During a recent Summit staff meeting we had Kevin Peck, the lead pastor from Austin Stone, visit us to share about the death of Ronnie Smith. Ronnie had been a member of the Austin Stone church staff before leaving with his family to serve the people of Benghazi, Libya. As the Austin Stone website says, “Ronnie’s greatest desire was for peace and prosperity in Libya and for the people of Libya to have the joy of knowing God through Christ.”
Tragically, Ronnie’s life was cut short on December 5th, when he was shot and killed by several gunmen. This has been a devastating and emotional experience for Ronnie’s family, as well as for Austin Stone. As Kevin mentioned, everyone knew that Libya was a threatening area, but until Ronnie’s death, many in the church seemed to think that they were “living in the land of ‘near misses.’” There were sacrifices, to be sure, and palpable fears, but no one truly expected that one of their own staff would die.
This presents a question to us as a church. At some point, if we continue to send our members and our staff to the unreached parts of the world, we will cross the line from “near miss” to actual death. Are we willing to see this happen? Are we committed enough to the mission of Christ to take the step, a step beyond the zeal of a movement into the realm of seeing one of our own friends pay the ultimate price?
Ronnie was a regular guy, working at a church much like ours. After Kevin shared about their experience, I had our staff look around. “Ronnie sat in a room much like this one,” I reminded everyone. “Which one of us might die like this? Can we see a future marked by the death of someone sitting here with us now? What’s more, can we see that future and still be willing to walk that road?”
We don’t have the answers to that yet. But this is a question I believe God is asking us. Will we be faithful if it costs us the life of one of our own, one of our beloved friends?
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