This has been on my heart all week, but I had to wait until I was at the right place to share it. Our family has gone through a church-related transition recently. It has been God's leading for us, and we will continue to partner in our CEF ministry with the situation we left, while embracing the new place God has us. We have dear friends in both the old and new situations, and that won't change. Those in both the old and new situations love and serve the Lord. It has been hard, with troubling dreams some nights that come from a deep part of my heart. I experience great joy in what God has done and is doing, as well as loss and regret. I even feel guilt sometimes. What I'm about to share isn't 100% the reason for our changing situation, because, as I said, God led this way. Very few people in the previous situation contributed to what I'm going to share. However, I share because it has been part of my life story as long as I can remember. I wrote the following several days ago, but waited on God to release me to share it. I rewrote a few sentences here and there.
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Our family, Easter 2025, shortly after the above-mentioned change. |
As someone who cares deeply about evangelism, I am constantly disillusioned that so few churches have evangelism as any sort of priority in children's programming. They do an evangelism lesson for children the last day of VBS every summer, and just might make one other attempt all year, but otherwise, just tell cute little Bible stories with cute little crafts, and sing fun little songs with fun little hand motions. Without the Gospel, these things give no life change (But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. -First Corinthians 2:14). And yet when I include the Gospel in whatever curriculum I'm given, I am a radical, and must be stopped! If a leader is concerned that I'm not on the page they want me to be on, or that I don't know what I'm doing (I assure everyone I most certainly do), rather than forbidding me (I never obey that request anyway), these leaders should consider that maybe the Lord wants the Gospel to be part of the program, and then implement a training for all volunteers so that EVERYONE is on the same page. I am 100% willing to take trainings. I am 100% willing to adjust to different situations. For example, if I normally use the Romans Road and you want me to use the Three Circles method, or The Four Spiritual Laws, that's fine, and I will comply, as long as it is still the biblical Gospel. I am so sick of being forbidden to share the Gospel in so-called Christian situations (and as I said, I never, ever obey in those cases--ever--because I answer to a higher authority. We must obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29). This has happened multiple times in my life. This wouldn't be happening if these leaders were obeying the Great Commission to begin with. I'm not a radical. I'm an average person who will answer to God one day. I wish more leaders realized they would one day do the same.
I remember one summer several years ago. I was leading a group of junior high and high school summer missionaries in California. We were doing open air evangelism and 5-day Bible Clubs around the city. One girl on the team had a very deep burden to lead Mormons to the Lord. One day, while we were driving between Bible Clubs, we saw some Mormon missionaries. This girl begged me to stop the car and let her go witness to them. At first, I kind of resisted, because I have been in discussions with Mormon missionaries before, and they were pretty fruitless, and I just didn't want to get us stuck in a situation, but the Holy Spirit immediately prompted my heart, Who are you to tell her who she should and shouldn't witness to? I'm the one who calls her, not you! Knowing I couldn't fight the Lord's calling on this girls' life, I pulled over and let her go witness to the Mormons. It was a respectful discussion between them, and the Lord was in it. But I learned such an important lesson about letting others follow their calling, and making my own calling about accommodating other Christians and their gifts as well as my own.
If you tell any Christian not to use his or her spiritual gift, you are really telling that person they aren't a valid part of the Body, and that is the most painful thing that can happen to a Christian. We expect rejection from the world, but we shouldn't face that in God's family. I've spent so much of my teen and adult life distrusting other Christians because of these experiences. It's not right.
I'm back to the present now, from what I had written earlier this past week. It's hard moving on. How can God lead us to something, then lead us away? I'm reminded of Elijah in First Kings 17. God led Him to the brook Cherith, with very specfic instructions about where to go and how he would be fed in verse 2-4. This was God's will for Elijah for a while, and yet in verse 7, the brook dried up, and God redirected Elijah to the next place. Sometimes, our brook dries up, and we have to move on. It's hard. It hurts. It's not cut and dried like Elijah's story. Sometimes we are still being blessed and fed, but we still have to move on, because God is leading us. Maybe for others the brook hasn't dried up. Yet in some way, He lets us know our brook has dried up, and He has a different place in store. These are my thoughts today, and have been this week.