Roughly twelve years ago I was flying to Dallas, connecting through Houston.  This was going to be a three-way itinerary that would include Richmond to Dallas, Dallas to Orlando, and then back to Richmond.  Judging by my making connections through Houston I must have been flying Continental.

In Dallas I would be serving as a presenter and coach at a Church Planting BootCamp with the Church Multiplication Training Center.  After the four-day event I would fly over to Orlando, home of Reformed Theological Seminary.  There I would be offering an oral defense of my doctoral dissertation, based on research regarding decline in the church and titled, ReStarting the Dying Church.  Once back in Richmond, I would resume efforts to plant my fourth church.

The seating configuration during the flight to Houston included two seats on my side of the plane.  I was on the aisle and an older gentleman sat beside me at the window, at least he seemed older than I.  I can’t say that often now.  He was engrossed in an impressive looking book and I was reading through a draft of my dissertation, along with other notes and documents, preparing for my defense.

At one point he turned to me and observed that my papers looked interesting, and he asked what I was up to.  I explained my upcoming defense and our conversation was off and running.  I asked if Houston was his last stop or if he would be continuing to some other destination.  He told me that Houston was his home, so I inquired further about his career.  He said that he worked at NASA, then reached in his pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it to me.

This was no ordinary business card, but was more like a business card booklet.  I still have it and came across it recently while doing a little office organizing.  The front of the card featured an image of three astronauts posing in front of a lunar module while standing on the moon.  Interesting, I thought.  Well, he did say he worked at NASA.

I opened the card and read his name at the top – Alan Bean.  Under his name these words were printed:

APOLLO 12 and SKYLAB 3 Astronaut                                        ARTIST

Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 12.                                                            The fourth human to set foot on the moon.  Mission Commander of Skylab 2, our first space station.                                                        Spent 59 days in orbit 270 miles above the earth.                              Now an artist, creating paintings that record for future generations mankind’s first exploration of another world.

The back panel gave an explanation of the image on the front:

      The painting reproduced on the front of this card is titled, “Conrad Gordon and Bean, The Fantasy.”  Peter Conrad and I wished that Dick Gordon could join us on the lunar surface, but he was orbiting some 60 miles above taking care of the command module – our only way home.                                                                    

      In this painting I have brought Dick the last 60 miles.  We would have had great fun together some 239,000 miles from home.

Wow!  I was sitting next to an astronaut, the fourth human to walk on the moon.

Of course, I had many questions for him and he seemed delighted to tell his story, but eventually the conversation turned to what I did.  I explained that I was a church planter and that I had spent the past fifteen years moving around the country starting new churches that sought to reach people who were outside of the church.

Commander Bean was capable of landing a module on the moon, but he couldn’t figure out why anyone would start new churches when there were already plenty of churches around.  He was even more perplexed over why someone would start a church for people who don’t go to church.  “Why would you do that,” he asked.  “That would be like starting a new restaurant for people who don’t eat.”

I knew that I was in over my head intellectually, so I didn’t want to get philosophical or even theological with him.  I simply said that the true objective of the church should not be to house an exclusive group of people who already believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but to reach people who don’t – hence, a church for the unchurched.

We landed in Houston and this astronaut artist went his way and I went mine.  Occasionally I recall his puzzled probe, “Why would someone start a church for people who don’t go to church?” Indeed!