Perhaps the biggest question I am often asked is “Why did you join the
Navy?” This is a very fair
question, especially in light of the fact that since I was 7 years old, I’ve
always said that I felt called to be a missionary. So, how does one go from pursuing a life of overseas
mission, to becoming a church planter in NYC, to now occupying the role of a US
Navy chaplain? Well, in all
honesty, it’s quite simple.
When I was young, I was heavily involved in my local church,
specifically, the Kids Church program.
Three times as week (4, if you include Sunday School), there were
age-specific classes designed for kids to learn about their faith, church, and
evangelism. It was great fun even
if I didn’t always want to attend or support the lesson (or teacher). Hanging out with kids my own age,
learning at my own level of understanding and seeing my church friends so many
times a week was a very good thing.
And, apparently, even if I was only attending because I was either (a)
drug to church by my parents or (b) simply there to play with my buddies and
screw off, the lessons and message of the church were seeping into my life and
understanding. I know this because
my very first year at summer church camp, and without provocation or my
parents’ presence, I sought God on my own and experienced His voice and
presence in an unprecedented way.
When the preacher asked people to ‘come down and seek God’ that night, I
knew what he meant. I figured out
how to pray and when God responded, I knew it was Him. And what He said to me that night was
also in line with what I was being taught and experiencing every week in
church. God was asking me to be a
missionary: to go and tell people in other parts of the world about Him, His
church, and His return. I didn’t
have to ask anyone to explaining anything to me and simply understood the
fulfillment of that call as me going forth and spending my life traveling
abroad and telling people about Jesus.
At that point in my life, I understood Missionary = Travel.
In my teenage years, and following a time of adolescent
rebellion, I remained active in my local church youth group and began
participating in oversea mission trips.
It was great fun, but it was also deeply, deeply satisfying because I
was doing for the first-time what I understood God had called me to as a
child. I was traveling abroad and
telling people about God’s Truth.
This eventually led me to Bible College, where I continued to travel
abroad and learn more about the Bible and ministry. It was also at college where I was given a unique
opportunity to travel for an extended period of time. Seeking God’s direction for where I was to go, He instead
put a people on my heart. While
serving in Israel, God gave me a deep and heavenly love for Jewish people and I
knew that my calling as a missionary was more than a call to travel, it was a
call to love people. Therefore,
when I left Bible College, I didn’t pursue ministry overseas, I pursued a
people wherever they happened to be.
Turns out, lots of them were here in the U.S! There were thousands of Jewish people on American college
campuses, so my wife and I partnered with Chi Alpha as US Missionaries and
aided Christian students in understanding and blessing their Jewish
friends. We were fulfilling the
call in our understanding: Missionary = Travel, People Group, Evangelism. But it was also during these years
where some deep-seated questions began to arise. Namely, where does the Church fit into all of this?
Up to this point, I had only understood the Church as the
‘sending’ part of missions.
Missionaries ‘go’ because they are ‘sent’ through prayer and finances
from the larger church. This was
all good, but it seemed incomplete in light of the many people we were reaching
as missionaries. Our presence and
ministry blessed people, but we were not sufficiently getting them grounded in
the work and ministry of faith, God, or a local community. I started to see myself as a traveling
act. We roll in, draw a crowd,
have some great moments, and then roll out hoping it meant something to
someone. It kinda sucked.
It was at this point that God, once again, expanded my
understanding of the call to be a missionary. It was not just about itinerate ministry to a specific
people group; it was about doing these things with the aim of establishing an
indigenous and lasting community wherever we are sent. This became especially evident while I
studying the great missionary book of Acts. The apostles didn’t just roll in, bless a community, and
then roll out. They traveled,
lingered for years at a time, adopted the local culture and customs and worked
extensively to build a unique community of faith. In the Bible, missionaries were, more often than not, church
planters.
So, in 2005, my family and I began the journey to NYC. We left our home in PA (traveled) to
bless the Jews and Gentiles of Queens (specific people group) with the message
of God (evangelism) and the single intention of establishing a church
(community). It turned out that
the more God honed our calling as missionaries, the more we understood the
challenge and blessing of being missionaries. Raising money and traveling is a little tricky. Raising money, traveling and learning
to love an entirely different group of people is tough. Raising money, traveling, loving an entirely
different people and then serving them with the knowledge and discipline of God
while striving to establish these people into a community of God and each
other...wow. It is safe to say
that I got my butt kicked in NYC.
Not by NYC itself, but by the incredible challenge that is inherent to
church planting. What we came to
realize is that unless the missionary becomes ‘one’ with the people and culture
he/she is trying to love and serve, the mission is a bust! Yes, we saw good and
lasting ‘fruit’ during the early years of ministry, but, in hindsight, all of
these were the results of either us (unintentionally, in most cases) building
deep relationship with these individuals or someone else. The missionaries of Scripture not only
went out and established communities of faith, they first sought to identify
with the people. This is hard, and
it involves so much more than learning a few Yiddish phrases, rooting for the
Yankees, or complaining about the subway system. Identifying means to bear one another’s burdens as your own,
to see and feel the challenges through their eyes, and to see each other as
equals, even if you do possess ‘the cure’ of Truth. The last years of our ministry in NYC were amazing because
we were growing closer and closer to both the ones inside the Church and those
who were still yet to come in. I
cannot say that I became a NYer, but I certainly do hope that those who we
served would say that I was ‘one’ with them (John 17:15-17).
Now, all of this may explain how a boy with dreams of moving
to Europe eventually landed him in NYC, but where does the Navy fit in? Good question. In addition to teaching us how to be
more effective missionaries, NYC also allowed my wife and I the opportunity to
discern our core values, interests and burdens. We like the hard stuff. We know who we are, who we need each other to be, and that
our ministry gifting is found in the deep crisis of life. We have deep, deep convictions on
matters of faith, family, and sacrifice, and the closest parallel to these is
found within the military ideals (notice: ideals). I love my country and am proud to serve in its defense, but
that is not the primary reason I am serving (which is good because the law
forbids me to pick up a gun, move ammo, or report military activity). We are serving because I have been
divinely burdened to love, identify with, and care for men and servicewomen and
their families in their context…under oath.
In conclusion, let me end by saying this…as you can see,
this was all a process. There is
no way we could have fulfilled this call, up to this point, in any other way. It took time, experience, success and
failure, deep conversations with God and His people, and lots and lots of
humility. I do not believe that ‘coming
to faith’ is a journey, but I do believe that growing in, understanding and
experiencing that faith is a life-long pursuit. We still haven’t figured out the fullness of the calling He
placed on me (or my wife) at a very young age. But, our eyes, ears and hearts are open and being in the
Navy is clearly a part of it.
Anchors aweigh…
