Shortly after arriving in a new pastoral assignment, several long-term church members wanted to introduce me to Ron. He was new to the church and they weren't really sure how or why he had come. All they knew was that his three preschool-age boys attended the church's daycare. John, James, and Jeffrey ranged in age from two to five and they were all full of life. It wasn't long before Ron indicated to me an interest in church membership, so we decided to meet together to talk about it. At a curbside café over Coke and coffee, Ron shared his

They sat down on the front row of the empty chapel and without warning, little John began to pray.

story. He told me how he had been referred to the church's childcare ministry and how his oldest son, John, would come home wanting to pray. John always wanted to take his daddy and show him the church's sanctuary. After several requests, Ron agreed. They sat down on the front row of the empty chapel and without warning, little John began to pray. As cars raced past our table by the curb, Ron said: "Pastor, the Spirit of God was in that place!" He continued, "I knew . . . I felt compelled . . . that this was where I needed to raise my boys. This was the kind of church where I wanted them to experience a close relationship with the Lord." Ron was making an incredible commitment to membership in the Church of the Nazarene that day. He wasn't a second or third generation Nazarene. What he knew about the church came from a few months in a local congregation and visit to www.nazarene.org. Ron had been raised as a Roman Catholic and had even spent a three-month trial period as a Trappist monk. He wanted to assure me that he didn't have anything bad to say about his Catholic brothers and sisters, but he wanted me to know that he was making a conscious decision to raise his boys in a tradition and a congregation that emphasized the intimate presence of God in a life-changing way. Ron's journey toward joining the church really started when a five-year-old boy took him into the sanctuary and prayed. In Isaiah 11, the Bible describes the blessings of the age of the Messiah—the time when Christ reigns without rival or distraction. As a part of that description, formerly ferocious animals live at peace with their prey and "a little child will lead them" (Isaiah 11:6). Ron certainly isn't a "wolf" or "leopard," but one evening after preschool, John introduced his daddy to a foretaste of God's future. Brad Estep is senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene in Winter Haven, Florida.

 

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