We (Truly) Send Our Best

Some personal news today.

Since 2002, our family has been part of a church with missions at its core. In the earliest days of our arrival, we heard of families relocating to unreached places, small groups living strategically in their neighborhoods, and members giving up vacation days to serve on short-term trips.

Over the years, that missions culture has coalesced into a few sticky phrases: We want to make it hard to go to hell from Durham. We’re called to plant 1,000 churches in our generation. We want to be the most multiplying church in America.

We send our best.

That last one serves as the basis for one of our church’s four foundational values. That phrase – and the heart behind it – became the background soundtrack of our kids’ lives. They were raised in Summit Kids and Summit Students programming where the literal environment was decorated to look like an airport terminal, planting seeds for missions work. They’ve heard “You are sent” at the end of every worship service for almost two decades. All four have been a part of a short-term overseas trip or trips – anywhere from a few days to a full month. Most have served in multiple stateside opportunities.

So it should come as no surprise that one of them eventually put their yes on the table – and God answered with a resounding “Go.”

This weekend, our oldest son Jacob, our daughter-in-law Summer, our granddaughter Haddie Nell, and our sixth grandchild (coming in late July) will pack their last few belongings in their minivan and move to Charlotte to be a part of the Summit’s Oasis Church plant.

They’ll be four of around 80 who will serve as part of the Oasis launch team, many of whom are being sent out from the Summit, selling houses and transferring jobs and leaving family to start a new work of the gospel for those who have not yet heard.

---

Over the last few months I’ve told many people that this “we send our best” idea is all fun and games until grandchildren get involved, and then it just seems dumb.

I’m joking, obviously – and perhaps I’m in whatever stage of grief that involves empty sarcasm – but their journey has forced Merriem and I to reckon with what we really believe about sending our best. Through the years we’ve sympathized with parents who hold the rope for children or grandchildren who move across the country or around the world. Sympathized, yes, but not really felt it.

Now we have a better sense of it.

And I get it: we’re talking Charlotte, North Carolina. It’ll be less that two hours from our driveway to theirs. That’s a there and back day trip. Our “sacrifice” – if you can even call it that – pales in comparison to how other parents and grandparents have sent out their own…sent out their hearts…sent out their best. So yes, I’ll spare you the sympathy on our behalf, because in the grand scheme of things, this is not really a big deal.

(Except to us, and to them, and to the whole family…it’s kind of a big deal.)

---

Another popular sending culture / Summit saying is “Do what you do for the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategically for the mission of God.”

Since he was 16, Jacob has been a part of the Chick-fil-A world. He cut his teeth in the cow suit, worked his way up to drive-through director, and when Matt Rice, his General Manager, left to become owner-operator of his own store in … wait for it … Charlotte in 2020, Jacob stepped into his old role.

Maybe you can see where this is going.

Fast forward to this spring. Summer approached Jacob with a statement: “Hey. I’ve been thinking about some things, and they’re both a little weird.”

Jacob: “Interesting. I’ve also been thinking about some things, and they’re also a little weird.”

You guessed it: they were the same two things:

1. We should be a part of the Oasis plant. And 2. Maybe call Matt about getting the band back together.

And that, as they say, was that. Matt was in the process of opening a brand-new store, and he brought Jacob on as his #2 just in time for an early-May grand opening. He’s been splitting his time between Charlotte and Durham as the store gets off the ground, and will move full-time when the move happens. As Executive Director, Jacob will get to lean into his passions and giftings as a leader of people, a creator of systems, and a shaver of seconds in line. He’ll get to do what he does for the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God.

(A side note is in order: the new store is located on Dale Earnhardt Boulevard, and I’ve offered the tagline “Where every meal is a #3 meal.” Chick-fil-A marketing team: call me.)

---

As a pastor, I’ve spent almost a quarter of a century in a church where we send out co-workers and friends and small group members and serving team volunteers across town and across the globe for the sake of missions. When we say We send our best, we mean it. Some of those sendings have been painful. But every one of them has been worth it.

(Ironically, one of those particularly painful plants sent a couple of my team members to Wilmington…where a girl from across the state would attend UNCW…where she would find a church home in the very church we planted (#13 out of 1,000)…where one of those former team members would eventually introduce her to my son…and now they’re full-circle in the middle of their own sent story, helping to plant #109 out of 1,000. Win-win? Okay, fine.)

As a Dad, I’m embarking on a new adventure. That’s watching my kids take the call to church planting seriously.

As a Pops, I’ve prayed for each of my grandchildren to live sent lives from the moment I first held them. While Haddie Nell and her baby sister don’t yet have a category for what’s happening, I’m getting to watch real-time as the Lord answers that prayer.

Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? 100%. I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in truth.

To my beloveds – to Jacob, Summer, Haddie Nell, and grandbaby #6 – I may say it through tears, but I say it with full faith, unwavering support, and a joyful heart:

You are sent.