really cool guy named Adam. He was only
eighteen years old and he seemed more mature in his faith than I did in mine,
which is obviously intimidating for a 24-year-old. What was even more impressive about Adam was
that he was also an American. He didn’t
embrace any of those qualities of excuse a lot of us put onto ourselves to rid
us of responsibility. Well, at least I
think I do that a lot…
Needless to say, Adam was really genuine.
He told us a story of his nation, his ‘people group’, and
how he allowed the faith that infected his life to infect those around
him. Essentially, an inner-city high
school steeped in sex, drugs, gangs, and violence was impacted with Kingdom
through the doing of this single guy and a group of his friends. Each day they walked into their school
building they spoke ‘peace’ into it.
They wanted nothing more than the Kingdom to be seen everywhere. By the end of the first school year, all of
the sex, drugs, gangs, and violence were on the decline and by the time Adam
graduated, it was nearly non-existent.
All of this happened just because a single teenager decided
to activate his faith.
Looking through Scripture it’s easy to notice that a lot of
people had their nation that they ministered to. Moses had Israel, Jesus had the ‘lost sheep
of Israel’, Peter ministered to the Jews, and Paul we all know ministered to
the Gentiles. It’s incredible to see
that everyone had their own nation and many times it’s made me wonder what my
nation is, what my particular people group is going to be.
Oftentimes I’ve asked God for the streets, for the homeless
people because I just want to dedicate myself to something, to someone to minister
to. I probably ask for the homeless
because I feel as if I’m better off than them (it’s always harder to minister
to those better off than ourselves). Other
times I’ve asked for the heart of the American Church, for the literal Body of
Christ here in the States. I just want
to know what my particular nation is.
Adam obviously knew his involved the student body at his high school
(and now, his college).
And maybe we should ask ourselves, what is our nation? What
particular people group are we supposed to minister to? Where are we to go and activate our own
faith?
We need to recognize in our own lives the places that God is
calling us to go – and then go there. We
need to raise our hand and volunteer ourselves.
If we want to see the people in our office from 9-5 transformed, perhaps
we need to start speaking peace or raising our voice when company integrity is
questioned. If we want to see the
homeless dude on the street corner fed, maybe we need to put our hand to the
plow and find the food for him.
I see ethnicity as more than just my race or the color of my
skin. I see ethnicity as people groups. White, African, Asian, blah, blah, blah? I think in different terms: high school
teenagers, Koch Industry employees, Westboro Baptist Church parishioners,
homeless people, fisherman, etc. I know
this really messes with things because then it means we belong to different
groups of people, but that’s fine. My
last name is Snyder but it doesn’t mean that I’m 100% Dutch. And just because I don’t go to Westboro
Baptist doesn’t mean I can’t minister to that congregation. Paul wasn’t exactly considered a Gentile…
I’m saying all of this for one purpose: what’s it going to
take for us to activate our faith in the place that we feel called? Where is the Lord calling you to minister and
will you let your faith in God intersect with it?
should check out:
Phil Wyman (That’s me) on Seeing the Middle East from a Jewish Perspective
Joshua Jinno the Antechurch
Raffi Shahinian on Faith and Ethnicity: A True Story
Susan Barnes on Just a God of the West
K.W. Leslie on Why I went to an all-white church
Adam Gonnerman on Multicultural experience (and inexperience)
Matt Stone on Is the church ready for a multiethnic future?
Beth Patterson on Viva la particularities
Steve Hayes on Christianity and ethnicity”
Matthew Snyder asks What’s Your Nation?
Jeff Goins on Gypsies in Spain
