By: Matt Sullivan
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ The third time He said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep… ’ Then He said to him, ‘Follow me!’” John 21:15-19
Peter was chosen by Jesus to lead the fledgling movement after his incredible statement of faith proclaiming, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Of course, right after this, we all remember the radical statement from Jesus to this same impetuous brother, “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter’s greatest strength was also his greatest weakness! His intensely emotional heart and outspokenness allowed him to be used powerfully by God to unlock the Kingdom to the Jews and then to the Gentiles and yet, was at times his undoing. On the beach as Jesus prepares to leave the church in the hands of men, He reinstates Peter to his God-designed role and destiny. Peter’s repentance and reinstatement are seen vividly here in the last pages of John right after he goes back to fishing. Thinking Jesus was still dead, Peter lost his dreams for an evangelized world. Once he realized the truth that Jesus was alive, Peter jumps into the water to get back to Jesus as quickly as possible! Truly, no matter how far a man may fall, he can always return to God when there is repentance and in many cases be reinstated to a role once embraced. How merciful is our God!!
In a similar way, our brother Chris Chloupek was reinstated as Evangelist and his wife Sonja as Women’s Ministry Leader this past Friday at our Congregational Devotional! My dear brother, loyal friend and discipler Kip McKean was in town to witness the reinstatement and to bring us a powerful lesson from the book of Nehemiah entitled, “The Walls Are Broken Down.” Kip preached about rebuilding a discipling movement that would spread around the world just as it did in the first century, and that it would take each sold-out disciple having the heart of Nehemiah to faithfully rebuild our part of the wall. Two days later, our worship on Sunday was equally amazing! That morning our brother Steve Johnson of Portland preached an inspirational lesson, “Shame, Forgiveness and Thankfulness.” After several months of planning and prayer, the Phoenix Church, that sacrificially gives $1,700 per week, went beyond my expectation and gave an extraordinary Missions Contribution of $30,127 – almost 18 times our weekly giving! In spite of our sins and failings, that day gave us convictions that we are chosen by God, ready to do whatever when Jesus says, “Follow me!”
Chris was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on January 8, 1962 to Neil and Judy Chloupek. After high school, Chris served in the Army in the early 80’s, spending some of that time in Italy. Later, he returned to the States and attended Northern Arizona University, graduating in 1989 with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. In order to pursue a career in acting, Chris moved to Hollywood and eventually went to work for Guns & Roses. This godless existence led to tremendous sin and furthered his fall into drug and alcohol abuse. God moved powerfully though, as one of Chris’s friends was baptized in the Los Angeles International Church of Christ (ICOC) and then invited him. Chris was soon baptized on November 3, 1993 as a disciple, leaving his old lifestyle far behind. The Lord used him and within one year, Chris was invited to serve full-time in the ministry. It was about this time that a former model, Sonja Pedersen, became a disciple. She and Chris became friends and started dating.
Sonja was born July 2, 1970 in Vryheid, South Africa to Norman and Marlene Pederson. She left home at 18 to travel the world and eventually entered a modeling career. As Sonja shared at a recent Women’s Day, this crazy lifestyle led to many shameful and damaging sins, including living with one of her boyfriends. During this time, Sonja was able to travel through England, Scotland and all over Europe, live in Israel and finally in the States in New York, Denver, Los Angeles and Tampa. All looked perfect on the outside, but Sonja knew that she was dying on the inside and began crying out for help. In 1994, a huge earthquake hit Los Angeles, literally shaking Sonja’s confidence in the world and all she had trusted in. In desperation, she began to pursue God and soon after was invited to visit the Los Angeles ICOC. Sonja was baptized March 5, 1994. Radical changes were taking place as God put Chris in Sonja’s life and they were married on April 1, 1995!
By 1995, both Chris and Sonja were serving full-time in the ministry in the Orange County Region and later in the AMS (Arts, Media & Sports) Region. In December of 1996, Chris was appointed Evangelist and Sonja as Women’s Ministry Leader. Making these years even more exciting, the Chloupeks were blessed with two amazing children, Chase (10) and Cassidi (8). During this time, Sonja was the co-anchor for KNN and Chris fulfilled his acting dream in several of the KNN short productions. Then in 2002, Chris began seeing major changes in the Los Angeles ICOC leadership and the heart of the people. The spirit of the group changed as did the direction, when the leadership went back to a mainline Church of Christ theology. With a loss of vision for the entire world and what he perceived as a “grinding of numbers”, Chris felt like the church was unraveling and so decided to step out of the ministry. This he did on April 1, 2002 – exactly eight years after entering the full-time ministry.
As with many who “look back” after following Jesus (Luke 9:62), the Chloupek’s headed for Chris’ boyhood home of Phoenix, Arizona. They lived with Chris’ father, Neil for a while to gain financial stability. They were blessed financially in the next few years as the housing market boomed in Arizona. Chris became a business manager for a large housing development company. His salary was such that the Chloupeks purchased houses as investment properties as well as buying their own home in Scottsdale, a wealthy suburb of Phoenix.
Sadly, Chris lost heart and conviction as he was lulled into lukewarmness in the local ICOC congregation. Even so, he was shocked by the hundreds falling away and walking away from this congregation. Feeling unused and losing most of his Kingdom dreams, Chris turned to some of his old sins. It was a dark time as Sonja and the kids spent six weeks out of the country and Chris drifted further from God. Truly, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Proverbs 29:18). At the same time, Sonja was discouraged in their marriage and was fighting bitterness toward Chris’ sins and lack of spiritual leadership.
In time, Chris was moved by God to repent of his lukewarmness. He began calling the people around him back to their core convictions of discipleship. Yet, after not finding any “likeminded” spirits in Phoenix, Chris and Sonja, desperate for some ray of hope, traveled to see firsthand the controversial Portland Church. After the Sunday worship service, Chris exclaimed, “Now this is the church I was baptized into!” The Chloupeks realizing their former church could not be reformed from the inside, decided to start a new congregation of only sold-out disciples in Phoenix.
So in September 2005, Chris and Sonja and two others courageously decided to start a house church from their living room. Consequently, a letter from the leadership of their former church was sent out to mark and disfellowship the Chloupeks; also wrongly marked were Kip and Elena and the entire Portland Church, which had become the fastest growing ICOC congregation in the world. God blessed the Chloupeks tremendously as several were baptized very soon afterwards – Trinity (a neighbor), Neil (Chris’ dad), Shawn, Jamal and Malinda. Already this year, God has worked powerfully as the Chloupeks also helped Kinji get restored and were able to baptize Bill, Alphonso and most exciting, Chris’ mother – Judy Morris! Though Neil and Judy have been divorced since Chris was in his early teens, what a miracle to now have Neil and Judy as integral members of our fellowship!
On July 30, 2006, a mission team of 14 of us was sent from Portland to Phoenix. Now, with the remnant group and the mission team combined, God has grown the Phoenix International Christian Church from four to 58 with a Sunday attendance of over 100! Truly, the May 2nd Congregational Devotional will be etched in Helen’s and my memories as God allowed us to reinstate Chris and Sonja as Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader and to charge them to take the full leadership of the Phoenix Church! We are so thankful to God and to the dreamers we fellowship, for Helen and I will begin fulfilling a long-awaited dream to be missionaries in South America. We believe the Holy Spirit is now sending us to build the pillar church in Santiago, Chile that will prayerfully serve as the center of evangelism for all South America! I am confident that Chris and Sonja will give all their hearts to God first and then to the people as they lead them to do “even greater things” for God here in Phoenix. Each day it becomes more obvious that our God is an awesome God!
“He stoops down to make us great!” (Psalm 18:35)
Matt Sullivan
