We sat by the campfire last night at his home just outside Bracebridge, Ontario. We had just enjoyed dinner with our wives and Peter and I settled into the chairs by the fire to enjoy one more conversation before my wife and I went home the following day. 

It was a perfect August evening. 25C, clear skies, stars out. At times a satellite would move through the sky. We wondered if they took a picture of us!

The conversation that evening was the same as it has been for almost 25 years when our deep friendship began in 2003, one year before we moved to London, Ontario for me to take on a pastor role. That final year that we were in the same city together we met at 7am each Sunday morning before the church service at Second Cup Coffee in Guelph, Ontario. 

How are you doing? How is your marriage? How are your kids doing? What is God teaching you lately? What are you learning about coming alongside others and guiding them in their faith journey? Any new learning about leadership or discipleship?

When we moved to a different city, the connection didn’t stop. They now transitioned to a monthly in-person dinner meeting, in a city between us. Mostly at Montanas because they had paper on the tables with crayons. We could draw out what we were learning and have interactive discussions. It was always lively. This went on for seventeen years.

For the past four years I have lived half of the year outside of Canada – in Lithuania and Kenya – serving with churches. When out of the country, Peter and I still call 2-3 times a week. And Peter has visited me in both countries and we are serving alongside each other in these places as well. As always, in the areas of leadership and discipleship. 

We are now both in our 60s – I’m at the start, he’s past halfway:) Back in 2003 we committed to finishing well and to hold each other accountable for that. We have never lost sight of this commitment. 

People often ask us when we will retire. We don’t know what that means. We are looked at strangely by some. We are okay with that. We are committed to the Kingdom work that God has called us to lean into. 

I mostly work with local churches, Peter mostly comes alongside business owners who have a desire to lead with a Kingdom of God mindset. We see these two roles as complementary, a unique melding together of faith and work.

Neither of us believes that we will accomplish the dreams God has put in us in our lifetimes. We will move things forward as much as we are able to and allow the next generation to continue – we’ve come to call this a “cathedral mindset”; to start something so monumental that you won’t finish it in your lifetime.

Peter is a man I trust my life with. He wants the best for me. I want the best for him.

As we sat at the campfire, we looked at the six empty chairs that were around the firepit. We dreamed – who could we invite to sit in those chairs with us. Who could be part of our fellowship of Kingdom entrepreneurs. 

So we sat, we talked, we dreamed. We came up with more ways to engage with others and expand the Kingdom. Our wives often roll their eyes at us, yet support the chaos we at times bring into their lives.

I could not, would not, do life without Peter. In some ways we are Paul and Barnabas in the Book of Acts. We take turns being each character, although, truth be told, Peter is more like Barnabas the encourager, something I aspire to be more of.

My desire for you, before it is too late, is that you have a Peter in your life. Do not do life alone. Go deep. Be honest. Go far together.

For the Kingdom.

I was listening to a podcast the other day about discipleship and the church. This continues to be part of my regular diet of ongoing learning, for me in my own desire to be a disciple and to come alongside others, as well learning about what others are doing and learning.

A comment by the person being interviewed was that this is a very difficult time to be a disciple of Jesus. He talked about the state of the world, the decline of the church, the political situation, and many other things – the standard stuff I’m hearing these days. He wasn’t pessimistic in any way from how I heard him, he was simply stating what he thought was fact. He was still very much engaged in the journey of being a disciple and coming alongside others.

Yet for some reason, this comment stopped me. And I asked myself – is this a difficult time to be a disciple of Jesus? Is this simply said as an acceptable comment to make among Christian leaders? (There are many of these types of comments actually that I’m starting to question. Perhaps some future blogs on this.)

I thought about other times in history starting with the time immediately following Jesus’ ascension and the start of the ecclesia. Surely that was difficult. Read the book of Acts and the many letters in the New Testament.

I thought about Christians in countries like Iran and the blatant persecution that goes on – surely that is a difficult place to be a disciple.

I’m currently reading the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas – I highly recommend it. He stood up to the entire Nazi regime as well as the German church. Definitely a difficult time to be a disciple.

So when was it easy then? I was born in 1966 in Canada. Going to church in the 1970s and 1980s seemed rather acceptable. Surely to be a disciple during that time then could be thought of as being easy perhaps.

And then I wondered if this is even the wrong question to be asking and pondering. Could it be that being a disciple is neither hard nor easy. We may choose this way of looking at it because it seems difficult to give up those things that we love – a particular way of life, certain relationships, a desired health status, and on we could go.

Yet these things are simply saying more of what we believe about God and how we think he should interact with us and our circumstances, than it does about who God really is.

Being a disciple of Jesus, is to fully entrust ourselves to the life God has for us. To follow him no matter our life circumstances. That God is in control of all things, that his love for us can never be questioned, and that one day we will rule with him in a new heaven and a new earth. 

Jesus told us up front that “in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” 

Can I be bold and declare that for me to say that being a disciple is difficult is to not believe who God is? By even giving myself permission to say life is hard being a disciple is to not believe the promises of God?

Perhaps I need to reflect on this some more. Yet being a disciple is simply to align myself with God, who designed everything, who is over everything, who will bring all things into submission. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now in me.

So is this a difficult time to be a disciple of Jesus? Has there ever been a difficult time?

Let the conversation begin.

For the Kingdom.