I have a friend who wrote me yesterday with a message that I thought was worth sharing.  I have asked him his permission and he has allowed me to post it.  Steven Youell’s message my step on a few toes, but then again, have you read the book of James lately?  Here is what he wrote me:

It occurred to me after reading your blog that I might have something valuable to say to

students in a seminary. Particularly since I am I one of the individuals in the trenches–

someone with a fair amount of theological knowledge and the scars that come from

being in the real world.

The first thing I would tell them is that they need to be fearless.

Fearless not only of physical danger, but also fearless of walking into Watts, Mexico,

a lecture by a well known atheist or even a gay bar if that’s where they want to minister.

Fearless of what people might think when they host a party at their house in which

homeless people, atheists, liberals or teenagers that dress like vampires are invited.

Fearless of the disease and illnesses they might contract when they hug a homeless

person. Fearless of the fact that their congregation might leave when they hear real

truth.

They should not fear to be a democrat, republican or even a libertarian if that is

what Biblical Truth and their conscious leads them.

They should not fear where their next dollar comes from if they gave their last

cent to feed someone else.

They should not fear hurricanes, famine, terrorist attacks, taxes or big government

and they should not worry about whether or not banks will fail or whether religious

freedoms will be suppressed or even about religious persecutions.

And most importantly, they should not fear to balance the Gospel with the doctrine

of repentance.

Now when I say fearless, I don’t mean senseless bravado. Certainly it is human to

feel fear in grave situations. However there is a big difference in feeling fear

and letting fear make your decisions for you.

The only fear that should control their decisions is the fear of God. And in

that sense, I find there to be very, very few fearless Pastors.

If we had more of these, I think Christianity might actually get a little more

respect in the world. And at the very least, more people would listen.

The second thing I would tell them is that the way to change the world

through God is by individual action. You’ve often heard that to change

the world, you need to do it one person at a time. That is only partially

true. In order to change the world, you need to teach people to do it

one person at a time. Then those people will will do it for two more.

Then those two will do it for four more. It will continue in a geometrical

progression. (Sorry for the math term…)

I can’t find anywhere in the Bible in which God said things like

“Debate with Katie Couric!”

“Spend millions to defeat Gay Marriage!”

“Affiliate with Conservative Republicans!”

“Take your kids out of public schools!”

“Build a Mega-Church!”

What I see in the Bible are things like

“Feed the hungry.”

“Shelter the homeless.”

“Spread the Gospel.”

“Speak the truth.”

“Minster to the sick.”

“Take care of widows and orphans.”

and

“Teach others to do the same.”

I solidly believe that if every minister of the Gospel were to be completely focused on the

second list and consistently, loudly and boldly stuck to teaching their congregations to do

the same, the results would be amazing.

The hungry and homeless would see that faith does something– it has tangible results.

More people would see the lies and mistruths of the media. Sick people would know

that they have the opportunity to choose to be with God when they die. And many

politicians would recognize that the Truth of God is a force that cannot be stopped.

It’s hard to hear truth when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from or whether you’ll have a home tomorrow.

It’s even harder to give examples of what God’s truth can do in the real world if we don’t act on God’s truth.

God can take care of the politicians, the media, the government and the public schools as long as the

truth of the gospel gets to more and more people.

I listen to a lot of Christian Radio and I hear less and less of the Gospel. I hear lots of stuff on how to

make better families, how Jay Sekulow is going to the supreme court so our kids can take their Bibles

to school and how serving God requires you to be politically active.

You know what I don’t hear?

I don’t hear anything about how or what I can do to feed the homeless, take care of widows & orphans, teach my

kids how to demonstrate the truth to their classmates or how I can visit terminally ill people in the hospital so

I can tell them they have a choice. Giving money to foreign missions is honorable, but in this country, millions of people

are starving, have no clean water and live in abject poverty. If those people became disciples of Christ and

were then dedicated to converting people to Christ in the same way they were, there would be no stopping

America to becoming a Christian Nation once more.

When I had money, I wouldn’t go anywhere without a trunk full of non-perishable food and paper bags.

When I saw a homeless person I would stop and give them at a full meal (sometimes two) that’s easy to carry.

I even put napkins, plastic forks and clean water in the bags. My unit cost for that was about five to six

bucks. I did not preach, but every single one of them said thank you. And the only message I gave them

was that Jesus told me to do it.

What if 50% of the people who go to church now were to do that instead of buying a gaming console for

their kids this Christmas? Instead, they’re encouraged to give money to the Church so OTHER people can

do it. That has to stop. People in congregations need to get their hands dirty. They need to learn to be

fearless and take action. And they need to be taught that by fearless Pastors.

Christians like me who live in the trenches and have the scars to prove it most often are not ideal members

of your congregation– because the evidence of the scars are still there. Sometimes we smoke, make the

mistake of swearing when we hit our thumb and cut off other people in traffic. But God can still work

through us in a powerful way. We are far from perfect, but that means that when we interact with people

they will see that and relate to us. And then when they see how God demonstrates his love through us,

they will realize that God can change them as well. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and quit smoking,

clean up our language and drive better– it means that God’s power can be communicated through

flawed people. I can only find one instance in the Bible where God used a perfect man to demonstrate

his love: Jesus. Everyone else he chose had character flaws and most of them were BIG character flaws.

he used murderers, liars and even people who didn’t want to serve him. Those people were changed,

but not all at once and God did not require all of their bad habits to be gone before he used them.

And although this may not be a legitimate excuse– we soldiers often miss church because we don’t feel like

we fit in, because we get tired of seeing lots of people talking about the power of God but when we

go home our neighbors house is still up for foreclosure, homeless people still need food and our

brother-in-law still has cancer. And we want to DO something. We pray for them, but we live with

a little voice in our head that says:

Prayer without action won’t get the job done, because that’s not the way God works.

Yes, God can work miracles and if he chose to do so, he could end hunger, cancer and financial disaster

and any other evil.

But he chose us. He wants us to demonstrate His power by getting our hands dirty. He wants us to

look a homeless person in the eye as we hand them food. He wants us to help fix an older person’s

run down home. He wants us to take a few kids who don’t have Dads to the arcade. And He wants

it all done with no fanfare, no flyers and no glory for the people who do it. One on one. And then,

when the occasional person asks why we do it we can just say “Jesus told me to do it” and from that

point on, God will take care of the rest. No preaching, no quoting the Bible and no tracts. If God

chooses to work on their hearts, they’ll ask a question, initiate a conversation or will seek Him

in other ways. Personally demonstrating the power of the Gospel on an individual basis is what

makes people open to hearing the Gospel.

I am not a pastor.

I am not a church leader.

I am not a trained theologian.

I didn’t even go to Bible College.

I am a soldier of the real world who has seen and felt real pain, hunger, suffering, anger, hatred,

prejudice and financial disasters. And there are thousands upon thousands of people like me out

here who know and feel the same things. As a pastor, your job should be to use battle scarred,

grizzled veterans like me to create even more of us. If you do that, our numbers will increase

exponentially.

Listen to us, educate us and put us out in the battle where we belong. Please.

Steven Youell