“A Hundred Dollar Cry” by Garris Elkins

Thirty-one years ago I was a struggling young pastor.  Jan and I, along with our two little children, left all that was known and familiar to us and journeyed north to Montana to plant a church.  This was our first attempt at starting a church and our first time living in Montana.  We had no idea how it was to be done.  We simply had a word from God and were acting upon that word in faith.

After a few months went by my parents came for a visit.  Mom and dad grew up in the rough and scrabble life of working class America living through the Great Depression. They knew what tough times felt like. 

It’s strange how we can be “all grown up” as adults and find ourselves responding to our parents like we are still a twelve year-old kid.  While most of this child-in-an-adult-body-response is held inside, sometimes it can come out. During my parents visit my inner twelve year old spoke out a few times in frustration.

When mom and dad visited, we had less than 10 people including our family, attending our church. I felt like I was on display as a pastoral failure.  During this visit the mere presence of my parents allowed me to emotionally let down and explore some of my feelings.  I felt afraid, alone and scared of what was happening in my first attempt at public ministry.

The day mom and dad departed, Jan and I stood on our porch and waved goodbye as their Oldsmobile pulled out from our driveway and disappeared down our dusty Montana road.  I was feeling the sorrow of saying goodbye to two people who brought me such a sense of security by simply being in their presence for a few days.

I went back into the house and sat at my desk located in the corner of our bedroom.  When I picked up my Bible I found a $100.00 bill lying underneath.  I knew my parents had left the money for us.  We were living from one meager offering plate to the next.  As I held that bill in my hand, I broke down and began to cry like a baby. All the emotions I had carried for months began to puddle on my desktop.

As I scroll back over the years, I realize how powerful a single act of unsolicited love can be.  That $100.00 bill had no note or condition attached to it.  The bill just sat there, but it spoke deeply to me.  It said, “Son, God is in this.” “We love you.” “It is not over until it’s over.” 

I have come to see these acts of love, acts of love without words or notes attached to them, as some of the most powerful. They are powerful because they allow the recipient to attach their personal emotion and experience to them. 

That day, as I looked out from my desk across the Montana landscape, I felt a deeper love and appreciation for my parents.  I was given a gift of love that helped me continue to walk deeper on my journey of faith and not give up. I knew that through my parent’s act of unsolicited love, God was saying to me, “I love you, Garris. I am with you in this.  Don’t give up.”

“What Marks Us” by Garris Elkins

From my earliest memories, I can remember my father’s tattoos. He had one on each arm.  On his right arm was a beautiful old style tattoo where he had inked my mother’s name, “Lavert.”  On his left arm was another tattoo with the word, “Mother”. My father really loved his mom.  The color of these tattoos was in blue and red ink – colors that deepened in intensity over the years.

The tattoo with my mom’s name was installed shortly after mom and dad started dating in 1939.  Dad was so sure mom was the girl for him that he had her name inked into his flesh within the first month of their first date.  Mom told me that dad started asking her to marry him on their first date.  That question was posed weekly for almost two years until mom finally gave in. Even in her later years of life, my mom smiled like a young girl whenever she told me that story.

As a boy, each time I was picked up in my father’s arms I saw his tattoos.  When he worked as a contractor swinging a hammer I would either see the word, “Lavert” or “Mother”, come into view depending on which side of my dad I found myself working. Each time my father’s tattoos became visible a message was sent my way that spoke of love and respect.

The longer I walk with God the more I ask myself, “What marks my life.”  I am a husband, father and a pastor. I also go about living life in the community where I reside buying groceries, paying bills and getting cut off in traffic. It is in this daily grunt and grind of life that the sleeves of my personality occasionally ride up and people see who I really am – they see what really marks me.

I could get poetic, and maybe even theological here, with a well-crafted answer about what marks a true believer like, love, joy, peace, hope and so on.  All of these are powerful and true, but I know a lot of people who don’t confess the name of Jesus who do a pretty good job of being loving, joyful, peaceful, hopeful and so on.  There has to be more than just doing the right things.

What marked the nation of Israel and made them different from the surrounding nations was not primarily how they lived life.  The enemy nations that surrounded Israel had similar rites, ceremonies and worshipped their own gods.  What made Israel different from every other nation was the presence of God.  God was with them.  Immanuel was present among them. 

Even today, it is the presence of God that defines a believer beyond any label. God has asked us to carry His presence as the primary mark upon our lives. When we yield to His presence we call that obedience. What follows these acts of obedience is where love, joy, peace and hope find their definition.

Being in the presence of my father allowed me to see what marked His life.  I saw how he loved my mom and how he spoke tenderly about his mother.  I saw how he worked hard each day to put food on our table. I only saw those things because I was in my father’s presence.  It is being with someone – in their presence each day– where you get to see what truly marks their lives.

I don’t think Jesus had any tattoos, but His presence was so marked by His Father's presence that anyone who took the time to be with Him picked up the same markings.  These markings are not physically visible like a tattoo. They are markings that are placed upon our lives after we trade the fake for the real and the temporary for the eternal.

In the early 1990’s, Jan and I were in London, England on vacation.  As we toured London we visited the hip West End.  There were many funky shops and restaurants lining the streets. 

As we walked along we noticed a tattoo shop. The owner was a unique-looking man with many tats up and down his arms. It is said that after hours he had been invited into Buckingham Palace to ink some of the Royal Family.

As we stood inside the tattoo shop, I looked at Jan and she looked at me and smiled. Yes, it stung just a little installing a small rose and the name, “Jan”, on my right shoulder. To this day, I am still proud of that little tat.     

“Shadow Land” by Garris Elkins

“The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.” Hebrews 10:1

Jesus cast His shadow from eternity into the history of the Old Testament.  The festivals, feasts and observances were all shadows, dim previews, of something that would come in the future and be revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

The revelation of Jesus is never a call to return to a dim and expired covenant from the past, but a call forward into something new that is filled with all the good things God has prepared for us. When Jesus arrived on our planet all the old covenant imagery that foreshadowed His coming, and the regulations of law that accompanied that imagery, vanished. The very appearance of Jesus changed everything. 

In Mark 7:19 Jesus said to His Jewish friends,

“Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)”

These were shocking words to the Jewish listeners.  The shadow images of the old covenant dietary rules went out the window as Jesus spoke.  The religious leaders who were in control of the shadow images of the old covenant wanted to kill Jesus for suggesting such a thing.

It is too easy to think that Peter’s rooftop instructions found in Acts 10, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat”, were the original source of our new covenant dietary freedoms.  It wasn’t.  Jesus, not Peter, is the one who sets us free from living in the shadows of something that has passed its expiration date. Whenever the presence of Jesus is made known, like it was in Mark 7, all the shadows pointing to Him are consumed in His current revelation.

Jesus has called us to experience a Kingdom that is unfolding before us. This revelation is making known the good things never seen before because they did not exist in their fullness in the shadows of the past. These are the things of substance seen only with the eyes of faith. These good things will be revealed in the brilliance of our unfolding future, not in the shadows of our past.

"The Next Big Thing" by Garris Elkins

As a pastor, I receive some of the latest information about what is taking place within the church world.  A lot of what I read is the search for "The Next Big Thing" coming to the Church.   

Over the years I have seen this search take people on a quest for larger churches, the latest in staff structures, new ways to preach to disinterested people, and the list goes on and on.  This never-ending search for "The Next Big Thing" is a journey that can lead to frustration, performance and compromise.   

I have come to realize the only "The Next Big Thing" I care to invest my life in is a new and fresh move of God's Spirit where the unexplainable and immeasurable works of God take place.   

Many times a life given to the pursuit of "The Next Big Thing" leaves in its wake a disconnect from the only thing that really matters - His presence. Out of His presence flows all that is valuable and worthy. The early disciples sought His presence in worship in Acts 13 and from that gathering the ministry to the entire Gentile world was birthed and that experience with His presence is still being felt today.

In this season of life and ministry, I am giving God permission to recalibrate the direction of my life and all that I pursue in His name.  I believe that many of us with this similar passion will see God begin to do "The Next Big Thing" in our midst which has always been the only thing.

“When We Used To Wear Suits” by Garris Elkins

When I started in full-time ministry over 30 years ago most of us wore jackets and ties to preach on Sunday morning.  Recently, I looked at some old pictures of me back in the early 1980’s and according to the fashion standards of the day we looked just fine. Today, those pictures can be embarrassing.

A change took place somewhere in the late 80’s when the brave among us decided to ditch the coat and tie and replace it with an open collar, sweater and slacks. This went on for a few years until someone decided to wear jeans.  We all wanted to wear jeans, but needed someone to grant us “permission” to do it. 

I remember the first time I wore jeans.  It was for a Wednesday evening service.  I felt both naked and free. I got some comments.  I was surprised that most of the people thought it was cool.  We began to discover that jeans actually worked and in a few more years they began to show up behind many Sunday morning pulpits.  Today, I can only remember a few Sundays in the last ten years when I have not worn a pair of jeans.

The nice thing about jeans is that you can dress up or dress down around them.  Most Sundays I wear a nice shirt with my jeans. On those occasions where I want to dress it up a bit a dark sport coat over an un-tucked shirt with my jeans looks good.

I still have what I call a “marrying and burying” suit hanging in my closet.  This nice black suit comes out a few times each year to help a young couple begin their journey of life together or when someone passes into the presence of the Lord.  I wore my black suit just last week to conduct a marriage ceremony.  It actually felt good and brought back some memories.

I mention all of this about attire to process a simple point. The packaging of ministry has changed over the years and will continue to do so for many years to come. It’s OK to change things – in fact I think it’s a sign of health. The Church is one group that can actually get stuck in time and call it righteous.

If Jesus were to show up today, and manifest in a physical body, He would not be wearing a robe or sandals.  He would be dressed like the rest of us. Sometimes we make Jesus too mysterious.  The Incarnation – Jesus taking on a physical body like ours – was His idea.  He wanted to first fit in so He could then stand out.  Jesus was good at removing barriers to communication.

When Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth He dressed like the audience to whom He spoke.  When He finished speaking they decided that He was just too familiar to them to be the real Messiah so they tried to murder Him by attempting to throw Him over a cliff. Looking contemporary has a downside.

While I think Jesus’ attire would change over time, I know His message would never change.  The unchangeable message of Jesus has migrated along the developing timeline of the Church for the last 2,000 years.  While culture will change, the message remains the same.

When Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth and was handed the scroll, He read from Isaiah 61. As He read these words He was dressed in the garb of His day.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.”

Over all the years that I have done the stuff of ministry, I have tried to keep the message of the Gospel intact while cultural change was taking place all around me. The way we dress and what we drive will adjust as new products are marketed our way and we agree with those changes by exercising our choice as consumers. What will hopefully not change is the message of Jesus found in Isaiah 61. You can speak these words dressed in anything and deliver them at anytime and they will always bring life.

"This Good News" by Garris Elkins

“And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.” II Timothy 1:11 

When Paul wrote these words to his spiritual son, Timothy, it was the second letter Paul had written bearing Timothy’s name.  There is a sense of urgency in Paul’s instructions to Timothy in both letters. Paul speaks as a concerned father wanting his son to stir up the deposit God had placed in his life.

Among the many things Paul would remind Timothy of in his two epistles, preaching the Word seemed to be very important. Verse eleven is couched between two subjects - Paul telling Timothy to not be ashamed of the Gospel and Paul stating that the reason for his imprisonment was for preaching the Gospel.

Paul's preaching about Christ was a life-priority to him and it should be to each believer, not limited to those who stand behind a pulpit each week. Preaching the message of the Good News is what got Paul in trouble in many of the places he traveled. His jeopardy did not come from teaching on the structure of the Church or how to deliver a prophetic word.  The Good News Paul preached was a volatile subject about salvation in Christ alone that turned his contemporary world upside down.

Maybe it’s where I am in my life that compels me to seek a simpler order for the priorities of my calling as a follower of Jesus Christ.  I want a simple order of priorities that will keep me from over-complicating what God wants to do in and through me.  It has become too easy for me to seek a gift-based definition for what I do at the expense of simply declaring the message of Christ on a daily basis.

I am too willing to retreat into my equipping gifts at the expense of simply preaching and declaring Jesus.  What some of us may have overlooked is that the five-fold equipping ministry could simply be the recognition of how each of us preaches the Good News.  Some are apostolic preachers of the Good News.  Others are evangelist preachers of the Good News.  And still others can be either a prophet or a teacher or a pastor, all of whom preach the Good News while they function in their unique and defined calling to equip the Church for service.  Stephen, a waiter of tables for hunger widows, did this when his newly minted gift as an evangelist got him killed for preaching the Good News.

Some of this can be true in other fields of endeavor, like the academic world.  A professor can teach about something so long they might become out of touch with the very subject they are teaching.  In the Church, many of us have wanted our ministry to become so defined that we may have moved beyond the simple and pure devotion to Jesus to which we were originally called. A simple and pure devotion to Jesus is birthed out of His Good News.

Paul defined what he did in his personal ministry and listed them in this order – preacher, apostle and a teacher.  All three of these definitions had added to them these words, “…of this Good News.”  Paul was a preacher of this Good News, an apostle of this Good News and a teacher of this Good News – all that he was found its source in proclaiming “this Good News.”

We all could learn from Paul's instruction to Timothy.  Paul had to remind Timothy what the order of his ministry was – preacher, apostle, teacher. No matter which of the ministry descriptions Timothy would function within at any given time, Paul desired this tagline to describe what Timothy did in his ministry  - “this Good News.”  

Every follower of Christ is called to be a preacher of “this Good News". What is exciting to realize is that in all these preachers who make up the Church around the world there will emerge bands of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers who will begin to equip the Church to do the work of the ministry, which is to share “this Good News” no matter what other ministry description they carry.

“Preparing A Spiritual Go Bag” by Garris Elkins

A couple of months ago Jan and I flew to Phoenix, Arizona.  My flight was in the month of May so Phoenix was already getting hot.  I decided to wear shorts, flip flops and a tee shirt for the flight anticipating a very warm arrival.

The flight from Medford, Oregon took us over some really desolate countryside in Nevada and Arizona.  As I began to daydream, I wondered what I would do if the airplane went down and I somehow survived the crash.  We were flying over utter desolation. I realized I had no supplies and I was not dressed to survive.  I was wearing flip flops, shorts and a tee shirt.  Basically, I would be toast in an emergency.

As I thought about this imaginary scenario, I realized how foolish we have become in our Western culture to not be prepared to survive in the various landscapes through which we travel. We assume the environment inside our little insulated aluminum tubes called airplanes, flying high above unfriendly terrain, is our reality. We assume that the deserts we cross will never come inside our vehicles until we have car trouble and realize we forgot to bring water.

Just last week I watched a TV show about “Preppers.”  These are the people who have taken doomsday preparation to a new neurotic level. I found myself mocking some of what they were doing.  In my pride, I failed to realize that if the proverbial stuff ever did hit the fan they would appear a whole lot smarter than I was giving them credit for.

I began to ask myself some questions like, “Am I prepared to walk away from a spiritual crash site and navigate the emotionally challenging terrain ahead?”  “Have I worn spiritual flip flops for my life-trip instead of hiking boots with Vibram soles that can endure the hike back to reality?

As ridiculous as it would appear for any of us to think we could walk away from a real-life wilderness crash site in a pair of flip flops, it seems equally ridiculous to think that we could move through the coming seasons of life with weak spiritual footwear and a lack of survival equipment.

As I write this, I think of the Church in the first century being able to walk away from the spiritual crash sites of persecution, or the Reformers who climbed out alive from the wreckage of the Reformation, or the church in Uganda who walked away from the brutalizing presence of Idi Amin. In each of these examples, amidst great pain and sorrow, they made it out of the wilderness because they were spiritually prepared.

Recently, I learned a new phrase – “Go Bag.”  A Go Bag is a small backpack filled with enough supplies to get a person through the first three days of a catastrophe like a hurricane, earthquake or flood, where you are cut off from normal supply lines.  In the Go Bag is packed your food, water and survival supplies.  The Go Bag is placed in a known location and remains available to grab and go in case of an emergency. 

While is sounds like a smart idea to actually prepare one of these Go Bags for what can occur naturally, it seems even wiser to have our spiritual Go Bags ready for times of unexpected life-crisis.

As I began to think about what one might need in a spiritual Go Bag I came up with the following list:

-       A practiced trust in God developed before a crash happens.

-       Scripture intentionally hidden in our hearts.

-       A daily reliance on the supernatural power of God’s Spirit to deliver.

-       A realization that no matter what happens, God has a plan to save us.

This list for a spiritual Go Bag is short and simple.  I have developed this list from a lifetime of a trial and error faith in times of crisis.  If our spiritual Go Bags are packed and ready at all times, we will be able to walk away from any relational or emotional crash site with the ability to overcome the surrounding wilderness and survive the trek out to live another day for the glory of God.