Pastors/Elders who are humble and teachable
I have an admonition for you. If someone in your congregation has been awakened to the abortion holocaust and is being led of the Lord to start ministering at a local abortion mill, here are a few suggestions I have for you. Assuming they have approached you, and made this known…
1. Sit down with that individual and patiently listen to them explain why they are being led to the abortion mill to minister. Let them do 75% of the talking. Listen to their heart and convictions. Take all the materials they will likely present to you, and check out the resources they have discovered.
2. They will likely be overzealous and make mistakes. Relax. Would you rather have a zealous Christian who does dumb things at times in your church, for the Kingdom of God, or a “frozen chosen pew sitter” who hasn’t moved a finger for the Kingdom since Ronald Reagan’s administration? Do not quench their zeal. Heed J.C. Ryle’s advice when dealing with zealous Christians, “Zeal may make mistakes. Zeal may need directing. Zeal may need guiding, controlling, and advising. Like the elephants on ancient fields of battle — it may sometimes do injury to its own side. But zeal does not need damping in a wretched, cold, corrupt, miserable world like this! Zeal, like John Knox pulling down the Scotch monasteries, may hurt the feelings of narrow-minded and sleepy Christians. It may offend the prejudices of those old-fashioned religionists who hate everything new, and (like those who wanted soldiers and sailors to go on wearing pigtails) abhor all change. But zeal in the end will be justified by its results. Zeal, like John Knox, in the long run of life — will do infinitely more good than harm.”
3. Help “fan the flame” of God’s work in their heart, by adding them to the church prayer list, supporting them financially (buy their signs, tracts, megaphones), encouraging the congregation to support the ministry in some fashion. Pretty much what you likely do with every other “outreach ministry” in your church.
4. Join them in the battle. Not just spiritually, by interceding and praying for them, but physically, ministering with them side by side on occasion. Even if you can only join them “monthly” it will mean a lot to them.
5. Be open to repenting of your apathy. Are you humble? Are you teachable? Do not be intimidated, if God raises up individuals in your church, who start doing “difficult” ministry work, you should’ve been involved in during the duration of your ministry, in some capacity! Whether that’s open-air preaching, door-to-door evangelism, abortion mill ministry, etc..Let their example “provoke you to good works” and if you’ve been apathetic “doing the work of an evangelist” REPENT and start “producing fruits of repentance.”
My heart breaks, over the dozens of individuals I’ve seen raised up in the Indiana Abolitionist movement the past three years, who start ministering at the abortion mills, only to have their pastors/elders pretty much ignore them, and seem in-different to the plight of preborn babies in our nation. This is crazy to me, because the individuals who minister at the abortion mills, put their physical lives in danger while they endure persecution for righteousness sake, and are going to experience greater spiritual warfare in their lives. Yet, most of their pastors/elders remain apathetic and actively choose to not support their calling from God! This is a repeated theme I hear over and over!
