By Brandon Young
Mark 16:15-16 states, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Acts 1:8 states, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” I have given these verses much thought lately, and in doing so, God has asked me, “Where has the church been going for years?”
We only “GO” to the local church. Our church bell rings throughout our communities and we expect people to come and visit with us. Jesus told his followers to “GO.” God wants us out in the highways and hedges telling folks how wonderful it is to join the family of God and compelling them to begin a relationship with Jesus. Jesus was always on the move, and we should be doing the same.
Associate Pastor Hunter Greene and I have been so convicted by the words of the scriptures that we have decided during the warm summer months, we need to be in the parks to share the love of God and the gospel of Christ. We have been calling our services, “The Solution Tour.” It has been wonderful cruising around the parks of Elizabethton sharing the good news of the gospel. We have recently gone to Cat Island Park and Kiwanis Park in Elizabethton, and we have seen the power of the Lord. We met many wonderful individuals, and quite a few of them had given up on church all together. We assured individuals that we were not gathered in the park to judge nor condemn them, but instead we had been sent to let them know the God loved them and would love to have an intimate relationship with them.
Jesus was a friend of sinners. He often drew the anger and wrath of the scribes and Pharisees for eating with sinners (Luke 15:2). Jesus clearly recognized that one of the insults hurled against him was that he was “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34). As Christians, we love to sing of this Pharisaical put-down because it means Jesus is a friend to sinners like us. Jesus was very approachable, and those who sought him out knew that he was completely different from anything they had ever experienced. In Mark 2:17 Jesus states, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” As Christians, we personally know the great physician on call, and we know how he made us whole, but why have we chosen to keep that good news housed up inside the church? The church is not a building, but rather a body of people that must proclaim that Jesus, the great physician, can heal mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, and most of all, spiritually.
We met a single mother pushing her very small daughter through the park a few weeks ago. She stood at a distance and listened for a while. Finally, she asked to speak with me. She was broken, depressed, discouraged, and completely hopeless. I told her the Lord has sent us to the park to tell her that he loved her, and she was astonished. The church surrounded her in love, and we began to pray. As we prayed, she began to cry and ask God for forgiveness. She left feeling encouraged and loved with a renewed commitment to Jesus. This is a story that would have never been had we not obeyed the Lord and left the church building. I am reminded of Jesus when he told his disciples that he had a need to go through Samaria. Most Jews despised this place and did all they could to avoid it, but Jesus was seeking souls in need. As he sat on the well, a lady living an ungodly lifestyle came to draw water. She came in the heat of the day to draw water because no other lady wanted to be seen with her in the morning or evening because of her lifestyle. She was viewed by the world as a harlot. Jesus began to explain some things to her, and he declared himself to be the living water. She left her water pot drinking from Christ’s well of living water, went into the city and declared what had happened. She was saved and many believed upon what she told them and they were saved, too. This all happened because Jesus went to where the sinners were located.
It is high time to leave the church building, from time to time, and to seek out a world in need of a solution. We have taken some food, waters, sodas, and a jump house for the children into these parks so that a door of opportunity can be opened to share the gospel. We have had a blast meeting in the parks, and the only regrets I have is that we should have been doing this sooner! So keep on the lookout and hopefully we will be coming to a park or a community near you!
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate pastor, Hunter Greene.)