A Lesson from Private Ryan

Last week I attended the Exponential New Church Planter’s Conference in Orlando, Florida (don’t worry, it was much warmer and nicer than it sounds).  I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the nearly 3,000 people who were there.  Now some of you may be saying, “Um, Brian, that isn’t even as many people as we have in a weekend at PCC Orland.  What is the big deal?”  The big deal is that those 3,000 people represented the future growth of God’s Kingdom.  Minus the proverbial smell of compost, when you looked around the room, you could clearly see the freshly planted Church seeds resting in the lives of ripe soil, just waiting to burst into new Church life.  What an exciting time to be a Christian!

As excited as I was to be there, I must confess that the experience humbled me beyond words.  For some reason, I couldn’t get the image of one of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan out of my head.  You may remember it too.  In one particular scene, Tom Hanks and his troops were on an amphibious craft, referred to as a Landing Craft, Infantry (or LCI), heading to Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion.

A brief history lesson tells us that of the five beaches stormed, the bloodiest fighting occurred at Omaha, where the Americans suffered more than 2,000 casualties¹.  President Eisenhower ordered 3,000 landing craft similar to those depicted in the movie.  Each carried approximately 41 men^2,3, so quick math tells us that in landing crafts along, approximately 123,000 soldiers when ashore at these battles.  Of the soldiers who fought, 70% were between the ages of 20 and 34, and 20% were under the age of 20⁴. 

Following scenes in the movie depicted the boats coming ashore.  The large iron doors that protected them as they motored in would drop down and the men would rush out of the boat to storm the beaches.  However, as artillery rained down into their boats, many of the men never made it out alive, and were killed before the battle even began.

This struck me so hard because as I looked around at the conference, all I could see was a group of Church Planters traveling to shore to go to battle.  Of course, the difference is our battle field.  You see, our battle field includes Atheists, Agnostics, Deists, Buddhists, Islamists, and every “-ist” in-between.  It is complete with hypocrites, closed minded Christians, lukewarm Christians, and every other version of Christian you can think of.  And if I can be honest, it is a battle field that is littered with thousands of bodies of other churches that didn’t make it. 

What we can learn from the Normandy Invasion and the soldiers who fought, can be found in three distinct areas: 1) Most soldiers, if not all, were fearful as the motored to the battle field.  They knew that not everyone would make it through.  They had come to grips with that reality, and they still chose to fight.  2) Even more sobering was that each soldier knew that even if their personal mission was unsuccessful their overall mission was for something bigger than themselves.  3) Every one of them believed they would succeed.  Every soldier was determined to make it to the top of that hill, to make their commander proud, to complete the mission, to scream at the top of their lungs in victory.  THEY ALL BELIEVED THEY WOULD WIN.

I don’t know for sure, but I would guess some of you have those same feelings I do.  You wrestle with the fear of the unknown at this new campus, only to find yourself, later that day, so pumped up and confident that you could run through a wall.  The polarity of your emotions seems to be so extreme that you wonder if you should just invest in a white jacket without sleeves just to be ahead of the game.

My encouragement to you is found in Romans 8, where it says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  As I read this, I just want you to know how proud I am to be on this boat with you.  It is an honor to be your leader as we take on this battle field together, knowing that we are not blindly going into this fight alone.  Rather, we are following the flag of our God, who “is for us”.  Because of that faith, we are assured victory.  So as we continue together toward the opening of PCC Lockport, I encourage you to link arms with one another, build relationships with each other, and get ready to storm the gates of hell as we continue to Grow the Kingdom of God together.

All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor