The Thoughts of a Young Preacher

Tonight once again I am reflecting on the preaching of Patrick Mead. His passion for Christ and for reaching out to those who do not know Him and who the church has never bothered to get to know stirs up great passion in my heart. It forces me to admit that I forgotten how much was done for me on the cross. It also makes me realize that I have allowed fear to limit who I reached out to.

I want to share a post from last year that will help explain the picture above.

I remember the moment I first stepped off of the place in Dominica for the first time. I was 17 years old and excited to be in a place to share the faith that was still very new to me. I was excited but deep down inside I was scared as well. Scared that when it came time to share the word of God with someone that I would not have the answers. That when someone asked that difficult question that I would somehow fumble and cause them to struggle with faith in Jesus. This trip and several others taught me so much about myself as well as how we cannot afford to be comfortable as Christians. In Dominica we worked all day meeting people, setting up Bible studies, sometimes working along side people. We didn't stop for lunch, we slept on the floor of the church building. The Rastas cussed at us , threw bottles at us, even threatened us from time to time and yet none of that mattered to me. I was there to serve the Lord. It was on this beautiful island that I learned that I could minister to people. I could help bring the love of Jesus Christ to others. I thank God for those times and I learned that I could help change others lives.

As I read this post I understand that my biggest fear has not been on the outside of the church but on the inside. We create this environment of fear by having this attitude that says if we get one thing wrong in the church then we might some fall slip through the cracks and lose our salvation. As a minister I have realized that this fear not only hurts the church but truly kills the church. This fear causes us to not reach out to those on the outside looking it. It causes us to form these strange communities where no one can possibly fit in and then wonder why no one new ever comes. We must not be afraid. We must reach out! We must get over ourselves! (As I write this I realize that I am basically preaching Patrick's sermon but it is a message that must be shared!)

Let us wake up in the church and realize that we are too busy trying to figure out it we are following all the man-made rules that we forget our main mission to seek and sick the lost. To encourage the hopeless, to feed the hungry, to go to the deepest, darkest places on this Earth and through the power of Christ pull people out of the dark into the Light!