When I believed God was burdening my heart to plant a church in my hometown, many people laughed or just shook their heads. You see, I am from Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1977, I planned to graduate on May 11, get married ten days later, and assist my pastor in building a recent successful church plant in Burlington, North Carolina. That year, however, God changed my direction towards planting a church in Las Vegas.

No one could have listened to John the Baptist’s preaching and left wondering what they were to do. John had a one-word message: Repent! John’s purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry. Repentance—true, heart-plowing repentance—is the key to making room for the seed of God’s Word to take root.

Often in our ministry, we help people who are a mess. Their lives have been totally ensnared and virtually destroyed by sin and Satan. Helping these people overcome lifelong struggles with drugs, alcohol, immorality, pornography, and other issues is challenging and filled with discouragement. It is also wonderfully exciting as we see God bring victory into these sin-scarred lives.

In 1965, I boarded a plane to Japan with my wife Virginia, and our children, Renee and Tim. When we arrived, we were struck by the idolatry that was prevalent everywhere. Buddhist or Shinto altars were on every street corner. Idolatry permeated Japanese culture.

There’s not a committed Christian in America who wouldn’t like revival. But I’m afraid there are few who are desperate for revival. We stand in dire need of revival, but we don’t always carry a personal urgency for revival. Much of the book of Lamentations is the cry of a prophet who sensed the immediacy of his nation’s need for revival. Yet his cry was one of anguish because the people to whom he ministered were content to live without it.

Over the years, it has become a common practice among certain Christians to treat others as if they are wearing either black or white hats, like the main characters in the old cowboy shows. Some will remember that the ones with the white hats were “the good guys” and the ones wearing the black hats were “the bad guys.”

Maybe you have heard about the wife who said, “My husband and I have fussed for fifty years. I’m praying that God will take one of us to Heaven. And when God answers my prayer, I’m going to move in with my sister!” There is no such thing as a perfect marriage, but God’s Word does command husbands and wives to love one another—in spite of our faults!

On July 11, 1982, my wife Josselyn and our four-year-old son Peter drove the last few kilometers of the Trans-Canada Highway into the vast metropolitan area known as Vancouver, British Columbia. We arrived rather naive, certainly ill prepared, lacking in training, and vastly underfunded.

As we walk in humble sincerity before the Lord, we will insist on godly integrity. Our purpose in ministry is to exalt the name of Jesus Christ. He receives glory when people are saved and His Word is preached—unless we sabotage that glory with unethical or immoral ministry. The greatest motivator to serve with integrity is not protecting our “image,” but magnifying the testimony of Christ.

God is in the transforming business. Metamorphosis is the transformation seen as a caterpillar emerges as a butterfly. The pupa stage begins when hormones are secreted by the insect’s brain compelling it to attach itself to a leaf or twig and to shed its outer skin layer revealing hard skin, or its chrysalis, underneath.