Recently while working at Great Awakenings I met a young man who lives a couple doors down from the coffee shop and who attends the local high school.
This seventeen year old came into the shop one night wearing a sleeveless t-shirt. This provided a good view of the ink he has tatted up and down his arms. What particularly caught my eye was a portrait of Jesus on his shoulder. I told him that I liked his tattoo and he went on to explain his complete collage. One arm showed the figures of Jesus, a cross, the name 'saint', and as he turned, the other arm showed fire, skulls, an upside down cross and the name 'sinner'. He mentioned that he feels like he is inwardly living a war between good and evil.
He mentioned that he is a believer in Christ but he feels like the flesh is always at work. For instance he mentioned that the group of guys he hangs out with isn't the best influence but he enjoys occasionally smoking pot with them.
I deeply appreciated his honesty and I assumed if he was honest about smoking pot, then he would probably be honest about answering a question. I asked him, "How could a new church meet the needs of this community?". He quickly responded, "Well, I don't think anyone would come... NO ONE will come.". I asked, "Why not?" and he quickly noted the hard realities of the neighborhood and in the turn of a sentence he had redirected the conversation right back to his tattoos. He said that the religious in the community talk down on him by saying that he is ruining the temple of God by tattooing his arms. Suddenly I began to understand what he was really saying. He wasn't saying that people wouldn't come to church because they are opposed to it. What he was saying is that the church is opposed to having them as a part of it. Therefore church is not for them.
My heart broke for this young man. I tried my best to show him that God is interested fundamentally with one's heart (Mark 7). The basis of our goodness is not dependent upon an ink free body. The basis of our goodness comes freely by faith from the bruised and broken body of our Lord Jesus Christ who embraced the penalty of our sin and claimed victory over its sting in his glorious resurrection.
I assured this young man that I appreciated the outward expression of his inward struggle. Then I joked with him about how Christ will come back some day with a tattoo of his own. Revelations 19:16 "On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. "
Pray for this young man. My prayer is that he will come to know the grace of Jesus in fuller measure and that his identity in Christ might be lived out and matured in a local gathering of believers... and perhaps that God would have him become a part of a potential church plant in the near future.
Gospel Opportunities
While living in Philadelphia I have had the opportunity to work for a couple who are dear friends from church. They own a coffee shop called Great Awakenings Cafe. It is located in the Frankford/Northwood section of Northeast Philadelphia. My time in the shop has been quite strategic because this is the area where we hope to plant a church upon our return from Sovereign Grace's Pastor's College.
The coffee shop has become a place where conversations quickly turn into friendships. Again and again there has been opportunity to befriend those from the neighborhood and learn of their stories. It doesn't take much small talk before you are listening to the vingettes that have defining significance upon their lives.
The small talk usually invovles particular interests or disinterests. There is an ajoining list of reasons for their given tasts and plenty of dogmatism to go with it. This is where you come to realize that people are meaning-makers. They search and search for answers and finally entrench themselves in some particular theory. They are attempting to make sense of this world in which they find themselves. They are searching for an anchor for their souls.
The small talk eventually progresses into more personal details. You eventually get an idea of their upbringing and of the situations that most define how they view themselves and their world. Most of these conversations lose their volume when others enter the shop. These are the vulnerable moments of one's story; broken homes, broken marriages, absent parents, sexual and physical abuse, drug addiction, prostitution etc. As a listener it doesn't take long to feel what Christ felt in Matthew 9:36-37. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'"
What a privelege - to graphically see ourselves and this world for what it is - broken! And then to ponder our suffering Servant who came to us and took upon himself our stains and our brokenness. In perfect obedience he fully absorbed our just wrath. And now by grace through faith we become apart of his story. His accomplishment becomes our defining significance. We no longer remain in our guilt and shame for he has come near and made us new creatures in Christ Jesus whereby we now have full access to the Father and peace in the Spirit. We have an anchor for our souls!
These coffee-shop-moments are amazing gospel opportunities. What a glorious message to proclaim to the souls that are captive, blind and oppressed (Luke 4:18). Jesus Christ has come to set them free and his Spirit is powerful to do so for he has done it for us!
In the next posts, I hope to give you some stories of individuals whom I have been so blessed to meet at the shop. I will ask that you would pray for God to bring new life to the lost and potentially a new local church to this community.
The coffee shop has become a place where conversations quickly turn into friendships. Again and again there has been opportunity to befriend those from the neighborhood and learn of their stories. It doesn't take much small talk before you are listening to the vingettes that have defining significance upon their lives.
The small talk usually invovles particular interests or disinterests. There is an ajoining list of reasons for their given tasts and plenty of dogmatism to go with it. This is where you come to realize that people are meaning-makers. They search and search for answers and finally entrench themselves in some particular theory. They are attempting to make sense of this world in which they find themselves. They are searching for an anchor for their souls.
The small talk eventually progresses into more personal details. You eventually get an idea of their upbringing and of the situations that most define how they view themselves and their world. Most of these conversations lose their volume when others enter the shop. These are the vulnerable moments of one's story; broken homes, broken marriages, absent parents, sexual and physical abuse, drug addiction, prostitution etc. As a listener it doesn't take long to feel what Christ felt in Matthew 9:36-37. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'"
What a privelege - to graphically see ourselves and this world for what it is - broken! And then to ponder our suffering Servant who came to us and took upon himself our stains and our brokenness. In perfect obedience he fully absorbed our just wrath. And now by grace through faith we become apart of his story. His accomplishment becomes our defining significance. We no longer remain in our guilt and shame for he has come near and made us new creatures in Christ Jesus whereby we now have full access to the Father and peace in the Spirit. We have an anchor for our souls!
These coffee-shop-moments are amazing gospel opportunities. What a glorious message to proclaim to the souls that are captive, blind and oppressed (Luke 4:18). Jesus Christ has come to set them free and his Spirit is powerful to do so for he has done it for us!
In the next posts, I hope to give you some stories of individuals whom I have been so blessed to meet at the shop. I will ask that you would pray for God to bring new life to the lost and potentially a new local church to this community.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)