Pagan Banquets

In the past year and a half, I figured something out. I don’t like telling people that I am a Minister. Odd as that sounds, I do have my reasons. Just about every time someone has found out that I am a Minister they quickly change their demeanor, apologize for whatever profanity they had just spoken, or just simply…treat me different. I’m not a fan of it. I don’t like people to be different just because they might offend the little minister guy who has never heard a “dirty word” ever in his life. It is almost like standing in a building and saying, “You can’t say that here…this is a Church.”

A week ago I went to a pagan banquet…no that wasn’t the theme. Basically…it was my first “non-Christian” event. Though the other people there we not Christians, let’s say that the spirits were flowing for them. One of the women at my table had informed her boyfriend that I am a Minister and wanted him to be on his best behavior. He was who he was, against her wishes, and I appreciated that. She kept apologizing for his actions and comments. I appreciated his realness. I’d rather him be who he is than to put on a fake self because of my “position.” Should he change who he is for an evening just because I am who I am?

This all started coming together in my mind as I looked back on my time working with the church in Dundee, Scotland. There were three lads I met outside of our meeting hall one day: Kyle, Peter, and Dillon. They had been opening our door and cursing God while we tried to have our Holiday Bible School (VBS). We ended up going and playing footy (soccer) with them in the park once a week for the whole summer. We never asked them to not curse around us, or to act proper around us, but by the end of the summer they had changed. Why did they change? Because they had seen how we could have a good time without all of that. Maybe they were seeing Jesus bleeding through us into their lives.

I hope that I am living my life in a way that as I get to know those who do not know Christ, they will change who they are to become more like Him, not because I have a “title” but because they see something different…something that they are missing. Maybe I need to be going out of my way a little more to build relationships with pagans…maybe a difference can be made. Maybe a relationship will be formed that might lead to talks about Jesus. Maybe…this is what we are supposed to be about?

Your First Love

Every once in a while I flip through and read Revelation. I don’t do it too often because I don’t like taking pills for headaches but still…there are some things to be learned there. Revelation 2:4-5 has been plaguing me. “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” There are a lot of different things to take from this exclamation made by Jesus, but I’d like to focus on the last part, “do the things you did at first.” What does this mean in our lives?

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,” – Matthew 28:18-19. Mark puts it as “Go into all the world,” both of which I really like. Simply…Jesus says, “Go!” I have to ask who this call is for. Just the Apostles? Evangelistic ministers? Ministers in general? Or…every knee that is bowed to Jesus Christ?

A few weeks ago I took my teens on their “Search and Rescue” Fall Retreat. They were reminded of, as Revelation puts it, their first love. They were reminded of what they were called to do. Our fifth and final session, “Search and Rescue is What We Do…it is What He Did,” with a major focus on, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”

I love the first six chapters of Isaiah. As it builds up, God is standing up in front of us, the world falling apart behind Him, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"” – Isaiah 6:8.

Isaiah answered the call. I answered the call when I put Christ on in Baptism. You have answered the call. Much like Jesus calling on the church in Ephesus, we need to examine ourselves to see if we have forsaken our first love…to see if we are doing the things we were called to do at first…not just as a church but as individuals. We often hide under the umbrella of “church” and say, “we have answered the call” when in reality we are letting others do the work for us. Let us remember Jesus, our First Love, and do what He has called us to do. Let’s GO!