Background
As a child I attended church from a main line denomination. The church services revolved around a liturgy with formal rituals. The pure gospel of salvation was never preached. I never heard a salvation testimony of a church member. I later leaned that rebirth was foreign to their theology.
During my teen years my parents stopped going to church and so did I. It seemed like a fancy social club with religious overtones. It had nothing to do with the real God or genuine spirituality.
Note that I was a teen during the 1960s. It was not glamorous like much of the propaganda of that era. Those were confusing times. I spoke at length with my classmates and playmates abut God. They attended church. But they did not have a salvation testimony. They did not speak to me from the Bible. They were clueless about the basics of apologetics.
When I went to college I got drunk twice a month. I became promiscuous. I experimented with drugs. This was like most of my classmates. Also I attended the campus ministries of three major denominations several times each. Again I never heard the simple gospel or a salvation testimony. In my whole life time I had not heard one testimony of answered prayer that had to be God.
Into this spiritual vacuum came a cult named Arica. They had a mixture of all kinds of beliefs and practices thatare now called New Age. This was LONG before the practices and philosophies of New Age became so popular. I took training to become a teacher for them. As part of the culture of that cult my promiscuity and drug abuse increased.
I would call my mother when high on drugs. My speech was noticeably different. She asked if I was using drugs and I admitted it. She became very concerned. She prayed and asked all her friends to ask all their friends to pray. For months there were intercessors all over the country praying for me. God supernaturally took away the desire to use drugs. Then Jesus delivered me from that cult. Within months I moved back home with my mother.
God made a way for me to receive my drug rehab with a community of very loving Christians. However yet again these precious people did not say anything about the need to be born again. They did not know any better. These liberals were never told the truth of how to become reconciled to God through His Son Jesus.
After a year and a half of rehab in an intense community setting; God moved me into an apartment on my own. I missed the beautiful music of the church. So I listened to hundreds of hours of Christian radio. The teaching, preaching and singing was used by God to draw me to Himself. At LONG last I FINALLY heard the old time religion preachers open up the Bible and present the pure gospel. THANK God for such messengers as J. Vernon Mc Gee, Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham. It took a long time for me to unlearn the religious teachings that I had heard all my life. For example, I had the knowledge of the events of the Easter story but I did not understand what that had to do with my relationship with God.
There was a radio show named Unshackled that used the old radio drama style to recreate the real life testimonies of how God had changed lives. www.unshackled.org. God used those stories as solid evidence that the sermons, Bible teachings and beautiful song lyrics were more than just religious theories.
I was born again on January 16,1977 at 23 years old. I will later provide an audio message about that experience and more details about these other episodes.
I was very fortunate to be the member of a very missions oriented church when I was a new believer. The pastor has been a crusade evangelist all over the world. There were various residences on the huge church grounds for missionaries to stay on furlough for days, weeks or months. Each month we heard testimonies of how God was moving mightily on the mission field. It was normal to pray for the nations. It was normal to be challenged to give sacrificially for missions. There were frequent altar calls to surrender to go into missions. I went forward dozens of times. I met and prayed with the mission pastor in his office many times.
Wilderness
Then there was about 20 years in the spiritual wilderness that I will describe on audio messages later.
Origin
The origin of this ministry was hearing the amazing testimony of answered prayers back in about 1997. For months I had heard brief references that God had moved in a mighty way in the life of a new friend at church. But there never was enough time to hear the full story.
Finally after a big party I was one of the last ones to leave plus two couples. Around the kitchen table I finally heard the full story from the beginning to the end. There was a series of major life changing events that occurred over the course of a few years. Each one had to be from God and together it was awe-inspiring. Many people had been praying for years and then God showed up in a BIG way.
Mostly this dealt with a woman. Plus it was wonderful to also hear her husband’s perspective at the key turning points. He was one of the main intercessors. The other couple at the kitchen table was their close friends. And at the end they said that there were many things they had never heard.
Immediately afterward I strongly recommended that this woman make an audiotape and pass it out to others for free. That would glorify God and bless those who heard. She seemed reluctant. For months I kept asking her to do that. Yet it never happened.
Growth of the ministry in me
I tend to gravitate to the intercessors in any church or other Christian gathering. I have heard of many other answered prayers over the years. But the one mentioned before was the kind you would read in a book.
This peaked my interest and I began to wonder what other stories about the goodness and faithfulness of God are right here in our midst. I did not set out on a serious research project. I just began to ask questions in that direction and listen more carefully. At that time I was a member of a mega-church and I was delighted to discover that there were various testimonies that the members never had an opportunity to share. Each one was not enough to fill a book. But they could have made a worthwhile magazine article or short audio testimony. These were ordinary people that had an encounter with the God of the Bible in their time of need. Jesus Christ had kept His promises and they were thankful. But there was no way to effectively share with other busy people.
In any church there are only so many minutes during the church service or Sunday school class. It would be very unusual to pass the mike around each week to allow everyone to testify. But I know a small and large church that does just that.
Unfortunately due to our super busy life styles there is rarely much time to connect one-on-one or in a small group. For example people do not casually chat on the front porch or over the back yard fence like they did generations ago. Our lives are scheduled to the max.
Bible
I began to do a word study in the Bible on testimony and testify. I also considered where the concept was used without necessarily the terms. I have a HUGE file from these studies. I developed many teaching modules about why and how to testify. It became apparent that God wants us to testify. Yet we lack the skills, practice or opportunities.
Missions
One of the few times that preparing a testimony occurs is when people prepare for a short-term missions trip. Often they are required to prepare a brief testimony of their salvation. Most people have never done this and rarely use it afterward. There is a valid place to tell those outside of Christ about how He accepted me just as I was. I was born again by grace alone through faith alone. And now I have peace with God.
Many times I have I talked with a person immediately after they returned from a short-term mission trip. WOW for a few days they are brimming over with exciting news about what God did through their team and the great needs that remain.
Over and over I have asked them to make a tape to share with others. I have offered to put their report on the web for free. Sadly that has NEVER happened. Within a week or two they have gotten back into their fast paced routines. The sizzle in their voice has dissolved. Within a month or two the details of what happened and their compassion for those overseas has begun to be forgotten.
Interviewing
At some point I began to recognize that people were delighted to tell me all about the mission trip. I was asking open-ended questions. I was genuinely interested in hearing ALL about what happened. I was NOT in a rush to go ANYWHERE else. For me hearing their report about what Jesus Christ is doing on the mission field was a TOP priority. Therefore they opened up to me. God used me to draw them out.
There have been many times that people have told me that what they had told me they had never told others. That included their family members and closest friends. SO I came to appreciate that God was using my heart for missions and active listening skills in a special combination.
Some have told me that it would be difficult if not impossible to tell the same story to a tape recorder all alone. For them the machine is too cold and impersonal. I have made hundreds of hours of audio journal tapes. I guess that I foolishly expected that they could just hit the record button, imagine a receptive person and open their heart.
My conclusion is that most people need an audience. It can be one person or a small group. God can use me as the audience of one. Recently I have purchased a device that will allow me to record conversations over the phone. Therefore I can conduct interviews from my home. A short time ago I heard the testimonies of a dear friend in Scotland. Thankfully I know missionaries scattered all over the planet.
Last week I read a lovely email testimony by a sister in Christ that had been comforted by the Holy Spirit during two very difficult seasons of grief.
I expect that during the coming months and years God will use my home phone to interview all kinds of people both locally and globally.
Testifying to fellow believers is very important. When a person tells of how God answered their prayers it inspires, encourages and challenges.
Technology
I became increasingly convinced that it was God’s will for me to create a way to connect those who had testimonies to share with those who wanted to hear. I invested many hours praying and planning. I told others of what God was growing in my heart and mind. I asked them to pray
At first the concept for the ministry revolved around cassette tapes. My initial vision was to invite people to make audiotapes and duplicate them using my equipment. I would charge them my cost so they could afford to give them away for free. Then I would have a written agreement that said I could sell them and mail them as part of the growing ministry. That never got off the ground.
My life took several turns and twists. Then I became very aware that the students at the seminary where I worked. They are there to study for the ministry. That means reading thousands of pages of books and writing hundreds of pages of pages. Also there are lots of lectures and various group projects. But there is a severe shortage of opportunities for them to practice teaching or preaching. In Dallas Texas there is a surplus of seminary and Bible college students. So the local churches could never provide plenty of opportunities for them to practice the speaking skills related to their calling.
The technology related to Compact Disks kept improving. My attention shifted from cassette tapes to CDs. One CD could contain a whole shelf of books, tapes and multi media presentations.. This could include audio, text files and Power Point slide shows. It would be easy to reproduce and mail. Again I told people and asked for prayers. I made many plans and preparation. That never got off the ground.
Then with each passing year the Internet became easier and cheaper to use. I have created a dozen web sites and twice that many blogs. I have invested hundreds of hours into prayer, planning and preparing to launch a web-based ministry. The costs of on-going operations for a web site are tiny contrasted with a church, radio station or store. The current potential audience is vast. Every year more people use the web all over the globe. Children are required to use the Internet for homework. Thus they will grow up far more web-savvy than their parents. It is essential to harness this communication technology to reach the youth, future generations and the nations.
The potential for evangelism, discipleship and benevolence over the web has barely been used. This medium can effectively bring together people, resources and opportunities like none other. Business and entertainment have led the way. With few exceptions the church is lagging far behind the curve.
For many months I planned and prepared to launch a ministry named Ears to Hear. The unique part of it was that there would be hundreds of three-minute messages. You can go to the Links page to access many of those notes.
Over and over there were technical challenges to get the audio over the web. Many other ministries and secular companies are doing it. But the ducks would just not all line up for me.
Our Metroplex Vision
On my 51st birthday April 23,2004 the papers for the nonprofit corporation named Our Metroplex Vision was registered with the state of Texas. There is a LONG story about that name and the long-term vision for the ministry. I will share those later.
The fund raising goal to launch that ministry in a very professional way was and still is 40 thousand dollars. However there have been obstacles in achieving that goal.
After various distractions and much prayer it seemed wisest to begin with Ears to Hear. This is a way to begin where I am with what I have and demonstrate a sample of the potential. From this prototype will come prayers, loyal listeners and donors.
GO TO the Vision page to learn of the hope for the future.
