Seeing Through Different Glasses

Growing up, unlike more and more of our culture, I didn’t know much about the non-Christians.  I didn’t understand their culture or their upbringing or their values to say the least.  The truth is, everyone has values.  No matter if they say they do or not.  For some, their only value is to have none at all. Coming out of such a Christian subculture it may seem strange that I feel such a interest in those outside the Christian community, but for whatever reason I do. 

In college, I remember hearing something about two greats in Church history, friends from the same era – John Wesley and George Whitefield.  Wesley had grown up the son of a preacher and focused his life on those outside the church, especially the poor.  On the other hand, Whitefield had grown up poor and unchurched and his best ministry was to the rich and to those in the Church.  This is what has happened with me.  God took me from here to there. 

I was so “churched” that literally anytime the doors were open I was there.  My parents weren’t ministers or paid staff, just humble churchgoers who like to help out.  They are still like that to this day.  It’s in my blood.  I was so “churched” that I went to a Christian school until high school.  Going to a public high school was actually a breath of fresh air.  Something happens when we get so couped up in our Christian bubbles (a nice Christian word for circles or subcultures).  We become overfed and underused spiritually.  We start to focus on what annoys us rather than what inspires us.  It’s as if we are so close to the page that we can’t see or focus on the big picture of what God is doing in the world today.  That’s what was happening to me, and it was relieving to be around non-Christians and people who were different. 

I started a Bible study my freshman year and we were lucky to have more than two members a week.  Several times I tried to sleep in and not go, even though I was the leader, but you can’t really sleep in when your mom is your alarm clock (until college).  Around my junior year I visited a worship gathering that was happening near our school.  To my surprise, dozens of students came together on Monday nights to worship.  People from all denominations came.   There was really no pastor or leader.  It was just a student led movement; really, a move of God on the earth today.  It grew to become 400-600 students a week, with Biblical miracles taking place such as physical healing.  Most of us had never watched Christian television or understood what was taking place, let alone how to “make it happen.”  Literally, a bunch of uneducated (in the ministry field), non paid students who God was using.  Hundreds came to Christ.  There never was a pastor.  Usually, not even a sermon (if anything, a mini-sermon of about 5 minutes.  Try telling a preacher to narrow their sermon down to that size!).  Really, I’m still trying to figure out what happened.  We talk so much about “revival” of interest in Christianity in the US these days, and sometimes we don’t honor it when it’s here.  I believe there’s been dozens of Great Awakenings in US Church history.  We just won’t recognize or write about them until they’re at least a century or so old. 

During that time of my life, at a different event, I felt as if God himself whispered to my heart to become an evangelist; to spend my life reaching outside of the Christian community to encourage others to join us.  Who in their right mind, these days, would be an evangelist?  With the spectacle of televangelists, it’s simply not a respected job, either by the general public or the Church.  Yet with all the stigma around it, this is what I’ve chosen to do. 

After some great opportunities to speak around the US and in several other countries of the world and to meet many different people of all backgrounds, I’ve come out of the closet with several new conclusions about people, God and ministry.  In a sense, I see through different glasses than before.  From my perspective, God, the Christian one, is alive and doing so much around the earth.  People from all backgrounds are getting behind the message of forgiveness and the Way to God through Jesus Christ.  It’s truly amazing to watch.  I can’t help but feel as if I am just a spectator in the bigger picture of what God is already doing.  Stories pile up in my inbox weekly of millions of people responding to the “tugging of God in their heart.”  One of the problems of humanity is that generally we base our assumptions and opinions in life on our narrow experience rather than seeking out what is really happening beyond our little corner of the world.  When we start to dig, we will find a very different story completely.  It’s amazing. 

I have hope, not only for what God is doing in the world and for Christianity as a whole, but also for the Church and for evangelists.  I believe in the job of evangelist, and that it will come to hold a brand new meaning in our generation of customization, intelligence, global connectedness and humanitarianism.  I see this in friends who weekly travel around the country and the globe to promote freedom from self-centeredness and sin through Jesus Christ.  It is foreign to me to think that we will not see a new group of emerging evangelists from all walks of life finding a way to rise up and glorify Christ, in the same way grass finds a way to break through concrete.  It’s bound to happen.  Just give it time.  There’s something that has happened in my narrow minded, religious heart, and that is a new perspective.  With this new perspective comes all kinds of hope, passion and encouragement.  I hope you too will begin to look and see what God is doing around the world and find ways to embrace and learn from it.