50 Chairs

The chairs are empty because the men who sat in them were sent. Twenty-three years ago, in a season of turmoil and shrinking, God told a handful of people to buy chairs for a congregation that did not yet exist, and real faith always borders on foolishness. From that garage came springs on four continents, and every one began with someone who was discipled and then sent. So we remember the whole way the Lord has led us, as Moses commanded, and we tell what He has done without boasting. It was not by our sword or our arm but by His right hand and the light of His face, and the grace of God that was with us. God keeps His word, often through the sons we raise rather than through us. We choose sons over monuments, and we birth churches that are not under anyone’s control. Because the work is His, we can stand under fire like Nehemiah, who refused to come down to Ono because he was doing a great work, and we answer with a harvest instead of an argument. Like David at Ziklag, we find strength in the Lord, trusting that what the enemy carries off, God takes back, and that those who held the supply lines share the same reward. So we do not throw away the confidence we already have, because we are not of those who shrink back. The question now is not who left these chairs but who fills them next