Violating People Spiritually - Part 5
It’s All About Relationships
I tell people now that I feel we are pastors to the people we encounter on our outreach adventures. We are pastoring people outside of a traditional church setting because many of the people we encounter are not coming to church meetings. They may not feel ready for that, and we do not wait for them to come to church. We pastor them where they are. Our motivation is to discern their needs and help them to meet those needs, accepting them just as they are without demanding that they change in any way. We may not approve of their beliefs or their lifestyle choices, but that doesn’t stop us from loving them. We allow them to come to Jesus on their own timetable.
I was an elementary school teacher for eleven years. Not having a family of my own, I had more time to get involved in the lives of my students. And it didn’t end when the school year ended. I kept in touch with many of my students. Even today, decades later, I am still in touch with many of the students that were in my classes years ago. I can’t even begin to count how many football games, volleyball games, concerts, and other student events I attended over the years as I followed my students’ journeys through life.
As they grew older, I received graduation announcements, wedding invitations, and baby pictures. Along the way, I also received many gifts and Thank You notes from students and their parents, as most teachers do.
In response to a wedding gift, one of my former students sent a heart-felt Thank You note that I have treasured to this day. In this note, she thanked me for my involvement in her life over the years, for my support in and out of the classroom, … and then she added a line that I have never gotten over. She wrote, “you taught me how to love.”
I was really surprised by that line because I thought it was wrong. How could I have taught her how to love? I didn’t even think that I knew how to love people the way that I really should, so I tried to think back and understand what I had done that would have impacted her life in that way.
Thinking back … I remembered that I had gone to her softball games when she was in elementary school. Several of my students were on her team. I had probably attended her basketball or volleyball games in middle school, but I really didn’t remember. I had probably attended fine arts and sports events when she was in high school … and I attended her graduation ceremony.
I came to the conclusion that what I had done was that I had shown interest in her life, and I had just been there for her, as I was for many of my former students. And to her, that was what love looked like.
I learned an important life lesson from her Thank You note.
Now, I try to apply that lesson to our outreach efforts. We do not see our outreach encounters as one-time meetings. If people show an interest, we share contact information. We stay in touch. We show an interest in them. We try to be there for them.
Ministry—at least the deepest, lasting ministry—happens in relationships.
Jesus never told us to go into all the world and make converts. He told us to make *disciples. *Discipleship is a long-term process. It happens over time. It requires a long-term commitment to people that can only happen in relationships.
There is a wonderful podcast video by Will Spencer, founder of the Renaissance of Men podcast, in which he interviews four of the people who changed his life forever. In his search for truth and meaning in life, Will had experimented with New Age and occult philosophies and practices. His search led him to the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert where he encountered Jesus in the Spirit Dream camp.
Burning Man is a very unlikely place to meet Jesus, but the Spirit Dream team from Streams Ministries traveled to Burning Man year after year for precisely that reason—because they knew that the “Burners” are not likely to come to church. If they are going to be reached, the Spirit Dream ministry team knew that they would have to go to the Burners.
After Will’s profound and amazing encounter with Jesus at Burning Man, members of the Spirit Dream team kept in touch with Will, deepening their friendship and opening their homes to him, even sharing family holidays with him.
In the process, discipleship happened.
Will’s podcast is really a “fruit display.” In Will’s podcast series, now he displays the fruit of discipleship in his own life, in his words and experiences, and he influences others to join him on his continuing journey through life with Jesus.
Will Spencer was not won to the Lord through confrontation or high-pressure techniques. He was won through demonstrations of the power and love of Jesus Christ through His disciples on the Spirit Dream outreach team. Will’s commitment to the Lord grew strong and healthy through the love, support, and encouragement he received—and is still receiving—from members of the Spirit Dream team who committed themselves to him in genuine, lasting friendship.
Becoming Spiritual Mothers and Fathers
One of the Spirit Dream outreach team leaders, Rob Mazza, often shares an experience in which the Lord—and the Burners themselves—expressed to the team that they were the “mothers and fathers of the playa.” (The playa being the dried-up desert basin where Burning Man is held.) That is their role. They lovingly parent people who come to them seeking help and enlightenment.
This may be the most important role that each of us is called to fulfill in the lives of others—to be spiritual mothers and fathers, helping to lovingly support disciples—and pre-disciples—on their journeys in life, offering loving encouragement, wisdom, and guidance when it is welcomed.
This is so important that God singled this out, in the very last verse of the Old Testament, as something that *must *happen. Otherwise, the Earth will experience the destructive consequences of God’s curse.
“He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”—Malachi 4:6 (NIV)
Spiritual mothers and fathers must rise up and fulfill their God-given calling! The hearts of the spiritual mothers and fathers must be turned toward the children. Spiritual mothers and fathers must lay down their lives, as natural parents do, in order to ensure the healthy growth and development of spiritual children, guiding their journeys through life with wisdom and loving discipleship.
Years ago, Recie Saunders invited a group of prisoners to write messages of gratefulness to their mothers for Mother’s Day. This became a very meaningful experience for the prisoners as they reflected on all of the sacrifices their mothers had made for them and all the positive ways their mothers had influenced their lives.
It had a profound impact on the mothers as well when they received the cards and read the heart-felt messages of gratefulness from their sons.
It went so well that Recie decided to do the same project for Father’s Day. He got cards for the prisoners to write personal message to their fathers, and he let them know that he would do what he could to make sure each card was delivered to their fathers.
But not one single card was turned in.
This spoke volumes about the fathers’ lack of involvement in the lives of their sons. And where did the sons end up as a result? In prison. This is the curse upon our nation and our world.
Where are the fathers?
If the natural fathers fail to fulfill their responsibilities to their children, then we must step in and take up our God-given calling to become spiritual fathers and mothers for the children of this generation.
In the Bible, when a young man or woman was tragically separated from his or her natural parents, God Himself would become a “Father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5), and He would often bring spiritual mothers and fathers into the young person’s life in order to prepare that young person for their amazing purpose that God had designed for them before the world began.
The list of spiritual giants who were separated from their natural parents early in life is astonishing! This elite group includes Esther, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Daniel, and others.
Many, many children today are separated from their natural parents early in life, often through tragic circumstances. Will you step up and become the spiritual father or mother that they desperately need in order to be prepared for the amazing life purpose that God has planned for them?
In his book, The Final Quest, Rick Joyner details his experience of seeing those believers who were seated on the very highest thrones and rewarded with some of the highest ranks in Heaven. Among the ranks of these Overcomers, Rick recognized some of the great heroes of the faith, but he also wrote, “However, it seemed that faithful, praying women and mothers occupied more thrones than any other single group.”
John tells us that there are three levels of maturity in the Christian life, and that we have achieved the highest level of spiritual maturity when we answer the call of God to become spiritual parents to those who are growing in their walk with Christ. (See 1 John 2:12-14.)
We desperately need people involved in the Great Harvest that we are experiencing today, but we need laborers with the hearts of mothers and fathers who will truly care for those who have been violated and scattered from the churches in our land. We need laborers with the hearts of true mothers and fathers who will help to turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers and mothers—and back to their Heavenly Father. We need laborers who will work with God to gather in those lost sheep who have been offended, violated, and scattered.
“Watch out, you shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, proclaims about the shepherds who “tend to” my people: You are the ones who have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven’t attended to their needs, so I will take revenge on you for the terrible things you have done to them, declares the Lord. I myself will gather the few remaining sheep from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will place over them shepherds who care for them. Then they will no longer be afraid or dread harm, nor will any be missing, declares the Lord.”—Jeremiah 23:1-4 (CEB)
“I will seek out the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the wounded, and strengthen the weak.”—Ezekiel 34:16 (CEB)
**References: **
Joyner, Rick. *The Final Quest (The Final Quest Series Book 1) *(p. 61). MorningStar Publications. Kindle Edition.
Recie Saunders. (n.d.). https://recie.com/
Spencer, W. (2022, November 7). Encounters at Burning Man!. YouTube. https://youtu.be/vk7ORQiXKwM
