“C” served in The Hallows Church in several capacities over the last few years including leading the Fremont Expression’s Prayer Team and serving as a Global Engagement Minister in Residence. Currently he and his new wife A are residing and serving in her hometown in Utah in preparation to move back overseas to share the hope of the gospel with an under-reached people group. In light of the current sermon series, we asked C to share about his faith story of taking the gospel in, thinking the gospel through, and then turning the gospel out. For security purposes their future work and names are omitted.
I began by considering the authority and infallibility of Scripture. That is, did God speak to His creation, and did He preserve it for us to read. I quickly realized that if I had unanswered questions about the authenticity, authority or infallibility of the Scriptures, then I knew that I would shrink-back into disbelief when things would get hard or when following Jesus wasn’t going to feel convenient. So I had to consider the magnitude of the claims of Scripture as God’s authoritative Word. Part of this journey of yielding to the authority of Scripture was asking hard questions and doing some independent research about the Bible, theology, and history.
Then I believe the gospel began to make roots in my life when I let my guard down enough to seriously consider the lifestyle of men in church who had bowed their knee and their entire life to King Jesus and His Word. This made me stop and want to consider their decision—men who made Jesus the boss of their hearts. Either I was going to believe it and surrender everything, or I was going to go another way. The combination of believing the authority and infallibility of Scripture along with the conviction I felt in my heart while I read it in addition to the transparency and authenticity of the men around me who claimed to follow Christ led to the former—I began to have an all-or-nothing attitude.
The written testimony of God, and the visible testimony of his Church, then, were the means by which the gospel began to take root in my life. My desire to “turn the gospel out” in my life began in an all-men’s small-group. God used a few men I hardly knew to show me my absolute need for the gospel using the Bible. After sharing about my life-story and hearing about theirs, I endured some very uncomfortable conversations—mostly uncomfortable because no one had pointed out my pride and rebellion so seriously and blatantly before—and I left a changed man. I wanted to introduce everyone to the Jesus and the gospel that changed my life. Mentorship and learning-by-seeing were a gust of ‘wind-in-my-sails’ toward pursuing the lost, hurting and proud.
If you have questions about the Bible, how the gospel can redeem and transform all of life, or would simply like to work out your faith in gospel-saturated relationships, contact info@hallowschurch.org to be connected with a small group community (Missional Community), DNA (same gender cluster focused on discipleship, nurturing, and accountability), or a pastor for conversation.