From an early age, Chris Law remembers the church being the center of family life, as his parents quietly but faithfully served their local body. This example of selfless, hardworking love shaped his childhood, and after confessing Christ at age six, Chris’s love for the church grew. Sensing a calling for pastoral ministry, he attended the Master’s College where he met his future wife Jennifer. Once married, Chris selfishly only wanted a small family, but God changed his heart as he grew in faith and reverence for the Scriptures. Chris is now the father of seven and serves as the pastor of Geneva Lakes Church in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. 

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Today we get to talk to Chris Lough. Here is Lough's story. He's preaching at our national conference, Bill DeWell Plant. He's going to give a great, really encouraging message about living under persecution in Babylon.

Hope you enjoy the conversation. Jason, it's always such a joy to hear the life stories of our speakers at our conference. And now we've got a really good friend, Chris Law. So Chris is a brother that we've worked with together, all three of us together in a couple of different formats, church family life, local church, and a couple of different international missions endeavors. So we know a lot about each other at this point.

Anyway, we love working with you and glad to hear more about your life now. How long ago was it when we met on that beach in California? Probably about 16, 17 years ago. Oh my yikes. Praise God.

I'm so glad. I'm so glad we met on that beach. I, it's, you know what? I can see where we were standing when we met on that beautiful beach. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Yeah, at Cambria, California. Okay, all right, let's get to it. So, hey, we want to hear your, we want to hear your life story. Oh, he's also the pastor of Geneva Lakes church in Geneva Lakes, Wisconsin. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Lake Geneva.

Beautiful. Another beautiful place. So anyway, there you have it. Hey, tell us about your life. Where were you born?

I was born in Boise, Idaho and, blessed as a child to grow up in a home, where the, the local church was kind of the center of our family and an only child. And so definitely got my mom and dad's attention. One was enough, but... That's why he is the way he is. He's an only child.

What an attention hog. I jokingly say I have every syndrome known to man. You didn't have siblings to beat him out, beat it out of you, didn't you? So what was that childhood like? Like I said, it was kind of based around the local church.

I remember my dad was either one of the trustees or deacons most of my life. And If something needed worked on around the church, we were there, usually opening doors or the last ones to close it. And never saw it as a negative thing, but I just saw my parents' love for the people of God, serving people in different capacities. And I think especially seeing from both my mom and dad, just a quiet service. It wasn't always in front of people, but sometimes doing the things that other people weren't or really paying attention to the things that maybe were getting skipped over and just that heart to serve.

And so I was thankful for that example of hardworking love. The people who make local churches home. That's great. Now, so stories, stories from your childhood. I think the opportunity to grow up in Idaho, a great love for the outdoors.

And, and so the mountains are always a very dear place to myself. Providentially, I married a woman who loves the mountains as well, and we live in the Midwest. So that's not what we have right now. But I think just seeing the creation of God and just spending time out in it, whether it's camping or the abilities to do different outdoor activities, just to see the glory. And I think as an only child, I also grew up around both sets of my grandparents.

One was maybe four miles and the other was six miles away. And so they were huge influencers in my life as well. And so often spent the night at their house or went to church with them. And so in, in multi-generations, the opportunity to see a love for the Lord and for his people. Did you become a fly fisherman in Idaho?

I'm not a fish eater. I remember catching some fish, and my dad would always tell me, if you catch it, you got to eat it. That ended the catching career. When I was like 10 years old, 15 years, I always wanted to go to Idaho and fly fish some of those trout streams. You've got them up there.

So what else happened? What else happened in your childhood? One of the people that God brought to our church was a youth pastor, and he became probably one of the bigger influencers in my life. Just kind of took me under his wing, spent many times with chili cheese fries and opening God's Word and discipling me and really just kind of reinforced on another level a love for God's Word, even as a high schooler, a sobriety for God's word that we want to hear God speak and he speaks to us through his word. And so I'm thankful for the different men that God kind of brought into my life, but specifically James and just the opportunity that he exemplified that in a small little church in Idaho, not a lot of fame and glory in that church, but just a faithful one-on-one discipleship.

Chris, how did God work in your life to bring him to faith in his son? Is what you're describing after that point or part of that process? Or what? I would say the Lord brought me to faith as a younger child, like six years old. But as someone who grew up in the church, I think you're always looking for some big experience to feel saved.

And yet, it is the mercy of God to have protected me from a lot of things. That I may not have a particular outward testimony that looks like another person. But as a dear friend, Marcus said years and years ago, all of our testimonies, our Ephesians too, were all dead and trespassed since we're all made alive in Christ. Now, externally, that might look a little different, but every work of God's grace is miraculous. And I think it was my junior year of high school, we went to a youth evangelism conference in Seattle, and it was hosted at Seattle Pacific University.

And in the mornings we would receive evangelism training. I think one year one of the speakers was from Colorado Springs. And then we would go out on the streets of Seattle in the afternoons, kind of two by two, with a little questionnaire as kind of a starter sharing our faith. And I remember it was on Gas Works Park on the north end of Lake Union, that I went up to somebody and tried sharing my faith and They kept asking, but why do you believe that? And in a way it was a crisis of faith that the Lord was working in my life.

I didn't realize I was trying to share my faith with a Mormon missionary. And those words really did rattle me and it caused me to say, is what I believe because my parents believe it or I'm told to believe it, or is it something that I personally believe? And it was that, I think that turning point in my life that it wasn't like all of a sudden I had this great love for the Word of God, but I do see that kind of being maybe a touch point in my life that God used to challenge me, to grow me. And as a result, I ended up going to college and in college, began pursuing pastoral ministry. Where did you go to college?

The master's college. There you go. Back in the 19s, as my daughter says, before it became the Masters University. There I was able to meet my lovely wife and we were married when I graduated. Was she going to Masters also?

She was a year behind me. Okay. Yeah. How the Lord just kind of wove our lives together. And really spiritually, my youth pastor discipling me gave a huge influence, but My choir teacher throughout high school was greatly influencing.

So in college, I was pursuing Bible and music kind of combined together. And I think because of the influence of the local church, just had a desire to minister in smaller churches, as the Lord would allow me. And so God did provide those opportunities and been thankful for his mercy to use me in the local church since then. If you remember the first time you met your wife, tell us about it. And then just what was it that drew you to her?

Yeah, it was in Fresno, California. We were visiting her church as I was in a small group And her music pastor asked her to sing a solo for 10 of us. And I remember thinking, like, why is this? Why is this girl singing a solo for 10 of us? Like, is she kind of arrogant?

And come to find out it's so opposite of who she is. When she came to Masters, I got to know her and just see her humble love for the Lord. She grew up in a family. Her grandfather was a pastor, uncle the pastor, parents just so plugged into the local church and just seeing her humble love for the Lord, love to serve. And even though she was a kinesiology or a phys ed major and I was in the music department, God kind of brought two various different worlds together.

But at our heart, we've seen the joy of being able to fulfill both of our desires of just serving the local church ever since. So how did it happen? How did it happen that you ended up coming to the conclusion that you wanted to marry her and what was all that interchange? I think it was just opportunity of spending time together at college ministering together and I think being physically attracted to her. And I jokingly say I chased her for two and a half years and she caught me.

She wanted a friendship, enjoyed our friendship, But it was never anything more than that. But in God's kindness, she finally came to me one day and said she changed her mind. And so that brought you out of the friend zone. Yeah, yeah. But But she knew when she said that, that in a way she was saying that she would marry me.

But three months later we got engaged and seven months later after I graduated and we were done with the different choir tours, we got married And this July will be 26 years by God's grace. Okay. And how many children, what's the age range? We have seven from 20 down to three. Okay.

So we've been joking how our oldest daughter, and then we're potty training, thankfully done with that now, but the unique span that God has brought us. And growing up, I never desired a big family. In fact, after we had our second, there's a son, I told the Lord we were done. And God began at that time reforming my family life and my view of family, but also my theology. And I look back and I kind of think, Lord, one of those things at a time would have been nice, but Providence he was doing it all.

Things were happening. Yeah. Oh my. But really my reasoning for wanting only two children was very self-centered, very worldly in a sense, so that I wanted to provide a level that I thought would only be able to be had if we had a small family. And I never imagined seven, but each one is such a gift from the Lord.

Each one is a gift that challenges us and grows us and sanctifies us as a parent. But even our seventh, even though there was a gap between our sixth and our seventh, our seventh brings so much joy to our family that he's like our little entertainment that just comes with us everywhere we go. Thankful. Love it. Love it.

So, the, the author that you profit the most from and his best book? I think there's different ones in different seasons, but one book I keep going back to is probably, though as an author, probably not all of his books have blessed me, but Sinclair Ferguson's The Whole Christ has been monumental in really, I think, framing a sound theology, an understanding of the law and the gospel and what that looks like in practical life, but especially some of the pastoral emphases that are in that book, I think have been very practical personally, but also in counseling and shepherding God's flock. Several years ago, you recommended that book to me, and I got it and read it and I'm definitely a fan. Yeah. Yeah.

Just last week, I was at the Shepherds Conference and somebody walked up to me and another pastor and he said, hey, if there's one book, what would you recommend?" And I happened to be standing right in front of the whole Christ. And so I said, this one. Hey, if you're watching, you don't know about Thomas Boston and the Mero controversy, then get The Whole Christ. It's a really helpful reflection on that. Hey, so what did you do after college?

We waited one more year for Jenny to finish up at the master's university or college, and then God allowed us to serve in a couple of different churches. What did you do for work during that time? I taught at a Christian school and also helped out at a, at a church kind of as a lay part-time pastoral staff member. And we also, my wife was the assistant volleyball coach at Masters. So we were juggling a lot of different things.

But it was a fun year before the Lord moved us up to Washington State to serve in a local church. So how long were you there? In Washington, two years. So then what happened after that? Up in Washington, I was able to serve with my childhood pastor.

I think he was actually kind of the first one to ever hold me other than my parents. And it was a unique opportunity. But one of the things I remember him teaching me, more so just kind of by example, but he said, you know what? As a pastor, we're never above doing anything. And sometimes he would grab me and we'd go to the fellowship hall to set up for the Wednesday night meeting or something like that.

And he said, you know what? We don't have to let everybody else do it. We have time, let's go do that. But at the same time, he also said, make sure you guard your family, protect your days off, because it can be difficult to, the blur of when you do life with people, that sometimes your own family gets missed. And so even from beginning in pastoral ministry, I really appreciated kind of those foundational truths that he instilled in me, not just in his own words, but in his actions and thankful for Pastor Brad.

So tell us about the trajectory. So you were there and then you went to another church, probably? And then what happened after that? Yeah, God kind of providentially moved us outside of Las Vegas in a town called Pahrump and ministered there for a couple of years until the pastor retired. And at the time I was spending some time traveling with David Jeremiah down in San Diego and ended up going and serving on the radio and television side for three and a half years.

And that's where I started attending seminary. And kind of as the time went on, realized how much I missed serving more, more in the local church. We were very plugged in at Shadow Mountain, but that's when God moved us to Cambria. And in that time in Cambria, just preaching week in and week out, just challenged in some areas of theology and the sovereignty of God and salvation. And it had always thought I believed in the sovereignty of God and salvation, but when confronted with acts, when it says, and all who were appointed to salvation believed, began wrestling with those in a, in a new and unique way.

And then, and then after that. From Cambria, after seven years, God moved us out to Lake Geneva. And I got this phone call from this mutual friend of a church in Wisconsin. I remember where I was in San Luis Obispo, California. And this guy, Scott Brown calls me and he's like, hey, I know there's this church and I think you'd be a good fit.

They're looking for their first full-time kind of pastoral man to come alongside them. And I asked, I said, where is this? Scott, you said Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. And I thought there's 50 other states, there's other countries, why Wisconsin? But thankful for what God has been doing these last nine plus years.

Oh, that's great. That is so great. Plans and prayers for the future. Like what, what, what do you see in the next year, multiple years? I think personally we're in a, in a newer season of life as our kids are getting older and been praying for more wisdom on how to launch them and to see God working in them as they get married, as they leave the home.

So it's a new adventure for us, exciting, but also humbling and terrifying at the same time, but resting in the Lord's perfect wisdom and sovereignty in their life. But I think in the local church also just praying about the next generation. I'm not old, but I'm not young and desire to see younger men serving, younger men, I think, loving the local church, loving their families, and desiring the office of overseer, as Paul says, because I do believe that part of desiring is part of the calling. I'm not somebody who was like H.B. Charles or Spurgeon at age 16 being called and start preaching at 16.

But it was just being so saturated in the local church, God giving gifts and loving the church and saying, Lord, would you use me in that capacity, whether it be in a full time capacity or as a, as a lay pastor and thankful for what he's done and just praying for that for other young men. Amen. Chris, it's been a delight to hear your life story. I hope people listen to it and really get this sort of the ethos of your whole life. And that is just a connection to the local church from front to back in your life.

I'm so grateful for men like that for sure. The local church is the center of the universe for me. Yeah, maybe just if I had to say it to some younger people and older people, that when we do life together, life's messy and that's okay. As we share our lives, as we let people into our own lives, it takes time and people are worth it. I love how Christ would stop and see the sheep like sheep without a shepherd.

Or when the woman touched his garment, he was going to a place and he stopped. And be willing to just stop, be willing to give your life and be spent. Because as Christ gave his life for us, we model that and how we love others. Yes, that's it. That is it.

Chris, thank you so much for sharing your life story. And I can't wait to see you at the conference. It's only about a month away. Yeah, looking forward to it. So, hey, Chris, you're going to give a great message at the conference.

I think it'll be super encouraging, loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors in Babylon. So that should be really, really helpful to everybody who hears that message. So thank you for joining us on the podcast, Chris. See you soon. Thank you.

Okay. And thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast. Hope you can be with us next time.