Ode to the disciples of the American West Coast: by Tim & Lianne Kernan

Lianne and I just want to thank all the American West Coast disciples in LA, Portland, Eugene and Corvallis for their incredible hospitality, vision and love. From the time we arrived in LA in April until the Eugene and Corvallis brothers and sisters received us after the Jubilee in August we were totally overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude for your generosity and love. I won’t soon forget the first discipling times with the McKeans having dinner on the Queen Mary with a view of our new ministry in Long Beach. It was so symbolic that we were on a great British ship and yet it was docked where we were to lead for the following months. We can’t wait to see you again at the Gathering!

I will never forget our little sister Janelle who lived with us while we were in Long Beach. She is a little lady with powerful ministry potential and an incredible capacity to love and trust. She became like a daughter to us. I’ll never forget the BBQ’s and devotionals with all the guys and gals of our ministry: Ricky, Dom, Carlos, Shay, Lotay, CL, Tim, and Mike-el. You guys are incredible.

One of our favorite things to do, even if we were trying to take a day off, was to go to Victor and Sonia’s house to hangout. Victor and Sonia have been incredible friends over the past few years. Since the first Jubilee where I soundly and firmly discipled me on my sinful attitudes towards my wife to today where he soundly and firmly disciples me on a load of other things. Victor is an amazing brother who shows his generosity with food and with discipling. He can’t help but to know how we are doing and get the bible out to apply Gods Word to whatever situation it is. His wife Sonia, mother of 10, always had plenty of time for Lianne, even if they had d-times on the fly while cooking or going and doing groceries. In many ways we owe you our marriage and we are eager to find ways to repay you. Be Christlike, bold and courageous. We stand by you.

We will always be grateful to Clan Underhill. Lance and Connie are like parents to us. Connie is an incredible and spiritual mom to many. I appreciate the three cars you gave us that we burned out one by one… You never lost patience with us and you always encouraged us. Michael their son, the leader of the teen ministry along with the amazing sister Rachel Bond, became an instant best friend of Lianne and I and I always enjoyed our prayer times, especially that all night one! We are honored that you are all coming to speak at the Gathering. Lance, your speech about how to build a spiritual family with have us riveted. Joey you have a lot of great examples to follow bro. I won’t forget how you spontaneously got up to sing with DJ and then stage dived into the crowd at the concert!

DJ and Kasie, Lianne and I will always appreciate your openness and adulthood as Christians and our Wednesday ice-cream dates. You were open with us at the good times and open at the rough times. You care about God and you have stood the test of the crucible of men’s praise and men’s criticism. You are truly mature because although you are wise you have not lost your dream for world evangelism. My generation is counting on you: take us around the world. We can’t wait to have you in New England, specifically New York so that we can see one another more often. Maybe we can take a day trip to the original York!

Michael and Michelle Williamson: You refreshed our hearts enormously! I am so grateful for all your love and friendship. I was so fired up that we all had so much fun together! I can’t wait to see you again soon. Thank you for so generously lending us your car for the Jubilee and for all your spiritual advice and discipling. To all the incredible disciples in Portland who put on the best Jubilee ever! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Jeremy, Amy, Chuck and Elisabeth and the Eugene and Corvallis Tribe! I loved the steak dinner you BBQ’d up for us on our arrival, the bed and breakfast by the sea you arranged, the inspiring Staff meeting you lead, the brothers and sisters you introduced us to and all your continued work on upsidedown21. Chuck and Elisabeth thanks for the BBQ (I think we have a theme here. The tri-tip was the best I’ve ever had!) and the friendship over the years. I cant wait for you to stay with us here for The Gathering! Thank you to all the disciples in Eugene and Corvallis.

Without all of your amazing examples, including the dozens of people we didn’t mention, things would not be going as well here in London as they are. Because we now have a model to imitate Kiev, Stockholm, London and Berlin now share a dream, I am convinced, to build a similar cluster of churches here. We cant wait to boast: We love as much as the American West Coast does! Last week at bible talk we had so many guests that people were sitting in the hallway! A sister spontaneously blurted out: “This is not of man!” another brother who has since come to be restored shouted “this is the church I was baptised into!”. Hopefully its not exactly the same church but the baby is safe in the tub and the bath water is gone. We have gone from a mission team of about 5 to a mission team of 15 with 3 more flying in and 5 ready to be restored! God is absolutely blowing us away.

We have also been counted worthy of persecution! Some of our brothers and sisters chose to attend a London Singles event run by the ICOC. When it was discovered that they were attending our church two of our brothers were promptly asked to leave by Andy Flemming himself! He has cut off all means of communication so, since there is no way to communicate with him, I will use his name here. The first brother left respectfully. When leaders approached the second brother some of our ICOC brothers and sisters stood up and said that if he had to leave they would leave with him. In the face of opposition the ICOC leaders either lacked the courage of his conviction or realized that his “conviction” was not a conviction after all. (Galatians 2:6 As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message) It reminded me of the scene from Gladiator when Maximus identifies himself to the Emperor. To the brothers and sisters who stood up for what is right: you inspire us.

Jesus never kicked his disciples out of the synagogues or their families. It was the members of the synagogues and families that kicked the disciples out… In the same way our members are expected to respect the meetings of the body however outside of that I trust them completely to go where ever they choose; I’ve even been to a mosque with a good Muslim friend. One way or another its clear now that we are not the divisive element in London. On the contrary we have met with many members of the ICOC since we have been here and they are always welcome at our services and homes. We rejoiced that by grace we had kept the moral high ground and had refused to retaliate in the face of actual and blatant divisiveness. We rejoiced at the courage of our brothers and sisters in the ICOC even if we are all discouraged by some of their leaders.

Dear God, even if an angel were to come and preach a different gospel I pray that by your grace we would never ask a true, quiet and respectful disciple of Jesus to leave an assembly. I also pray that you bless those who persecute us. Please bless them in every way possible including the grace to end their divisive behavior. I pray the next time they see us in the assembly they will fear you enough to be hospitable to the brothers and if they see our wrongdoing so clearly that they explain it to us from the bible without slandering. Amen.

West Coast, none of this would not be possible without your love, affection, teaching, vision and love that you imitated from Christ. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

We love you so much,

Tim and Lianne Kernan