Report: The Gathering 2008, “Can You Drink the Cup?”Dustin Comisford – Evangelist, New York City

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered.
- Mark 10:35-39

What an amazing weekend! Last Wednesday, after a long flight across the Atlantic, Kacie and I landed in London and were greeted in the airport by 30 plus disciples singing, “We Love You with the Love of the Lord”. Our hearts were so encouraged to be with a group of like-minded disciples that had ‘gathered’ from all over Europe and the rest of the world. We were able to spend time with Maxim and Natasha Potapov from Ukraine, Argo and Anu Lipps from Estonia, Andrew Smellie from Washington D.C., Mike Patterson from Phoenix, Michael and Sharon Kirshner from L.A. and of course our dear friends Tim and Lianne Kernan of London. Over the weekend, we were inspired by the faith of our London brothers and sisters and we were all in agreement that it was time for us to “drink the cup”!

On Thursday, Andrew Smellie and I spoke at a small leadership workshop and encouraged everyone to be about the mission of baptizing disciples. Our critics can criticize and we can verbally defend but the work (the baptisms) is the ultimate testimony (John 5:31-36) that what we are doing is of God.

Friday started with a futbol match – those from Europe versus us from America. Being confused that we were playing a futbol game not a football game, the Americans got dominated 7-0. Next time we will be prepared! The conference officially kicked off Friday night and I gave the keynote speech, “Can You Drink the Cup?” Preaching from Mark 10, I first spoke on “Drinking the Cup of Humility.” To be great in God’s kingdom, one must desire to be the slave of all. We must create not a hierarchy but a lowerarchy. Meaning we must make leaders who are the most serving and all disciples in our ministries must have that same heart. I told the story of our newest brother in New York, Carlos. He had been baptized in the ICOC in 1994 and had even gone on the mission team to Ecuador. However, he had never given up his pride. Eventually, him and his wife struggled and left the church. His pride destroyed him and his marriage fell apart. After being divorced, he remarried but he knew that he needed God. One day, he ‘googled’ Chris Broom on the internet and saw that he had joined a ‘new movement’. He spoke to Chris and learned what was going on. Inspired, he came out to church and started studying to be restored. We looked at scriptures about pride and I read to him Matthew 18:3, “Unless you change and become like little children, you can never enter the kingdom of heaven.” He started crying and shared that at his baptism he did not have the heart of a child and so had never entered the kingdom. After a few more studies, Carlos was baptized as a true and truly humble disciple. His wife is now studying to be baptized as well. We must ‘drink the cup of humility’!

Secondly, I spoke on “Drinking the Cup of Destruction.” In the old testament, the Lord is often mentioned having a cup of extremely strong wine in his hand (Psalm 75:8, Jeremiah 25:15-16), which he makes the nations drink. They become drunk and go to their destruction. At the cross, Jesus drank this cup for us and reaped the destruction that we deserved because of our sins (Jeremiah 49:12). But to be great in God’s kingdom, we must also drink the cup for the salvation of more and more people. As we get closer to Jesus and the cross the stronger the persecution will become. The we get to world evangelism, the greater the opposition from Satan and his kingdom – the world. I’m sure James remembered Jesus’ words – “can you drink the cup?” – as he was beheaded and John as he was boiled in oil!

Saturday, the brothers and sisters broke apart for classes on ways to make our ministries more effective. Then Sunday morning Andrew spoke on “Do You Want to Drink the Cup?” He encouraged us that in order to want to drink the cup, we must have the right attitude – Attitude of Unselfish Humility, Attitude of Joyful Acceptance, Attitude of Strong Determination and Attitude of Genuine Thanksgiving. We finished the conference by bridging the aisles and singing, “We Shall Overcome” with all our might.

It is clear that there is much work to do to see our world evangelized in our day. And that drinking the cup is much easier said than done. But this weekend I believe we caught a vision, a glimpse of a vision, of what our future holds if we decide to drink that cup that Jesus drank. As Kacie and I flew back to New York, the words to the closing song echoed in my head,

We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday.
The Lord will see us through, The Lord will see us through, The Lord will see us through someday
It’s on to victory, It’s on to victory, It’s on to victory someday.
Deep in my heart, I do believe, it’s on to victory…someday.

And to God be the Glory in London, New York and the World!