A couple of weeks ago, I told our GCR church a story about my three Horsemen friends and I attempting to feed the homeless in downtown Dallas. This was in the summer of 2001, before I was preaching. Jason, Dan, Kevin, and I had never done anything like this; we had no idea how to do it, or where. But we had made some recent commitments together to stop griping about our church and stop complaining about our own needs and start serving other people. So, we made plans to feed the homeless.
We scrambled together $200 on a Tuesday afternoon, purchased 200 sandwiches off the dollar menu at the McDonald’s next to the downtown Greyhound bus station, and drove to an empty parking lot across the street from the downtown Dallas library. And within about four minutes, we had 13-million homeless people surrounding our minivan and grabbing for food.
That’s what it felt like.
We apologized for not having enough food, we got everyone to line up single file, we prayed over every cheeseburger and McChicken sandwich, and we did the best we could. We were uneasy at first; it was a little tense. And, yeah, we ran out of food fairly quickly. And everybody was… cool. Gracious. Thankful. Very thankful.
We wound up having a lot of conversations. We prayed with probably 20 people. And some of them prayed for us. We laughed together about the food shortage and how we didn’t know what we were doing. I was in a place I had never been with people I had never engaged. We heard a lot of stories. We talked about God. And we stayed there until almost dark.
Almost dark.
I’m telling you, that three hours changed me. It profoundly changed me. We did that once a month for a couple of years and it transformed me. It’s a big part of the things that led to me transitioning out of radio and into preaching. It helped set me on that path.
Actually doing some ministry, having a mission–not just talking about it or studying it or agreeing that it’s good–changes you. When you risk going to new places, meeting new people, and trying new activities, the uneasiness creates some space for change. New experiences challenge your beliefs and assumptions. Ministry when you’re in over your head forces you to face your fears and surprises you with resources and strength from God you didn’t know you had. Hearing the stories first-hand, seeing the places and the people, makes the needs in our world and the opportunities to serve more urgent and real. The Scriptures become more alive and more “right now” when you connect them to real ministry. It pushes us out of the comfort of theory and rhetoric and into the places where God really is changing the world.
To empty yourself for the mission of God like that feels good. You know it feels good, because you’ve experienced it, too. The reason it feels so good is because it’s our God-created and God-ordained purpose. He made us to put other people first. When we do that, we are being Christ-like. That’s why it’s so powerful. When we serve others, when we live in the mission zone, we live better. We worship better. We pray better. We love better. Everything’s better.
And you’ll be changed.
Peace,
Allan
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