to spread the Gospel to the City of Toledo, I’ve been trying to observe the culture and various lifestyles that surround me.  And what I’ve learned is that this town is much more than meets the eye.

Just a casual drive around the city reveals so much.  If you go 10 minutes in any direction, you’ll find a new flavor of living… there is seriously a neighborhood for pretty much every lifestyle, and that makes Toledo a really fun and diverse place to live.  And while there are many different cultural perspectives here in Toledo, there is one very prevalent underlying theme- Toledo is a post-Christian city.

I’ve had the pleasure of participating in several different conversations with people who aren’t involved in church as of late, and I’ve noticed that while none of them dig Jesus, they don’t really know why.  In other words, they’re more or less apathetic about Christ, the Bible, or the whole “God” thing overall.  But when it comes to Christianity, well therein lies a whole different story.

It seems that we Christians have really jacked things up in our human attempts to represent our faith.  We come off as arrogant, judgemental, narcissistic, self-serving jerks, and therefore non-Christians have decided that our faith is no longer relevant.  They’d rather have no faith than Christianity.  And in a way, I don’t blame them.  However, just because Christians can be morons, that doesn’t discount the awesomeness of our God or the beauty of our Savior.

When you get into the nuts and bolts of theology, most non-Christians don’t really have any answers to speak of.  Whenever I hear, “People are basically good,” or “I don’t think anyone goes to hell, because we’re all good people,” I have to chuckle.  Rather than explain Total Depravity from a scriptural perspective (being that non-Christians don’t hold the Bible in high regard) I simply ask, “What makes someone good?”   9 out of 10 times I get the answer, “Well, everyone does good deeds, therefore everyone is good.”

My next question is, “If someone is good by virtue of good deeds, then isn’t it logically consistent to say that bad deeds make someone bad?”  I usually get blank stares… not because I’m a gifted philosopher (quite the contrary), but because people aren’t thinking in those terms.  It’s almost as if the non-regenerated world has a veil over it (actually, the Bible says this).

I go on, “If a guy spends his first 49 years doing good deeds, walking his grandmother to church 365 days a year, giving his entire salary to the poor, and never tells a lie, that makes him good, right?  Okay, so then on his 50th birthday he murders someone… is he still good?”  I always get the response, “NO!  He’s BAD!”  So, in other words, ONE SIN is enough to make someone bad.  Sounds like we’re getting off the “Everybody is good” track, eh?

Also, whenever I ask someone outside the Church about their view of the Bible, they usually say, “It’s old, it’s out-of-date, it doesn’t apply to today.”  But when I follow that up with “How do you know?”  they usually have a hard time coming up with a reason.  In other words we have a lot of people dismissing the Bible, but they don’t know why they do.

In addition, there’s also a very popular viewpoint that every religion leads to God.  The problem with that is, every religion says it’s the only way to God.  Christianity does.  Judaism does.  Islam does.  Buddhism does.  Mormonism does.  Jehovah’s Witnesses do.  Hinduism does.  You get the point.  But everyone I’ve talked to fails to realize this very important point.  See, the law of non-contradiction says that two opposing things that claim to be the only right thing cannot both be right.  So when I explain that Jesus wouldn’t have had to die if there was another way to Heaven, people aren’t sure how to rationalize that.

Now, I know that these conversations aren’t going to bring about a Billy Graham-style revival, but it has been (and will continue to be) interesting to see where our mission field is at spiritually.  There are a lot of beautiful, amazing people here in Toledo who desperately need Christ and they don’t even know it.  And that’s why I’m here.

I Like John Stott.

“Let no one say . . . that the doctrine of election by the sovereign will and mercy of God, mysterious as it is, makes either evangelism or faith unnecessary. The opposite is the case. It is only because of God’s gracious will to save that evangelism has any hope of success and faith becomes possible. The preaching of the gospel is the very means that God has appointed by which he delivers from blindness and bondage those whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, sets them free to believe in Jesus, and so causes his will to be done.” – John R. W. Stott, The Message of Ephesians (Downers Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 48

Remain

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he is writing to a young pastor and a church (Ephesus) that has come under fire of a ton of false teaching.  Timothy, who has been a close companion of Paul’s and who has warred with him for the sake of the Gospel of Grace, has been planted in Ephesus to weed out the morons who are being used by Satan to cause division, confusion, and unrest.

I preached on 1 Timothy 1:1-3 (ESV) last week at Glass City Church, our fledgling church plant here in Toledo, Ohio.  I set out to cover the first major chunk of the letter, vv 1-11, but by the time I got through the 1st half of verse 3, I knew I needed to stop and camp on the word “remain.”  The word there is “prosmeno.”  Upon a casual reading of the verse, it says “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus…”  No biggie, right?  Paul is asking Timothy to stay behind and deal with the problems that were going on.  Oh, but wait!  There’s way more to this upon closer examination!

Paul wasn’t merely asking Timothy to stay in the city, although that in itself may have been a nerve-wracking request, given that Timothy was still young and may not have felt confident in his own abilities to remedy the issues within the Ephesian church.  But Paul was also issuing a caution to his protege in light of his surroundings.

“Prosmeno” (as with many Greek words) is much deeper than our English word “remain.”  It means “to remain with, to continue with one. to hold fast to: the grace of God received in the Gospel. to remain still, tarry, stay.”  And as I was doing sermon prep, I all of a sudden hit a major speed bump that jumped up and shouted “DON’T MISS THIS!”

“To hold fast to the Grace of God received in the Gospel!!!”  Paul knew that Timothy was going to be inundated with all kinds of ‘progressive, emerging’ ideologies that may sound, at surface, more appealing and less convicting than the Truth he knew because of ‘the grace of God received in the Gospel.’  And Paul was warning Timothy to remain- to hold fast, tarry, stay.  Personally, when I read that passage I hear Paul pleading in a loud voice, “PLEASE!  Timothy, it pains me to leave you behind, but I know it is best for you to be there instead of with me.  Nevertheless, DO NOT forget the Gospel of Grace!  Don’t be hypnotized by those false teachers!  Instead reprove them with a strong rebuke, and restore God’s Truth to it’s rightful place in the hearts of the brothers and sisters of the church.”

There are a lot of hypnotists out there these days, aren’t there?  Authors, speakers, gurus- men and women who declare their own truth to be above God’s Truth.  Most of it is easily dismissed because there is no basis for it, rather their words are merely their own musings.  But in the realm of Christendom there is danger because many times false teaching is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

It comes in the form of a low view of Holy Scripture.  It comes in the form of progressive thinking or relative morality.  Church leaders proclaim that we are more evolved than those who wrote the Bible therefore we don’t have to follow what they say.  And it’s getting closer and closer to home.  I just read this week that one mainline denomination has abolished the “fidelity/chastity” clause of their constitution.  In other words, Pastor/Elders of their denomination no longer have to be “faithful in marriage or chaste in single hood.”  The driving force behind the decision was to make it possible for gay and lesbian pastors to be ordained and serve as clergy in their churches.  Anyone ever read Romans 1?

There is also a very popular notion out there that churches no longer need to have a hierarchy/authority structure because we’re “past that point by now.”  Yet, Scripture tells us quite a different story, and even lays out the qualifications for the men who are to be Pastor/Elders in 1 Tim 3 and Titus 1.

Yesterday I engaged in an online debate with a guy who tried to tell me that church planting isn’t a Biblical concept, and that there weren’t any church planters in the Bible.  He openly questioned whether church planting was the problem with the American church.  I honestly felt a deep sorrow for him.  If church planting is what’s wrong with the American church, it’s only that there’s not enough of it.  How we have come to such a misunderstanding of Scripture is very disheartening.

2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV) reads “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

I believe we’re living in a time such as that right now.  And Timothy was dealing with such a time back then.  It was still early in church history and already men were figuring out ways to pervert God’s word.  I love how Matt Chandler put it during his talk at the Acts 29 Church Planting Boot Camp in Seattle last month- “There never were any glory days!” In other words, there was never a time in church history that we can look back and say, “Oh, man… that was when we really had it good.  Those were the days!”  No.  Didn’t happen.  We are living for the glory days- that is, when we get to be with Christ.  And that’s why we labor in the Gospel.

So when Paul tells Timothy to “remain” he is driving home the point that he needs to hold fast to the promise that comes with being a regenerated believer in Jesus Christ.  He is pleading with him not to be carried away in the undercurrent of false teaching.  And he’s charging him to stand firm with the authority given to him by God through Christ.

A29 Awesomeness

I just returned home from a trip to Seattle, Washington where I attended the Acts 29 Church Planting Bootcamp.  I’m sure I’ll get into more of what transpired in my heart in subsequent posts, but I just wanted you all to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is alive and well in the hearts of men all over the world.  Praise be to God.

I also wanted to note that my wife Ashley has begun her own blog.  It can be found at ashleylavalette.wordpress.com.

JOHN PIPER IS SMART!

This post came from John Piper’s Desiring God website and was written on January 17, 1993.  I hope it helps those of you who are feeling conflicted about our country’s leadership.

1 Peter 2:13-17

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-slaves of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Nero’s Rise to Power and His Reign

In AD 37 a boy was born in Italy named Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. His mother’s name was Agrippina the Younger. She married the Roman Emperor Claudius who adopted her little boy and changed his name to Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus. The adoption and the name change were all part of his mother’s plotting to see him, instead of Claudius’ biological son Britannicus, become emperor of Rome.

In AD 54 when Nero was 17 years old, his mother arranged for Claudius to be poisoned to death, and the boy was proclaimed emperor of Rome. His reign would last 14 years, until he committed suicide at age 31.

In the first half of his reign there was relatively good government because as a youth he received good counsel from Burrus, the head of the Praetorian Guard, and from Seneca the famous stoic philosopher.

Nero was selfish and calculating and incapable of ruling well on his own. He became paranoid of all the rumors about plots to kill him. In 55 he had his stepbrother Britannicus killed. In 59 he had his mother executed. And in 62 his first wife was executed. And Seneca his former counselor was forced to commit suicide.

The Time of Peter’s Arrival in Rome

The apostle Peter probably arrived in Rome some time around AD 63. The city had already become known as “Babylon”—the code word among Christians for the great urban embodiment of anti-Christian power and evil (cf. Revelation 16:19; 17:5; 18:2), because the ancient Eastern Babylon had been the place where the people of God were taken captive far from their true home. So Peter is in Rome when he writes his first letter: “She [the church] who is at Babylon sends you greetings” (1 Peter 5:13).

The Great Fire of Rome

In the night of July 19, 64, a fire broke out in the southern part of the city. It raged for six days, spreading far and wide. When it was about to die out, it suddenly broke out again in the northern part of the city and burned three more days. Ten of the 14 wards of the city were destroyed. The frenzy in the city was indescribable.

Rumors began to spread that Nero himself had started the fire because of his delirious craving for magnificence and desire to embellish and rebuild the city. To divert attention from himself, the historian Tacitus says, Nero blamed the Christians for the fire, who were hated anyway, and so were good scapegoats.

The effect was horrendous. There had been no persecution like it since the Lord had risen 30 years before. In the gardens of Nero the Christians were crucified, sewn into wild beast skins and fed to dogs, drenched in flammable oil and lifted on poles to burn as torches in the night.

Eusebius tells us that Peter was crucified “because he had demanded to suffer” (E.H. 3.1.2-3).

Peter’s letter was probably written some time shortly before this terrible persecution. Christians were being slandered and mistreated (2:12, 15) as he wrote, but this was typical all over the empire he says in 5:9. The the great persecution was not there yet. But it seems that Peter could see it on the horizon with prophetic accuracy. For example, he said in 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”

Peter Was Well-Acquainted with Corrupted Leaders

Nero was not the only ruler Peter had known. He had known of Pilate, the governor in Judea, who washed his hands of Jesus’ murder, had him beaten, and turned him over to be crucified with no grounds. He had known of Herod Antipas who executed John the Baptist as a dancing prize and later put his purple robe on Jesus and mocked him with his soldiers. Peter was probably a boy in Galilee when he heard that Herod the Great had killed all the children in Bethlehem.

So Peter was not naïve about the vicious world of government corruption and wickedness. He did not live in a “Christian nation.” He knew the depravity of human nature and the utterly ruinous corruption that political power can bring. This was the world into which he wrote our text. Verse 13:

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him

And verse 17: “Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.”

The point of drawing attention to Nero and Pilate and Herod is not to say that there is a Nero or Pilate or Herod in power today in America. The point is to say that if Peter could command the Christian community to honor the king and the governor, knowing the wickedness of Nero and Pilate and Herod, then how much more must we honor the governor and the president who are not in that category—even though they may endorse and promote acts which we regard as immoral and even barbaric.

A Biblical-Theological-Ethical Question

My question today is: How can I as a pro-life Christian honor President-elect Bill Clinton when he supports the right to kill unborn children for any reason up through the age of viability (24-23-22 weeks and falling), and for emotional health reasons even after that. We know this because he has expressed his support for the Freedom of Choice Act which is before Congress and would give federal sanction to just those “rights” and would take from the states the right to make many laws protecting the unborn that are now being proposed.

This message does not aim to be political. But I realize that being a Christian today is increasingly putting us at odds with political positions. Just being an obedient Christian is increasingly becoming a social, political, legal issue. The aim of this message is to answer the biblical-theological-ethical question: How shall we obey God’s command in 1 Peter 2:17 to honor the king—or the president, or the governor—when they promote dishonorable deeds?

What our future president endorses is not the right to scrape a few fetal cells off the lining of the uterus, but that human beings who have a beating heart, give an EKG reading, show brain waves, grasp with their fingers, suck their thumbs, respond with pain, and carry all the genetic completeness of a human—that those humans may rightfully have their life ended by dismemberment.

And what I just described is the human fetus at eight weeks, before which scarcely any abortions are done. To make the true position of the president-elect clear we need to see that not only that that little one will receive no protection from him but neither will this 12 week old, nor this five month old (show both models).

If you are sitting there this morning and thinking that the presidential endorsement of the right to take the lives of babies like this is an honorable thing to do (either because you don’t think they are babies or you think it’s the lesser of two evils), then your struggle is going to be different from mine. I struggle with the command, “How shall I honor a president who endorses the right to kill the unborn?” You must struggle with the command in the same verse, “How shall I honor people like this pastor who preaches what is false?” For the text not only says, “Honor the king,” it says, “Honor all men.” So it may be that in the answer I suggest for my struggle there will be something of use for yours.

Eight Answers

Here is my answer to the question, “How do pro-life Christians honor a pro-choice president?”

1. Humbling Ourselves

We will honor you, Mr. President, by humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6) and acknowledging that we are ourselves sinners and in need of mercy and forgiveness from God. We are not infallible. We are open to new light on this and every issue. We are not the final judge in this matter. God is. We stand before the cross of Christ on level ground with you, not above you, utterly dependent on mercy and seeking to live by the will of Christ.

2. Acknowledging God’s Image

We will honor you by acknowledging that you are a man, created in the image of God, and distinct among all the beings in the world (as it says in James 3:9). You are not a mere animal. You have the glorious potential, like all humans, of being a child of God (if you aren’t already) and shining like the sun in the kingdom of God forever and ever. We honor you as an utterly unique, human being created in the image and likeness of the living God with untold potential.

3. Acknowledging God’s Institution

We will honor you by acknowledging that government is God’s institution. He wills that there be leaders like presidents and governors. You are in power by God’s appointment and we honor that. In Romans 13:4 the Bible even calls you, “God’s servant for our good.” It grieves us that you do not intend to enact laws to protect the good of the unborn the most innocent, weak, and helpless group of Americans. But we have seen from Somalia that bad government is better than no government. The absence of some laws to protect some people is better than the absence of all laws to protect anybody. We honor your stabilizing role in this sense as a blessing from God.

4. Honoring Laws Not Conflicting with Christ’s Lordship

We will honor you by submitting to the laws of the state and the nation wherever they do not conflict with our higher allegiance to Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords. We will submit to the laws that take away

• our “right” to choose to go 75 miles an hour,
• our “right” to choose to keep our lights off when our windshield wipers are on,
• our “right” to choose to drive without a seat belt,
• our “right” to choose to fish without a license,
• our “right” to choose to make loud noises in the middle of the night,
• our “right” to choose to keep our kids out of schooling,
• our “right” to choose to send them to school without DPT shots,
• our “right” to choose to use leaded gas,
• our “right” to choose not to pay taxes,
• our “right” to choose to smoke on the other side of the restaurant, etc.

We submit to the right of government to limit our right to choose in hundreds of areas, especially when the good of others is at stake. We understand that governments exist to limit the right to choose and we submit to that.

1 Peter 2:13 says that we are to submit not for your sake but for the Lord’s sake. Verse 16 says that we are free in respect to you but slaves of God. We will submit not because you have power, but because our King commands it for the honor of his institution of civil government. Yet our submission is an honor to you because under God and from God you bear the authority to enforce the laws of the land.

5. Not Withdrawing into Isolation

We will honor you by not withdrawing into little communes of disengaged isolation from American culture. But according to 1 Peter 2:15, we will honor you by trying to do as much good as we possibly can for the unborn, and for unwanted children, and for women in distress, so that we will not be thought insolent or inconsistent in asking from you what we are not willing to do ourselves. We do this because the Bible says, “It is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:15).

6. Opposing with Non-Violence

We will honor you by opposing your position as long as we can with non-violence instead of violence, with reasoning instead of rocks, with rational passion instead of screaming, with honorable speech instead of obscenities, with forthright clarity of language instead of dodging the tough realities and tough words, with evidence instead of authority, and with scientific portrayals of life instead of authoritarian blackouts (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:2). We will honor you by a relentless effort to put truth, and not mere emotion, before you in the White House.

7. Expecting Straightforward Answers

And we will honor you by expecting from you straightforward answers to straightforward questions. We would not expect this from a con-man, but we do expect it from an honorable man.

For example, are you willing to explain why a baby’s right not to be killed is less important than a woman’s right not to be pregnant?

Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?

Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?

And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the “Freedom of Choice Act” by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Perhaps you have good answers to each of these questions. We will honor you by expecting you to defend your position forthrightly in the public eye. You have immense power as President of the United States. To wield it against the protection of the unborn without giving a public accounting in view of moral and scientific reality would be dishonorable. We will honor you by expecting better.

8. Trusting the Sovereign, Loving Purpose of God

Finally we will honor you by trusting that the purpose of our sovereign and loving God to defend the fatherless and contend for the defenseless and to exalt the meek will triumph through your presidency. And to that end we will pray for you as Christ our King commands us.

---

© Desiring God

direct link- http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1993/825_Being_ProLife_Christians_Under_a_ProChoice_President/

Goodbye 2008

Well, it’s finally here- the end of the year that saw me struggle probably more than I ever have with my faith, the church, myself, and God.  I began 2008 as the Minister of Worship Arts at a Church in Indianapolis, and I end the year an online entertainment journalist living in Toledo.  I began the year with a sneaking suspicion that God was going to completely decimate everything that I though was important, and I sit here now having been torn down and in the midst of the rebuilding process.  Only two things have really stayed constant over the past 12 months- God’s love for me and my wife’s love for me.

I used to think owning a house was important for my own fulfillment, yet it’s been a thorn in my side ever since we followed God’s call to Toledo.  I live in a 2-bedroom townhouse apartment with my 3 dogs and my wife, and it isn’t half bad.  Sure, when our house finally sells, we’ll look for another one- but this time it will be under a much different pretense.  This time we’ll be looking for a house in which we can host our church plant, a house in which we can host guests who need a place to live, a house with which we can glorify God and serve others.

I also thought it was imperative to get a paying ministry job in order to be a minister.  Yet, I find myself hoping I never have to take a salary from a church.  I hope that I can support my family without burdening a church for my livlihood- just think about how much more “ministry money” would be available to reach out to the lost and disenchanted.

I’ve been studying the book of Nehemiah as of late, and I’m finding comfort in knowing that my struggle hasn’t been in vain.  Though I grew up in Toledo, attended high school here, and went on to college 20 miles south in Bowling Green, I never really felt the ache in my soul for this city until I was living in Indianapolis.  Back in January and February of this year, I began wondering what this crazy stirring in my heart was for Toledo.  I made a trip back here to pray and speak with several of my pastor friends to find out what God was doing here.  And I was sad to find that the church in Toledo was by-and-large complacent and lukewarm.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I was feeling that God was calling me back here for sure… so much so that he trumped my desire for a comfortable life with something greater- bringing renown and glory to His name here in Toledo.

And as I read Nehemiah and subsequent materials (JI Packer’s A Passion for Faithfulness: Lessons from the Book of Nehemiah  and Mark Driscoll’s 22-part sermon series on Nehemiah) I’m starting to draw inspiration from the man who was a cupbearer to a king, who went against the odds and rebuilt the city of Jerusalem.  I’m not saying I’m rebuilding the city of Toledo,  but as Driscoll says in his teachings, I feel called to build a city within this city to love on this city and tell this city about Jesus.

All of this to say that without the pain, suffering, crying out, and hardships of 2008, I don’t think I’d be on this path.  The fact is, God has given me life, a healthy marriage, a passion for His word, a heart broken for Toledo, and some good men to keep me accountable.  Bring it on, 2009!

The Value of Perspective

So I’ve been 30 for a week now.   And while the days leading up to my birthday, and immediately afterwards were essentially benign, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the past 24 hours or so.

I guess it could be encapsulated in a movie I just saw again tonight- a movie called “The Family Man.”  In the film, Nicholas Cage’s character (Jack) plays a very successful investment executive who is given a chance to see what it would be like to go back and change a decision he made at the beginning of his career.  Jack is placed in a new scenario where he’s married to his college sweetheart, has two kids, and works a blue collar career.  Whereas at first he’s yearning for his New York City Penthouse apartment and multi-million dollar existence, as time goes on he grows to love the family life he would have had if he had chosen his gal over his career.

So, why does this have me thinking?  Well, i guess it goes back to my beginnings as a Christian.  God saved me back in 1998 when I was 19 years old.  I was in college at Bowling Green State University studying a smattering of popular culture and English, and I was pretty much content to follow the path that my peers were on.  Let me explain- all of my life I was told that I was very intelligent, I always placed into the top classes, I was enrolled in the GATE program for gifted children, I scored quite high on standardized tests, and I was a National Merit Scholar at St. John’s Jesuit High School, one of the top college prep schools in the area… all this to say that on paper, I should have done well in college, graduated at the top of my class and garnered a well-paying career with all of the successes the world could offer.  But I didn’t.

From the time I came to know the Lord, I began to feel dissatisfied with the classes I was taking at BGSU.  The subject matter barely held my interest, and after 5 years of taking classes in an on-again-off-again enrollment, I decided that college wasn’t for me.  Around that same time, I was offered a job working for a college ministry.  You see, this whole time, I was also pursuing the knowledge of God, learning more about the Bible, and undergoing various forms of leadership training.  I was in the thick of the whole “progressive sanctification” process (not that we’re ever done with it on this side of Heaven) and I was beginning to discern God’s will for my life.

Over time, it was clear that God had put a call on my life to go into ministry.  And that’s where the rub began.  To this day, I’ve always found it to be an exercise in pride-swallowing when people ask me “what’s your degree?”  When I answer, “I don’t have a degree-yet,” it makes me feel like they must think I’m a failure.  After all, a 30-year-old with the abilities that I’ve been given should have a freaking Ph D by now.  Or at least a Master’s!

But it’s only now that I feel like God is calling me into higher education- a curriculum at a Seminary, for instance.  You see, back in the BGSU days, I was dissatisfied with the courses I was taking because I wasn’t wired for that line of study.  There’s no doubt in my mind that if I’d ignored God’s call on my life, I would probably be well-off and successful in the world’s eyes.  Instead, I’m living in a two-bedroom townhouse apartment that I had to rent in order to follow God’s call to plant a church in Toledo.   I own a perfectly good house in Indianapolis, Indiana that I’m trying to sell, but I can’t live there and follow God’s call at the same time.

I’ve been in ministry since January of 2002- almost 7 years.  And though I’ve been taking some time off from ‘vocational ministry’ to regroup from my last position at a seriously unhealthy church, I still feel God’s call, stronger than ever, to serve him in a pastoral capacity.

I guess the moral of this story is that there are times when I am tempted with the thought of ‘doing things my way’ because I could probably make more money and have more worldly success.  But as I look back over the past 10 years of my Christian life and especially the past 7 years of my life in ministry, I see how much God has done to woo me into a life that is far more fulfilling than any successes the world could ever offer.  Plus, I have a knockout wife that I never would’ve met otherwise!

30

Each year when the air turns cool, the leaves change color, and the days grow shorter, I prepare to add another year to my age.  I was born on November 20th, 1978 at the Toledo Hosiptal in Toledo, Ohio to my unmarried birth mother and birth father, whom I’ve never met.  I was then transported to a pastor’s home to be looked after for one month and seven days by another man and woman that I’ve never met.  Finally, on December 27th 1978 I was finally adopted by my parents Christina and Joseph Lavalette (my birth mother wanted to wait until after Christmas to officially give me up).  And when I think about the orchestration of that process, I’m dumbfounded.

With just two weeks to go until my 30th birthday, I find it overwhelming that I’ve had three sets of parents.  Obviously, the woman and man that I call Mom and Dad are very near and dear to my heart.  They raised me, provided for me, and still to this day love me.  But I can’t help wondering about the other two sets of parents- the ones who brought me into this world, and the ones who cared for me during that first month or so of my life.  And I hope someday, I’m able to thank them for loving me enough to let me go.

I’m amazed at how God took a presumably unwanted and unexpected situation (the pregnancy of my birth mother) and turned it into (dare I say) a wonderful outcome.  Not only did my birth parents act responsibly by letting me live, they also gave the parents that raised me a baby when they didn’t think they could conceive (which later turned out to be false, hence my brother Mike).  And that was just the beginning.

Over the years, I’ve struggled to find happiness and fulfillment by means that the world erroneously says will satisfy. But it wasn’t until 11 years ago, when God grabbed ahold of my heart with his irresistible grace that I found out what life’s really about- knowing and making known His son Jesus Christ.  And ever since, I’ve fought and kicked and screamed as He took me and created in me a new heart and slowly began the process of progressive sanctification while simultaneously consecrating me to His service.  As a loving father shows a simple-minded youngster a better way, so God has lovingly revealed to me His glory, causing new desires and new life to spring up inside me.

So when I think about the fact that God took me from an unwanted pregnancy to a man and husband who desperately wants to serve Him, lead others to Him, and glorify His name, I am truly humbled.  And as I look ahead to my 30th birthday, I am reminded that Jesus began His ministry at age 30, so it can’t be that bad of an age!

Small Group Study in Toledo

I’ve had some questions about what I’ll be up to once I’m in Toledo.  Therefore, I wanted to let you all know of a small group opportunity that will be starting in two weeks.

I’ll be leading a small group home study on the Song of Solomon beginning Sunday November 16th at 7pm.  We will be utilizing Mars Hill Church’s (the one in Seattle) current sermon series “The Peasant Princess” via Vodcast, and having a time of discussion afterwards with the provided group discussion curriculum.  If, for any reason, you can’t make it to a week or two, don’t worry, because the sermon is on Mars Hill Church’s website (www.marshillchurch.org) as well as iTunes (in the podcast section).

We will be meeting at a house in West Toledo (the Sylvania/Douglas area) as long as space permits (and if we outgrow that location, we’ll find one bigger!).  If you need more information/the address/a hug, give me a call at 419.973.0259 or email me at jefflavalette@gmail.com.  You can also find me on myspace and Facebook.

I’m really excited about this study, and I can’t wait to see what God does with it.  Please feel free to invite your friends.  See you on the 16th at 7pm.

By Grace Alone,

Jeffrey Lavalette