Risk: Doing the Ridiculous to See the Miraculous

HILL

Forward by Tommy Barnett

Risk is a story of thinking and acting outside the box in order to see the lost reached. Roger Archer challenges the status quo and takes faith-driven risks in order to see the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. This book will inspire you to live a life driven by faith and an expectancy to see miracles in your life and ministry.

Forward by Rich Wilkerson

A hundred years ago it was my privilege to speak to young people each week as a traveling evangelist. During the day I would speak in three to four high schools on an average and then in a large venue each night where I’d have the privilege of seeing many young adults follow Christ. My summers were taken up with one youth camp after another. Such was the case in June of 1983 at the Silver Lake Youth Camp in Eastern Washington.

During the week I met a young man named Roger Archer who had never been to church before and was moving to Missouri in the Fall to play football. During the week he accepted Jesus as his savior and went to play football for my friend Denny Duron who was coaching at Evangel University in Springfield Mo. To be honest I lost track of Roger after that until I met him again four years ago in a Masters Cohort at Southeastern University that we were sharing. Oh, I knew about him because he had one of the fastest growing churches in America and was training young adults like no one in the country. One of his former associates is my sons best friend. But I didn’t know Roger was THAT Roger! On our first day in class together, he reminded me of the story. I was shocked! He so brilliant. He’s done the unthinkable in a relatively small area in the Pacific Northwest he has built a powerhouse of a church with four campuses and thousands in attendance. Yet, the thing that impresses me about Roger the most is his bold and unwavering passion for Jesus. He’s the one the local news cameras search out when there’s controversy and he ALWAYS takes the Jesus side. I’m proud to know him and to have played a small part in his life. Trust me this book is a page turner start to finish. Get ready!

Chapter One

The Beginning

1995

When my children were small, ages four, five, and six, they learned to swim at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert, California. We could not afford to stay there. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, drove over to the Marriott and crashed their pool! In the eyes of a child this pool, by comparison, was enormous! It had the number 8 on the side of the deep end, and everything! declared my six-year old daughter.

All our children learned to swim that summer. After a long day of splashing around in the shallows I invited the kids to come to…THE 8! My courageous five-year old was first to leap. Prior to the launch she quickly inquired, You’re gonna catch me, right Daddy?

You bet baby girl. Your head will go under only for a second, and I’ll have you right up again! Don’t worry. I said.

The countdown was on… 3-2-1-GO! With all the courage of a NASA astronaut, off the side she went. It took about an hour for the other two to join their sister. It involved considerable coaxing and reassuring, but ultimately, by the end of the day, we were all swimming in the deep end.

Dear one, are you content to simply splash around in the shallows? Do your eyes gaze to the deep end where the fun seems to be happening? You must trust your heavenly Father. You must get out of the boat. Otherwise, you will keep your head down distracted by the meticulous and your whole life will pass you by. If you want to see the miraculous you might need to be willing to do the ridiculous. Jesus is inviting you. He wants you to have no limitations. He wants you to have maximum opportunities.

In 1872, C.T. Studd was the top Cricket bowler and batsman in all of Great Britain. The Pride of London would step into the Oval, before the wickets in view of more than 20,000 spectators, always to dazzle and amaze! The 6’2" tall, 190-pound Englishman literally had the world on a string! The son of a wealthy businessman, Studd enjoyed a life of privilege. Women longed to marry him; young boys wanted to be him. Men would emulate him and the world of Cricket loved to watch him pitch and hit! For all his evidence of external success there was still a void in the middle of Charles Thomas Studd.

On April 24, 1876, the Reverend D.L. Moody traveled from his church in Chicago at the invitation of London native, Charles Spurgeon. A gospel crusade was held at the Oval where Studd would display his Cricket prowess. The Studd family simply had to witness the spectacle of a preacher who could fill the Oval with merely a spoken word. Upon hearing the gospel message Charles Thomas Studd knelt at an altar and invited Jesus Christ into his heart; and a flame was lit.

The void within Studd was acknowledged and now it was found filled in the person of Jesus. Charles Studd only knew how to live life one way, full tilt! Introductions were made. Dwight Moody and Charles Spurgeon became mentors for the famous new convert. The passion invading Studd’s heart was compelling him to the continent of Africa. He could not explain the rationale for why this white, conspicuous, privileged athlete was being pulled to the remote center of the mysterious, dark continent, but being pulled he was.

After traveling to the Congo, he knew in his heart that he was home. Within five years he established a base for the gospel to be preached. Friendships were forged. A home was built. There was no question C.T. Studd had found his purpose in life. It was to reach people in Africa with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1881, Priscilla Stewart, the daughter of a missionary to China found herself in the country of the Congo. The two met and fell in love. Four children would be born to the Studd family.

C.T. Studd was a gambler of sorts. He risked everything for God. After the death of his father, he used the entire inheritance to fund the gospel message not only in Asia and Africa, he also invested into the ministries of Spurgeon and Moody. It would have been conceivable and understandable to take his father’s fortune and keep it for himself. However, C.T. Studd believed the Bible message regarding planting and reaping. He didn’t want to simply rely on himself. He wanted to rely on God.

Gold fever can make people do crazy things. On January 24, 1848, at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, James Wilson Marshall discovered gold. People from all over came; and thus began the California Gold Rush. We know from American history that people literally sold everything they owned to get to the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Lives were lost; and fortunes were gained and then lost. Gold and the love for gold created irrational behavior.

Having now lived in the Congo for seven years, Studd heard the rumors of gold being discovered in the Ulindi River as spread like wildfire. Europeans were coming by the thousands, just as they did in California. People who did not have the money to lose were betting on discovery; for them, it was gold or bust! From the memoirs of C.T. Studd we can capture the essence of his take on this occurrence. "Last June at the mouth of the Congo there awaited a thousand prospectors, traders, merchants and gold seekers, waiting to rush into these regions as soon as the government opened the door to them, for rumor declared that there is an abundance of gold. If such men hear so loudly the call of gold and obey it, can it be that the ears of Christ’s soldiers are deaf to the call of God? Are gamblers for gold so many, and gamblers for God so few? The gamblers of gold are many, but where are the gamblers for God!"

The gamblers of gold are many, but where are the gamblers for God? That phrase echoes within the chambers of my very soul. What are we gambling for God? Are we gambling our money, relationships, business ventures? Are we becoming all-in, irrational beings for and unto the highest being? What are we doing with what we’ve been given? We have been blessed with gifts, talents, abilities, and possessions. Do we possess a God Fever? Are we willing to pack up all, sell all, and go all-in? I believe God is calling us to risk, and risk big for Him!

We often get wrapped in results and outcomes. It’s our human nature. Fear will cause us to play it safe, hedge our bets, keep our heads down and trudge through life.

In the movie, Men of Honor, Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.) leaves his native Kentucky and the life of a sharecropper in 1948 by joining the United States Navy. As a crew member of the salvage ship USS Hoist, where he is assigned to the galley, he is inspired by the bravery of one of the divers, Master Chief Petty Officer Leslie William Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro). He is determined to overcome racism and become the first black American Navy diver. Brashear even proclaimed that he would become a Master Diver. He eventually is selected to attend Diving and Salvage School in Bayonne, New Jersey. It is there that he encounters Jo (Aunjanue Ellis). The two fall in love, but the affair has a conflict. She wants the difficult, but attainable; to have a career in medicine. Only he wants the impossible and unattainable, to become a Master Diver.

Carl, we want different things! I feel it’s better we end this now, if I just keep my head down and work hard...

Carl interrupts and says, The whole world will pass you by.

I hear the words of Carl Brashear, The whole world will pass you by. I hear the words of C.T. Studd, The gamblers of gold are many, but where are the gamblers for God? Most significantly, I hear the voice of Jesus in John 14:12 encouraging not only His disciples in the 1st century, but also His disciples in the 21st century, I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Dear precious one, the god of good enough is the god of this world. It is a world spirit causing us to settle. So many of us are living a life of more than we hoped for, but less than we’ve dreamed! The God of more than enough is the God of the universe. He is compelling us to contend! If we only could comprehend the vastness of our God, we would scoff at fear of effort. We would laugh hysterically at walls of formidability. STAND UP! CONTEND! LEAN IN! FIGHT! The God of more than enough does not want life to simply pass you by. You were created to be a participant, not just a spectator.

Make no mistake, if we want to walk on water we must get out of the boat! In Matthew 14:24-28 we watch a narrative of risk unfold before our very eyes. The proficient fishermen experienced sheer terror believing they were going to drown. It’s night and it’s stormy. They knew they were done for! Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, It’s a ghost! But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don’t be afraid, he said. Take courage. I am here! Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water. Yes, come, Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.

But why is it that only one ventured over the bow (the Apostle Peter) while eleven (all the others) remained constrained within the craft? Psychology basically tells us that 65% of those who live in America are Type B personalities while 35% are Type A. For the Type A profile, risk is not only seemingly effortless, it seems innate! If a Type A isn’t risking, they’re bored! They need to risk in order to feel alive! They need a mountain to conquer. On the other side of the coin, the Type B personality, being more controlled and more measured is more content with the status quo. This personality must labor in order to come to a place of taking a proverbial leap of faith.

I would like to make a distinction between taking a risk, and taking a chance. Taking a chance is reckless. There is little