Last Thursday, while in Phoenix, I stopped in to see my old friend Steve Gilbertson. He’s planting a church called Sanctuary in Cave Creek, a very interesting outlying community in Phoenix–a touch cowboy, a touch bohemian, several touches of other things. After the conference ended for the day, I drove out to the new house they are ready to move into.

Steve goes back farther than any other friend I have–back to junior high youth group days in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. His dad and my dad were good friends at the United Brethren church there. Steve and I quizzed together on some championship quiz teams. He went into the ministry, and in 1989 followed my dad as pastor of the UB church in Fountain Hills, Ariz., also part of the Phoenix metro area. He left there a couple of years ago, and is now doing what he’s always had a passion for doing: planting a new church.

Steve and Donna asked me where I wanted to eat. I said, “Something local. Anything but a chain.” Donna said, “We don’t have any chains here.” Which is fascinating. There’s a Dairy Queen, but that’s it. Cave Creek doesn’t allow street lights, so the place is kind of dark at night; that, too, is fascinating. They suggested a variety of places, and we settled on a steakhouse called The Satisfied Frog. The hysterical part is that The Satisfied Frog is just down the road from a restaurant called The Horny Toad.

We talked and talked and talked, which is what Steve and I always do when we get together. He’s a truly independent, unconventional thinker, and I like to fancy myself that way. This is a friendship I greatly cherish, and which has endured strong for 30 years.