This week I went downtown with our small group to “Reach Beyond” the doors of the church out into the community. We passed out free water bottles and gave invite cards to people. There’s a couple things I learned about this outreach.
1. Miami people are naturally very skeptical and distrustful.
2. Downtown is ridiculously diverse. Like crazy. like miami isdiverse.com/downtown/sick.jpeg
3. People in of walks of life want, crave peace, understanding, purpose.
4. I need to memorize tons of scripture.
Let me delve into one of these. I met a drug dealer when I handed out the water bottle. Great guy, charming, friendly, I mean he’s from Hawaii so what do you expect? He told me that he had been married for 15 years and that those years had been the best in his life. He said that he went to church, that everything was awesome during that time BUT, that he also was very tempted with money and power throughout his life. He told me “the thing is, the bad things also feel so good man.” Anyways he decided to sell drugs to make some good money, to have a cool life, and in the middle of one of his crazy stories I realized that they were actually very interesting, fun, some would say. I could see how a man could be attracted to those things, to that life, to the allure and the thrill. I could see how I would be attraacted to the “fun” of it. It reminded me of what Pastor Blackwood from our church said in one of the sermons in our last series. He said, “you know what the biggest lie that the devil has? It’s simply this. Christians can’t have fun.” Should I say more?
And there, you see, I saw a man consumed by sin, drenched in the guilt of what he did to his family, discouraged because he doesn’t believe God can change him, a man that believes “its only downhill from here…” he actually goes to the 8:45 service at what used to be Central Baptist Church. He said he’d go check CF Downtown now… I pray God would use us to help him.
Reach Beyond is cool
