l to r: Danny Kahr, Joe Shadowens, Scotty Smith, Tullian Tchividjian, Tommy Boland
On September 9, 10, and 11, a group of nearly 150 men gathered in Marco Island for the 2010 Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Men’s Retreat under the leadership of our pastor, Tullian Tchividjian. Our special guest speaker was Pastor Scotty Smith, the founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee.
I was first exposed to Scotty and his grace-saturated, Christ-centered message when I was invited to be a part of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) Men’s Council in 2006. While attending the PCA General Assembly that year, my friend Harvey Kilpatrick told me about Scotty and I was instantly hooked. As raw as he is real, Scotty both encourages and equips us to move “further up and further in” to the soul-stirring, life-changing implications of the Gospel—not only for eternal life, but for everyday life as well. I highly recommend all of his books and especially these two that have not found their way back to my bookshelf; Objects of His Affections and The Reign of Grace.
During out retreat I held two early morning fitness training sessions. Scotty asked me about it on Thursday evening and said he would join us in the morning. Now, many men said they would join us for the training, but because this was a time of relaxation, many chose to return to their slumber after their wake up call. So I was surprised when Scotty showed up at 6:30 am on both Friday and Saturday mornings.
What an incredible blessing for all of us who were there! At the end of each fitness session, I led a short devotion for the men. I brought some of Scotty’s daily blogs as our material, never in a million years thinking he would be in attendance. If you have not visited his blog, I encourage you to do so immediately. You can click on his link, located on the right of this page. Scotty simply takes a Scripture verse and prays through it. And when I say “pray,” I mean pray. You’ll be richly blessed by a heart that has been transformed by the grace of God, pouring forth words that are as penetrating as they are profound, all aimed directly at the reader’s heart. Anyway, as I said, at the end of our training, I read through one of these fabulous blog entries with Scotty sitting among us. Then I simply asked if he had any comments and invited him to close us in prayer.
Here is where Serendipity intersected with Scotty Smith. Serendipity can be defined as a profound discovery made while looking for something totally unrelated. I was simply looking for a time of devotion with material from a man I have grown to love and respect, without having ever met him, and on this day he was sitting among our group of exhausted early morning exercisers, live and in person! Perhaps you can imagine my excitement. As a martial artist for more than 30 years, it would have been like having Chuck Norris show up!
Scotty has been one of my Gospel heroes for years; he has been discipling me through his books and teachings. And now, for these two mornings, a small group of men and I were sitting on the floor in our designated fitness room, exhausted and excited, listening to a man whose life has been shaped and transformed by the Gospel. During these informal sessions, as well as throughout his scheduled times of teaching, Scotty shared his story as it intersected with God’s story. We all came away from our time with him impacted by his Gospel-saturated authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability.
On Sunday Scotty came to our church to preach the message in our worship service. Our entire congregation caught a glimpse of his passion for proclaiming the Gospel of grace. When the service was over and sanctuary had emptied, Kim and I went up to say hello. As we approached, Scotty spotted us and reached his hand out and said these words: “Good morning Tommy, my new friend.”
Wow! Here was one of the Gospel teachers, who has wrecked me afresh with his message of grace, calling me his friend! I know a man who likes to speak of receiving “hugs from God.” I felt like I got just such a hug that morning—another serendipitous blessing from the hand of God.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 