Phone Call

When the phone rings at church, it can be anything. I mean anything: someone is in the hospital, can you help with gas, we want to sell you insurance/curriculum/office supplies, my satellite dish just went out (for reals, someone called and told us his dish went out, and can we fix it...). It can be a prayer request or a praise report, it can be a person with a question or an agenda or a critique, it can be literally anything. But this morning it was encouragement on the phone.

Stacy knocked on my door and said, "Anne Graham Lotz is on the phone for you."

I don't name drop, that's not my style, and that's not what this is. This is a WOW moment for our church, our place in the Kingdom of God, and for me personally. We are one of the few churches around the country that has taken the I Saw the Lord material and used it church wide, so the folks at Angel Ministries have asked us to keep them up to date, and give them any feedback we have. I wrote an e-mail yesterday with some of the exciting responses we've seen to people studying God's word, and some suggestions to make it easier for future churches to go church wide on this. Apparently, Anne herself saw the e-mail and decided to call to say 'Thank you' and 'We're praying for you.'

It was surreal. Here in my cluttered little office, in the middle of downtown Pocatello, Idaho, I'm talking to the daughter of a legend, the leader of a nationally known ministry, a gifted and in demand preacher and speaker, award winning author, and all that is Anne Graham Lotz, and she's thanking me on behalf of our church.

Some will say, "Bill, get off your ego trip. So what, she's just a person God uses." I will reply, "It's not about me, it's about the graciousness of this lady, who has more to do than most, who has a greater ministry footprint than most, and who has no reason whatsoever to be so kind as to pray for us, much less call and encourage us in our work for the Lord, but she picked up the phone and made my week." So no, I'm not going on an ego trip. What God is doing right now is so far beyond me that I'm sprinting to keep up. But what I am going to say is that God is up to Something REALLY BIG, and one phone call out of the hundreds we will receive this week is proof enough that it's really happening.

Pay attention. God is talking.