The Long Obedience

My childhood pastor, Tom Paino, just died at 101 years old. The passing of this spiritual giant has stirred some powerful memories in me.

Just last year, Pastor Tom called and asked me to come over to his apartment for a visit. Pastor Tom was always bigger than life to me, so the invitation temporarily transformed me into a 12-year old version of myself.

(Did he see me and my friends passing notes and laughing while he was preaching? That was 40 years ago. Relax, Erik…relax).

He wanted to talk about global missions with me and encourage me to continue pushing forward The Stone Table’s vision to reach the world with the gospel. At the end of our hour long dialogue, he grabbed my hand and prayed over me.

It was one of a few personal encounters like this that will forever be etched in my memory. In 2014, he came to my office to officially pass the missions torch to what would eventually become The Stone Table. Until that point, all of our company’s missions giving had gone through Pastor Tom’s missions organization. At 89, he knew it was time for a handoff.

“I want you to go to Springfield, MO and meet with the executive director of Assemblies of God World Missions,” he said. “Ask him what is strategic and how you are best positioned to serve that vision in this next season.”

So my brother-in-law David and I did just that. That providential encounter led to our passion for unreached people groups, business as mission, and working with local churches to leverage and multiply our passion for the Great Commission.

But Pastor Tom’s greatest impact on me didn’t happen in a moment, it formed slowly over the first two decades of my life. I grew up under his leadership, and if there’s one thing I remember about Pastor Tom—other than the fact that he could make a 12-year-old sit up straight just by walking into the room—it was his obsession with global missions.

If you’ve ever heard me speak about missions, I still tell the stories to this day. The front parking lot of the church was filled with the flags of the nations. It was hard to tell if you were coming to church or to a UN Council meeting. A giant globe sat on a spare change fountain in the lobby that declared our church motto—“Touching our world with His hands.” We loved to throw quarters into that fountain (and occasionally pull a few out…shhh, don’t tell).

The faux paneled walls were covered with photos of the 300+ global workers we supported. We had missionaries in what seemed like every service sharing stories of God’s work in hard to reach places around the world. There were missions conventions, and tastes of missions, and missionaries around the dinner tables in our homes.

This wasn’t weird, it was just what God’s people were supposed to care about. And that obsession with global missions infected every fiber of our being. It’s ultimately what led our co-founders to start CRF Affordable Housing, our nonprofit real estate company that was created specifically to fund missions work.

Pastor Tom left an eternal legacy in a lot of people, and I am forever grateful for the one he helped to shape in me. If you want to know why we do what we do today—why The Stone Table is so obsessed with taking the gospel to the ends of the earth—a huge part of it is rooted in the global missions vision of Pastor Tom Paino.

Success in the Christian life is not ultimately measured by how many people know you, but that people know Jesus because of you. Thank you for showing us the way to a life that matters, Pastor Tom. With God’s help, we’ll faithfully carry the baton you handed us to the next generation.

With gratitude for Pastor Tom’s legacy and resolve to steward it well,

Erik Cooper | The Stone Table