I felt lost and alone in this sea of people, as tears were filling my eyes.
As many of you know, last year I attended a discipleship leadership school in Spain called G42 Leadership Academy. It’s a nine-month school and during the middle three months, they send us out to do internships, where we practice what we are learning about love, life, and God’s power. They sent my friend Sam and I to Jasper, Georgia to serve with a family who owned a restaurant and inn. Jasper is a small town about an hour north of Atlanta. G42 had never sent interns there, so much of what we had to do was help with various ministries where needed or pioneer our own ministries. One night, Sam and I decided to prayer walk some of downtown Atlanta. We drove down, would search, and find different areas to walk through the streets. As we were driving around, we saw Atlanta’s new giant football stadium, Mercedes-Benz. A few weeks from then, the NFL’s Super Bowl would be played there. We felt we should help prepared the ground spiritually for the event. We parked and started walking around the building. We prayed for whatever God was putting on our hearts, including no sex trafficking during the Super Bowl week. I remember praying out loud for less sex trafficking, and Sam challenged me to pray for none whatsoever. We knew this was a far flung prayer, as the Super Bowl has been reported as one of the top trafficking events of the year worldwide. It broke our hearts, but it was an honor to be out and prayer walk around the stadium. We begged God to rescue those slavery victims and for the Enemy to be defeated.
Then came Super Bowl Sunday. Sam and I drove to Atlanta from Jasper just as we did weeks before. This time though there were a lot more people on the streets. It was wild for me personally. The Los Angeles Rams, who I have been cheering for since I was a kid, were now going to the Super Bowl! We walked around, prayed and talked to people. There were so many things to see and events going on. We actually ended up seeing some of the New England Patriots before they got on the team bus, including Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
As we got closer and closer to the stadium, you could feel the spiritual heaviness. The heaviest and most heartbreaking places were near the entrance with the “Christian” hate groups. People with megaphones, scattered throughout the crowd, yelling at people that they were going to hell. We had to have seen at least ten different groups who traveled there from all over the country. We were so overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. I felt lost and alone in this sea of people, as tears were filling my eyes. “What do we do, God? Do we yell back at them, and tell them how wrong they are?” That’s what a few were doing, who weren’t ignoring them or laughing at them. No, love them. “Love them?! With all the spiritual darkness swirling around them?”
These groups focus on scaring people out of hell, when they should be focused on building God’s Kingdom through love, like Christ did. Christ was never rude or hateful to unbelievers, but only rebuked the religious leaders. Yet God wasn’t instructing us to correct these people. He was instructing us to love. “Sam, I think God wants us to talk to these groups.” I was hoping Sam would have another impression from God, like ANYTHING ELSE. But she agreed. I took a deep breath and started walking.
The biggest group was across the street from the stadium, about 20 of the sign holders. Start with them. I was uncertain and staring at them, as we slowly crossed the street full of people. One of the group members was barking hate through a megaphone and twisting my God’s words out of context. As we stepped closer, I felt anger, confusion, compassion, and fear all course through my veins. To the right of the group, they were being guarded by three or four Atlanta police officers. The City of Atlanta had probably seen onlookers verbally and physically attack these people in the past, and didn’t want chaos at their big event.
“Well here goes nothing.”
We walked up to one of the police officers, “May we talk to them?”
He was surprised, but chuckled, “Sure. As long as you don’t attack them.”
“No, no, we just want to talk.”
Sam and I approached the first woman. She stared at me confused and leaned back in a defensive posture.
“Hi, how are you?”
“…uh…I’m fine.”
“May we pray for you and your group?”
She didn’t answer and kept looking over at the other protesters who stared at us, waiting for our next move.
“We want to pray for protection and love for you.”
There was a long silence. “What now, Lord?”
Wait.
Another long silence.
Then she said, “I am waiting for you to say something mean to me.”
Sam and I laughed, “No, we are just here to love you guys. I know it’s probably not fun for people to give you dirty looks and to be shouted at all day.”
Then from the other side of the group we heard, “If you are looking for a wife, she’s married.”
Quite a baffling statement to hear, but Sam and I started walking to the other end of the group, where we heard this voice. Though we were smiling and looking at these protesters in the eyes, they all looked understandably suspicious back at us.
“No sir, I’m not interested.” We positioned ourselves in front of an older gentleman.
“What are you doing here then?”
“We just wanted to love on you all and pray for you.”
As we got to know this man more, his walls started to lay down. We barely said much, just listened. He explained his view of life, heaven, and hell.
Later in the conversation, Sam asked the man, “Why do you focus so much on hell and punishment, and not the love of Christ?”
I’ll always remember his response, “This is loving for us. These nonbelievers are speeding toward hell, and we want to be the speed bump that warns them of the upcoming destruction.”
At the end, we got to pray with him for his protection and for Jesus to reveal to him the Truth of the Gospel. He was very appreciative, smiling, shaking our hands, and introducing us to their leader. I could feel the stares from the football fans passing as they walked toward the stadium. It felt like they were turning their noses up at these protesters and at us, for even talking to them. We looked like new followers, new recruits to hatred and the misunderstanding of God’s Word. Though by this point, we had crossed the “Oh no, what will people think?” threshold. We had already taken the leap of faith and God caught us. We just wanted to love like Jesus did, even to people who misrepresent Him.
Inspired by this event, Sam and I decided to find every “fire and brimstone” preacher around the stadium and pray for them. “Hi, I’m Taylor. This is my friend, Sam. May we pray for you? For protection, love, and truth.” Each one of them seemed unsure, but each one allowed us to pray for them. Some shook our hands and were grateful, and some not so much. I felt their hardened hearts didn’t want to trust anyone outside of their group. As we approached an older preacher, we saw something thrown at him. It was a purple smoke bomb that stained his pants. He was frustrated, but kept preaching his message. After we introduced ourselves and prayed, usually we would walk away. But this time, I felt God urging me to tell him something more. I lingered and then God gave me the word. “Don’t forget the love, man.” I said as I patted his shoulder. He looked at me with empty, sorrowful eyes and nodded his head looking down, “I know. I know.” He then continued his hell and hatred speech. It was heart-wrenching seeing people reject God’s love and focus only on His wrath. This was not the Good News that Jesus preached.
The game started and crowd either went inside to watch the game, or the bystanders hoping for a cheap ticket all went home. Sam and I felt we should leave too. We drove to my sister’s house and watched the rest of the game.
I don’t know what happened to those preachers. I wish I had received some of their information, so I could follow up with them on social media or email. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of them at the next Super Bowl with their groups. I know they are wrong in how they approach evangelism and their judgmental speeches about people they have never met. But I also know this, God loves them so much. God loves them just as much as He loves you and me.
God calls us to love and serve our neighbors, enemies, and even modern day Pharisees. In fact, when the Pharisee, Nicodemus talked to Jesus in John 3, Jesus showed him love and kindness. And from that conversation, we received one of the most famous quotes in all of the Bible, “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) This interaction with Jesus impacted Nicodemus deeply. We know this because later in the book of John, we see Nicodemus trying to save Jesus’ life and then helping bury Jesus after his death.
As author Bob Goff says, “Love everyone always.” So before you write off hate groups as hopeless and pathetic, remember Nicodemus. Remember how God saved another Pharisee named Saul and changed him to Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament. And remember that you, being a former enemy of God (Rom. 5:10, Col. 1:21), have been given much undeserved grace and love from that same God.
