Being the Church in 2008

I just got home from Campus Crusade's Indianapolis Christmas Conference yesterday, and let me tell you, God totally blew me away with some of the things he taught me there! Most of what I learned at realized was just a hodge podge of things, and so I'm not sure if this blog will make sense, but I just really think it's worth sharing with ya'll.

The Lord challenged me this past week mostly with the urgency of reaching the lost. I know that sounds so cliche' but it's so true. Not even just with evangelism, but with digging into lives around me and impacting them for Christ's glory. On Saturday at the conference we got the chance to do street evangelism. Now, I know that this day in age "street evangelism" gets a bad rep, and that most focus is on relational evangelism. I'm usually in that camp. I can't really say that I get too "jazzed" when someone tells me I'm heading into the worst areas of Indianapolis to hand out food boxes to people and go door to door hoping to engage in spiritual conversations. It scares the crap out of me and I never get very excited. Nonetheless I always pray that God would use me in at least one person's life through the experience. Last year it happened. My friend Peter and I got to lead an 8th grade boy to Christ. It was amazing! This year I prayed the same thing....that God would pick out one person for me and my group to have a conversation with. God lead my friends, Douglas, Joe, Ruth-Anne, and I to a house in a seemingly scary neighborhood as usual. It had been a "dry" day. The boxes we had been pasing out were gone and at this point we were using surveys about the neighborhood to engage in conversations and they weren't going very well. We knocked on the door and a boy who was a Freshman in high school answered the door with about 10-15 of his friends who were the definition of rowdy. They were all watching football and the general atmosphere was crazy! We began asking him these survey questions to which we were getting half hearted answers at best. Until we asked if he desired to know God personally. When asked this, the kid got very serious and told us he did. So, my friend Douglas asked if we could come in. He said yes, and as I walked in I quickly noted the forsaken state of this teenager's existance. The house was run down and extremely dirty, clothes and old food littered what looked to be a living room,babies were running arond in nothing but a dirty shirt and diaper and there were about 8 teenage boys in the house left unattended with no adult in sight. We walked in and immediately I started praying for this teen as Douglas went through the gospel with him. As I listened to Douglas ask the boy questions and the boy giv answers, it was evident that he had no idea who Jesus was. Then, I watched as the power of the gospel took over this teenage boy who minutes before was nothing more than a smart alic giving bogus answers to a survey, to a boy who was realizing who Christ was, and that He cared for Him. Then,to my surprise the boy prayed to receive Christ right there before my eyes!!! It was te most amazing thing! I then talked to the boy and asked him if he was involved in a youth group and he told me no, but that there was one down the road he could go to. I quickly told him to go to that and explained that I was a youth leader and that I thought he would really enjoy it! As we left the house, I realized that my prayers had been answered. Once again my God had proved me wrong, and set my attitude and heart straight. Not only had He lead me to someone, but again, a teenager. God knows where my heart lies and used my passion in life to teach me the importance of evangelism in any aspect.

After we got back to the church we were partnering with in the evangelism efforts, we had a time of sharing what God had done through us that day with the other schools. One group told a story of a man who they talked to who told them that he had been sick and unable to attend church recently. Then he said something that I found so profound. "God knew I couldn't make it to church....so He sent the church to me!" I thought that was so awesome, yet something that I know doesn't happen that often. What would it look like in your life if you, the church, went to people more often!? What would it look like if we met people right where they were at? Isn't that our life's purpouse? One of the speakers had us right down people who we thought it was impossible for them to come to Christ....I wrote down 9 names, and all of them were members of my family. Two of them specifically that stood out to me have seriously messy circumstances in their lives. Sometimes even ignored by our own family because it's too hard to deal with or "they've made their own choices to be that way..." or "just don't get involved...you'll be better off if you stay out of it." Well I'm here to say that I'm sickof that excuse. They are still my family, they are still loved by the same God, and He will NEVER give up on them...so why should I? You see, I'm down right sick of the church not wanting to get their hands dirty in messy situations. From this point on it's my prayer that I go all in...that I sit smack in the middle of people's chaos, that I wipe mouths of dirty abandoned children, that I take food and the gospel to homes in bad neighborhoods, that I shower love and hugs to abandoned children and enslaved children in Romania, that I GET INVOLVED in the chaotic situations in my family, and that people's lives are bettered for it, but better yet that the power of God be displayed through it and that the church wakes the heck up to what's important. Let's get messy in 2008, Church...it's about time.