We've had two full weeks of outreach already, and have just started our third full week.
Outreach defined: We are divided up into groups . . . partners . . . and each two or three groups of partners are in teams . . . Our team receives a portion of the map of the nearby city . . . We draw a line through the middle, and each group takes one half . . . Phase two: Knock on every door in your portion of the city and carry the light of the Gospel to their door. We have surveys that ask a few general questions. We introduce it as a religious survey we're doing for some group projects we're doing for our Bible college. The mentioning of "religious survey" is usually the point that the conversation becomes a monologue and you are left standing on the doorstep of a shut door. For those who are interested, though, we then ask them a few generic religious questions (i.e. Do you believe in God, Do you believe in life after death, in your opinion who is Jesus), and then with the guidance of the Spirit, these questions lead to conversation - which is their entire purpose. The survey is just an excuse to engage in conversation with people, and ultimately it is a survey because we're looking for people interested in Bible studies. As the conversation evolves, we generally proceed to ask people if they would be interested in gaining a clearer understanding of the Bible if they had the chance. Then the clincher/point of no return: "That's one of the projects we're doing in the community. We're offering in-home Bible studies to anyone who's interested. Would you ever be interested in meeting up with us and just opening the Bible together and letting it speak for itself...?"
When looking at the wheat fields in Palestine, Jesus commented to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plenty, but the laborers are few." Jasper, Oregon has recently received about forty-five laborers, and we are already seeing many of the fruits of the harvest.
Some stories:
First day of outreach . . . My partner Cari and I are responsible for a mobile home park . . . as we walk up to it, both of us completely greenhorns in the art of door-to-door evangelism, we hear sirens and explosions (presumably firecrackers) nearby. So this is what it means to carry the Gospel, thinks I. After a series of rejections, little interest, questioning as to the legality of our knocking, and lectures on the demise and stupidity of organized religion, we came to our final door for the evening. Cari and I have taken turns talking at doors. This last one is mine. A friendly lady answers. She invites us in. Wow, that's nice of her. We make small talk and I begin the survey. She believes in God, believes Jesus was the Son of God, believes there is some kind of life after death, but is not Christian . . . I probed deeper, trying to strike a connection personally while simultaneously attempting to arouse serious paradigm-shifting questions in her mind. She starts sharing a lot of her life history with us. It's very interesting. It turns out she most recently has been looking into Buddhism as she feels it most accurately deals with the problems of the pain in the world. Christianity seems like it would, she says, but Christians are all far too busy hating each other and arguing about everything. We eventually ask her if she'd be interested in understanding the Bible. She says she would, as she is a strong believer in never losing an opportunity to learn. Then her question came . . . that question . . . that moment that many door-to-door workers fear - the inevitable question of motive that can be expressed in so many ways: "What do you want out of this? What's the purpose? Who did you say you were again? What denomination?" I quickly responded that we were Seventh-day Adventist Christians, and asked her if she was familiar (I refer to this as a difficult question because when trying to represent Christ, your greatest goal is to love people, not merely convert them to your way of thinking . . . I didn't want her to feel my interest in her as a person began and ended with whether or not she would convert). Right away she responded that she actually did have previous contact with Adventists before she began studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. She had watched "It is Written" for several years, and read articles about Adventist health systems, and was always deeply impressed. She had meant to search it out further but began studying with the JW's before it ever happened. She was interested in studies. To this day, we have gone back twice to study with her. God is blessing, and we are all three learning as we talk about His love through the study of His word. It's remarkable how God opens doors (literally . . . lame joke, I know) and people will share with you deep matters of their heart just because you stood on their porch and were intentional about the Kingdom of God.
This last Sunday, we had an exciting encounter with a woman, also a Christian, who we were surveying. When we asked her if there were any Bible topics she wished she understood better, she responded right away that she wished the rest of the world understood the nature of death better . . . what do you mean? "People think folks are going to heaven and hell when they die, or that they're wandering around as spirits, but they're not!!! That's not what the Bible actually says!" To any of you reading who have been born and raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home or community, you may have just mentally agreed with that statement in briefly grazing over it, but failed to grasp its importance. The fact that other Evangelical Christians are willingly embracing Bible truths contrary to the official doctrinal opinions of their church organization is huge. Now, we aren't saved by doctrine . . . it's all by the grace of Jesus . . . but it's still a big deal that people throughout all denominations are embracing Bible truths - it stands as a testament to the witness of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. No matter who you are or where you are, there are people somewhere near you embracing God's truths regardless of faith background or affiliation . . . They are God's children, just as you are. Find them. Share. Grow with them. Jesus says, in John 10:16, that He has other sheep, sheep not in this fold, who will hear His voice and come, and there will be one Shepherd . . .
There have been many other exciting outreach moments. One group spent an evening talking with a witch in her home. She was apparently incredibly friendly and not interested in studies, but wanted them to come back to spend time. They will be visiting her again, just trying to personally share the love of Jesus, which is the everlasting gospel. Incidentally, she had a 200 year old cauldron in her back yard that she uses for potions. Another group spent an hour sharing in a woman's home and later learned she sacrifices chickens in her back yard. Other groups have been invited into people's homes for hour and a half or longer conversations about deep, heartfelt matters. Some have been chased off property. Some have been chewed out. Some have been ridiculed. Cari and I experienced our first true instance of suffering for the gospel's sake. We were doing surveys in an apartment neighborhood, and were officially asked to "evacuate the premises immediately" by the apartment manager. We went without a fuss, cleaned the dust off our feet (as Jesus instructs), and moved on to the next neighborhood. It's an unbelievable feeling to share in the work and sufferings of our Savior even in this tiny, seemingly insignificant way. In the past week we also had the opportunity to spend an hour with two homeless teenagers who asked us for food. We bought them supper and sat with them and talked. They were eastern pantheistic monists, though they didn't use a specific term. We were able to share elements of our faith while attempting to ask the right questions to stir their minds . . . God was leading. We left some GLOW tracts with them, and they were pretty excited about reading them (GLOW= "Giving Light to Our World"). The greatest encouragement and sense of Jesus' presence I've yet experienced was this past Wednesday. Approaching our next door, I was feeling timid, nervous, tired, and frankly a little loveless towards humanity. I recalled Jeffrey Rosario's words: "Isn't it profound that for every door you knock on, it's actually Jesus knocking on the door. He is actually knocking with you at every door." The VERY NEXT DOOR I went to, the door was wide open and I saw through to the inside of the house through the screen. There on the wall was a giant, framed painting within clear sight of Jesus knocking on a door. BOOM!!!!!!!!! My door-to-door work has not been the same since. I've lost my apprehension.
It's liberating to confront a person at their door, and proceed to talk to them about their faith and share with them how Jesus has changed your own life. It's the ultimate scary witnessing activity, and I'm in a program that is requiring me to do it as a twice-weekly thing . . . and it's SUCH a blessing. Never again will you have that painful apprehension in the store, at your job, or on the plane about sharing your faith with someone . . . because you've done it at people's doors to total strangers and had them slam the door in your face! . . . and it's okay. When they reject you, it isn't really you they reject . . . and that has brought a lot of peace, as well as sobering realization of the world's need of Jesus.
I'm sorry I have become long-winded, but it's been a while since an update, and I'm trying to immerse you, friend, in the full experience of in-your-face-door-to-door-evangelism. To be concise here, suffice it to say that it's been quite a story already. I pray for God's continued guidance and leading. We've been instructed to love everyone and shed light wherever we go, but to only look specifically for those who are "ripe," by Biblical terminology . . . ready and searching. This is mostly due to the short amount of time that we're here at ARISE.
I encourage you to consider who in your neighborhood is hearing the voice of the Shepherd. Jesus says that "this gospel will go to all the world, and then the end will come." I'm not proposing the classic appeal that the majority of church folk hope their heathen brother is listening to and regarding, but rather a revolutionary idea . . . the Great Commission is for all of us. Take some cookies to those neighbors you've never really interacted with before. Get up early and shovel the snow off their driveway and sidewalk. Drop a note in their mailbox. Make a new friend. Don't be afraid of people or people groups you don't understand. Every single person is equally welcome in Jesus' family.
Only in the last six months, I think, have I begun to understand for the first time the overwhelming love of God. I can't justify it with words. But having been the lost sheep every day of my life . . . and having been found time and again by the Shepherd . . . in the same place . . . and having seen the joy and tears on His face each time . . . it changes a person. God became man. The moment sin entered the world, there was a Savior. Emmanuel "God with us" came. He was our sin. Died. Raised. Done. Somehow we will inherit His glory by trading our pain in exchange for Life. And that makes sense how? He actually is thrilled by that exchange? All one can do is say, "Holy... Worthy is the Lamb who was slain." Go into your world and love to the end as He did. Freely. Completely. Tearfully. Deeply. Thankfully. Eternally . . .
