Why did you wait so long?
Looking back at General Assembly, I have to admit one of the highlights was the brief sharing times of things God was doing locally and internationally. One of them really shook me and some friends I was sitting with.
It was the testimony from a young evangelist from a Muslim background and was introduced to Assembly on the final night by M, one of our ECD international workers. Together they are reaching people in places where politicians, diplomats and CNN would convince you: “that’s impossible”.
He shared his stirring life story of God’s saving power, and he concluded in a loud voice, almost crying in desperation: “But I have just one more thing to tell you church in Canada; why 20 years? Why did I have to wait 20 years for someone to come and tell me and my family about Jesus? Now there’s a whole generation of people with hate in their hearts. Why?”
Boom. It just hung in the air for awhile. It was near the beginning of our final commissioning rally, but we could have ended it right there. His cry touched something vital that we all share as C&MA people – despite our many-layered diversity.
One of our younger leaders felt this too (Trina Pinzon, youth leader at an Ottawa church) and she wrote me about how General Assembly “… fuelled my passion to be committed to and for the gospel as Paul did. I want to know more and experience the Jesus that Paul knew in a deep true way that he was able to say as in Philippians 1:21 “for me, to live is Christ and to do is gain…. The image that remains in my mind until today is the [testimony mentioned already] guy who grew up in the refugee camp and at the age of 20 encountered Jesus and has then been living for Christ…..he is living Philippians 1:21”
How quickly we can be moved by a “clear and compelling” call. That gives me hope. I personally believe that our C&MA churches are still moved by a God-inspired, simple reminder that the gospel is the remedy for the deepest wounds of the world in which we live, and the church is God’s chosen instrument to apply that remedy. When we are confident, full of faith about that, bold to speak and act in our Globe and Mail world, well….what then?!
ECD Faces - Ready for the Future?
And my hope and prayer is that the next wave of leaders joining our ranks in the ECD — like Trina — have that deep certainty that the gospel “is the power of God at work” that was so evident in cry of the young Silk Road evangelist. There people like him wondering:
“Why are you waiting so long?“