So last night my friends and I watched the movie “Holy Ghost: Reborn” that just came out. It was excellent! But it was interesting to me that people are making documentaries that are extremely successful over things that my friends and I do every week. I didn’t see one thing happen in that movie that we don’t regularly do with IIID PULSE. It was the same simple plans, simple prayers, a lot of boldness, and life changing results that we’ve come to expect every week with Pulse. It’s simply living like a Christian and doing what the Bible tells us to do. When you read the Bible and stories of the early church this kind of behavior was the everyday norm. Yet it is so foreign to modern “Christianity” that when someone actually does it they make a documentary about it and it takes the church world by storm. In some ways that is sad, yet in another way it is beautiful that these documentaries are providing a much needed awakening.
One thing I love so much about these movies is that it makes outreach so simple. In most churches the idea of outreach is that you hire an outreach coordinator, that coordinator spends big money to rent venues, hire bands, hire guest speakers, sound men, PA Systems, a service coordinator, etc, etc, and in the end you get a bunch of fellow church people to come to your event and maybe add a few new families to your church. That’s nice and all, but it can’t compare to the raw, SIMPLE passion displayed in these movies. You don’t need a budget, you don’t need a complex plan, and you don’t need a crazy amount of resources. Just be like Todd White and walk into the middle of an escalating riot, grab the nearest megaphone and start praying over the crowd. Or head downtown, lay out some blankets, pull out your acoustic guitar and have some praise and worship while you feed the homeless, prostitutes, and drug addicts. Or be like the African guy that just walked into a nearby village, asked where the local witch doctor was, pray over her sickness, get her healed and saved, and then have her burn all her witch doctor stuff. None of those guys had any major money or plans before they started ministering. They just found people and shared the gospel, and to watch it happen is inspiring, moving, and powerfully life-changing.
Unfortunately some of my heroes that first inspired me to do outreach like Jerred Kubalek with Search and Rescue Ministries, or Scott N Sarah Mac with Provision International, don’t get the proper recognition or appreciation for reaching out to the broken and forgotten people of the world. They should be the ones you’re watching on TV. True outreach is often a thankless devotion, and there have been times in my 4 1/2 years of leading Pulse that I have wanted to quit, felt ignored or forgotten, but then I see a life transformed and I’m reminded why I do what I do. I may not pastor a mega church (or any church for that matter), I may not have a television or radio program, people don’t know my name, and I don’t even get paid. I couldn’t support a wife or family doing the ministry that I do right now. HOWEVER, I am consistently reminded that Jesus is focused on the “Todd Whites” of the world, the Jerred Kubaleks and Scott Macleods that have chosen not to use Christianity to bring fame to their own name, but have humbly poured out their lives to make the name of Jesus famous. If I could be counted among them then that would be the highest of honors. I can tell you that the future of Christianity doesn’t belong to the stage, but it belongs to the burning ones preaching in subways, street corners, and the darkest places of our world. THAT is where you are going to see the raw, undeniable, life transforming power of the gospel in it’s greatest power. THAT is going to be what sweeps this world up in a great revival that turns this world upside down. So proud of all my Pulsers, and people everywhere that have chosen to join the brave and courageous ranks of those on the front lines of evangelism and outreach! The future belongs to you!
Living to touch God’s heart,
Chris Ulery
Divine-Romance.com
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