Honest To God

Life.

Life is a gift given to us by God (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 8:4-5). It is not an option, opportunity, or a choice to accept or reject. Life is a precious thing each of us has been given – both by being allowed to live, and to be a part of the creation process. Sadly, for decades now, life has become a “Choice” in our nation. We no longer value it as a gift from God, but see it nothing more than a choice of humankind.

I am well aware the there are very unfortunate situations where pregnancy occurs. I have had someone of the closest people in my life find themselves in the midst of an unintended pregnancy – and culture told them that they have a choice. Some have chosen to choose to keep the life God granted them, while others have chosen to discard of it. Even when a person makes a poor choice of aborting a child, God has grace. However, I am a firm believer that those of us that claim Christ must do all that we can to uphold and preserve the precious life that God grants us.

Since the fall of 2011 I have been volunteering for Alternatives Pregnancy Center. Even though my time as a pastor is under high demands, I’ve made this volunteering opportunity a priority. By serving with this ministry I am able to:

1. Live out my biblical conviction for preserving the life of the unborn child by helping mother’s choose life. 
2. I am able to be see lives transformed as they hear the truth about how precious life is to God as apposed to the disposable connotations culture has put on American fetuses today.
3. I am able to live out the Gospel of Christ by helping others in Crisis and not just preach to them. 
4. I am able to see God work on my life and give me great compassion for people in all situations facing the unexpected hardships of life.

My role with Alternatives Pregnancy Center has to been to train drivers for a mobile testing clinic. While there are not many places a man can service in a pro-life pregnancy center, there are enough opportunities to go around! Here is a video I shot explaining my role and how serving with APC has impacted me. I encourage you to get involved with APC or your local pregnancy center.

The command for us to share our faith literally in black and white in the Bible. But I gotta tell you, just getting a conversation started with someone about Christ gives me Godzilla-sized butterflies in my stomach. I get so nervous (and I’m a pastor).

I have come to realize something – one of the greatest things that we can do to start a conversation about Christ is to simply shut up. I know, it seems like an oxymoron, but if we would just start by listening, we would be miles ahead.

(Picture from jansmith2911.wordpress.com)

For example, I was in New York one summer walking in central park. I saw a guy sitting all alone on a park bench, so I walked up to him and asked to sit down. He didn’t smell real pleasant, and was missing most of his teeth, but as we sat there, I simply asked, “So what’s your story?” This guy had so much to tell. He went on about how long he had lived in NYC and how he couldn’t wait to leave the big apple and get on with life. I listened, asked question, and really tried to pay attention to his every word. After he went on for about twenty minutes, he turned and asked, “What is your story?”

Ding… I was in. now it was time to tell him my past, and the unavoidable part that Christ has in my story.

Speaking of New York, I saw this article in the Chicago paper about two post-college grads for Manhattan who rode their bikes all around the US with a sign that simply read, “Talk to me.” They had no agenda, weren’t selling anything… just here to listen to what ever someone wanted to say. One of the guys that ended up talking to them shared his corroded past of crack addiction, but after 15 minutes he said, “I’ll stop talking now, and give someone else a chance.”

You see, people want to talk, but after they do, they then naturally want to listen. Their listener has now earned the right to be heard. People listen to people who listen.

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Allow me start tell you a story that still sends shivers up and down my spine. I was sitting on the New York Subway with a few friends, when a man literally crawled on all fours through the doors and upon the seat across from me. He was wearing all black, with black eyeliner and a pale white make-up base. His motions mimicked that of a caged cat as he crawled back and forth across three seats peering out the windows.

Our conversation ceased, in fact everyone the subway car silenced as we tried to understand what this beast-man was doing. It was as if my heart came to an eerie calm and my confidence climax.

I dropped my bag and walked across the car to sit next the man. Now three steps away from him, I could hear the frightful gasps of my friends behind me.

Interrupting his prance across the seats, I sat down. I looked straight at him. Our eyes met and he slowly curled all of him limbs into a ball close to his chest.

There was no small talk. In fact there were very few words shared. But like two battling men on a bloody battleground, I felt like we were standing in the middle of a large war. Our reactions to each other’s presence seemed to be opposite: My confidence increased and his body languages showed that his soul was shivering with fear.

I don’t remember my words exactly, but I know that I said something like, “Jesus Christ in my Lord. You can be free if you will just know Him personally.”

As I peered into his black pupils a supernatural encounter took place. Our eyes were stuck like magnets until, across the screeching tracks our train came to a rattling halt. As the doors flew open he crawled down around me and out the train.

As I sat there, a cold sweat broke out across my forehead as if I had just worked out for thirty minutes, but all I done was sit by that man for thirty seconds.

It was that encounter that helped me to begin to realize what the Bible was talking about when it says that, “Our battle is not against flesh and blood…but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Christian – you cannot be naive as to think that Satan doesn’t exist and his powers are a made-up to scare you into loving God. I am so sick-n-tired of so many people in our generation living like hell isn’t real and like Satan is a fairy-tale villain.

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This seems to happen to me all the time...

I think that some people assume pastors don’t have to be bold with their faith because of their profession. However, I learned that being a pastor requires that I’m just as bold (if not more so) with my faith than perhaps if I had some other kind of job. In some ways this is a blessing, but at times it can feel like a curse.

Just this last week I was having a conversation with my neighbor across the street. His words were laced with cuss words, religious slurs, and many derogatory comments. At some point in the conversation he started down the political and religious track and after ranting for some time  he turned and asked me what I did. I calmly replied,”I am a pastor.”  I usually hate confessing my profession when I know it’s going to make the other person feel instantly uncomfortable.  The man quickly apologized for all of his cuss words, for using God’s name in vain, and for anything else he might’ve said that offended me. To be honest, I wasn’t super offended by this man. In fact I appreciated his honesty. If you are a pastor, church staff member, missionary or the like, and have had to declare what you do to someone who didn’t know, then you know exactly this kind of awkward moment that I am talking about.

Let’s never allow our profession to muffle our passion

I think sometimes pastors tend to hide behind the title as a way to escape conversation quickly. It would’ve been easy for me to let the conversation go at that, and never really express my deep belief in Christ and his salvific power for our lives. To be honest, because of the awkwardness of the moment, I wanted to leave conversation about Christ in the past. Everything in me wanted to change the topic to something like how beautiful his lawn looked, or what a great day it was outside.  More times than I’d like to admit, I think I hide behind title of pastor and don’t stop long enough to simply live in obedience to Christ and share my faith boldly.

Pastors, don’t forget the high calling of sharing your faith. Have a missional mindset to reach those in your neighborhood, in line with you at the coffee shop, on the other end of the customer service phone call or even the people in your own home that need to hear the gospel preached regularly. Let’s never allow our profession to muffle our passion to see souls reached for Christ.

Photo Courtesy of iStockphoto.com, © tbmphoto , File #: 366485

We all met in the parking lot of the high school we meet in on Sundays. There were not many of us, but the team was strong nonetheless. We had a mission and we were determined to accomplish it.

It was Easter week and had about 200 New Testament ESV Bibles, gospel tracts, and hand-written invitations to hand out. All of this was in a neat little bag we were able to get from Crossway for about $1 a bag. The material was powerful, but we knew the greatest impact would be our faces on the doorsteps of a few unknown families inviting them to join us for Easter. With highlighted maps in hand, we divided and conquered passing out all 200 bags in just about an hour.

As we were driving away, I was telling my dad (who was part of the team) that I genuinely thought this was effective and we needed to do it more often. I then asked him, “Didn’t the founding pastor of that church I grew up in go door to door all the time?”

My Dad replied, “Yes… he use to talk about how he wore out a pair of shoes inviting people to come to the church…”

With that I began thinking and strategizing about how I would take time regularly on my way home from the office to stop by a few houses and invite people to church. There is nothing like a personal invitation, and this can be a positive thing for a planting pastor (or replanting pastor, in my case) to do in the community the church is planting within.

However, as I learned from doing this last week, and in times before, there are few keys to making door-to-door ministry and invitations work. Here are a few I came up with:

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