Excerpt from Knowing Our God
Four years ago, we were sending out weekly emails and writing blogs that sounded more like desperate cries for help. Even though we tried to put on a brave face and keep a positive tone in our writings, sometimes we just couldn’t help but express our pain and frustration.
We were going through a very rough season. We were walking through our wilderness. There was no water, no food, and no protection that we could see in the natural realm.
We were living in the shadow of a home foreclosure and still trying to minister to a tiny group of people. Meanwhile, visitors continued to come and go. We kept reviewing the prophetic words that had been spoken over us, our children and this ministry, but that seemed more like torment than encouragement. All we could do was hold on and wait for the promise of God to come into reality.
Many years ago, when I was the administrative pastor in our home church, we had just moved into a gigantic facility in the inner city of St. Louis, MO. We needed help in everything: cleaning, painting, hauling, sanitation, repairs, etc. At that time however, many people were ready to sit back and relax because we had just been triumphant in obtaining the facility. Others, when they beheld the huge building, began to take on the attitude that the church should be doing more to help THEM with their personal needs.
While praying about the best way to communicate to our congregation the reality that our work had JUST BEGUN, the Lord brought to my mind the words of President John F. Kennedy. He once said, “Ask not what your country should do for you, but ask what you should do for your country.”
So I adjusted his appeal to the nation and placed signs all over the church in strategic locations that read: “Ask not what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for your church.”
For many years, many different types of people have attended Urban Life and for some of them, all they wanted to know was what the ministry was going to do for them. Many Believers have been psychologically programmed to join a church for the primary reason of receiving, receiving and receiving. It never occurs to them that being a part of the church means being called out. They have been called out of the old life of sin, poverty, and selfishness. They’ve been called out of the old mentality of waiting for someone to do something for them.
Today, we have that rare breed of Believers who want to know what they can do for GOD. They desire to make themselves available for the Lord to use them in reaching out to this community through Urban Life.
We know that many people have been hurt and wounded in ministries where either the leadership or the congregants had selfish motives. For nearly seven years, we have done all that we could to try to prove that we were not out to steal from anybody or take advantage of anyone.
However, we believe that it is time for us to stop apologizing for what other pastors or leaders have done and simply move forward, by the grace of God, with what HE has called us to do in Harrisburg.
We know, from personal experience, that once quality people start joining your team, incredible things can happen in your city. We saw it first hand in our home church. We watched God take us from 7 people to 700 people, in an inner city environment, during an era in which ours was one of the fastest dying cities in America.
Now we are in Harrisburg, PA and watching God do it again. God has touched hearts and homes and those same people, YOU GUYS, are now responding to HIM. You will never regret it. There will be tough times and there are difficult things to overcome, but you are setting yourself up for the greatest moments and blessings of your lives.
Relatively few people ever come to know the joy of the journey that you have stepped out to experience. Many, many Believers attend church and just wait…wait…wait…wait… and never actually step out in faith. But the ones who experience the powerful breakthroughs are the ones who step up the way you guys have done over these past few weeks.
We are continually overwhelmed by your generosity and blessed by your sincerity to follow us as we follow Christ.
And to think, this is only the beginning. The best is yet to come!
