Crossing the Line Is Just the Start

If you were walking around our office a few weeks ago, you certainly would have heard it. It’s just a phrase, but it slices into the busy noise of copiers, typing, and chatter—everything stops. Then, before you know it, the phrase works its way into every conversation. “We crossed the line!” That’s what we say around our international headquarters. Everyone there knows exactly what it means. Work stops for almost everyone: coffee break turns into lunch break, which turns into pizza and stories. We crossed the line! It’s our Avant Family’s way of saying that a new church has been planted. At Avant, we have specific metrics that tell us when a Bible study or small group crosses the line to becoming a church. At that point, we shift gears as a team to help them become a healthy reproducing church. Since that’s why our organization exists, we can’t help but celebrate.

Today I’m more than 6,000 miles away in the Middle East and I’m the one who got to ring the bell. Yet it’s only here that I’m coming to terms with what should have been obvious: this is actually the starting line! This is the kind of race that’s not ending anytime soon. There’s a poor local evangelist and two small private groups of people who are living in this incredible tension of trying to keep their heads down while they simultaneously want to shout from the rooftops. While it didn’t feel like the ideal time to celebrate, God showed us that just as He has been working long before we ever noticed, so too will He who began this good work carry it on to completion.

You see, it seems God started this particular work in our Arabic country almost a decade ago when He called a local young couple and set them apart as evangelists. They weren’t experts, but they were faithful and filled with His Spirit, so they never stopped inviting people to come to Christ. Eventually the Lord used them to bring others to Christ and, one by one, the group started to grow in a dark neighborhood. Now the husband struggles to teach loud enough for the elder of the family to hear over the fans in the living room, yet quiet enough that passersby won’t hear. This group has increased and decreased, has divided and united, and has been the object of much anguished prayer. The race has been weary at times, but the other day as we sat down to apply the metrics, it was as if the Lord poured cool water over our heads and quenched our thirst, saying, “lift up your hands and strengthen your weak knees…I’m coming soon, bringing my reward with me.” The finish line is still just ahead.