Be a Sermon: My African American History Moment

Chris Green, PA Dept of Education

Today, I was asked to MC the African American History Month Luncheon Celebration for the PA Dept of Education. Due to the weather, none of the guest, including the keynote speaker, was able to make it. Soooooo, I was asked to fill in and give some remarks....

...It's funny how God will set you up for those Once-In-A-Lifetime-moments.... I'm sitting at home in a snow storm one day. I'm standing in front of my peers at a podium the next day. Boy, I sure didn't see that coming.

Well, I MC'd the event from start to finish: Trivia questions: I introduced the Secretary of Education who greeted everyone and gave a short speech; I read the Governor's official proclamation and played a special video clip. Then came the moment to give the closing remarks.

I thanked the Secretary and the Executive Deputy Secretary for the opportunity to work for the Department. I cited Dr. King's "dream" speech and thanked them for hiring me based upon the content of my character and for not judging me based on the color of my skin.

I explained that Faith is always a part of the African American celebration because even though there is discussion about the separation of Church and State, there is no separation between FAITH and State.

I gave a brief history of my ancestry (which included the founding of a school in Mississippi) and said our faith brought us through and that is what was instilled in me... to be a person of character and faith. When I was hired by the Dept of Education to work in the press office, they were not only looking for a person of skill and education, but they were looking for a man of character.

I almost got choked up and emotional as I looked around the room and expressed my gratitude for getting to know many of the people as friends and colleagues. I told them that this has been one of the best experiences of my life, to get to know and work with them. I received a very nice ovation.

Afterwards, there were several compliments and even a hug. A couple of emails of thanks came later on in the day. This was one of those special moments, set up by GOD. For 4 years I've just gone to work and tried to be an example as a husband, father, co-worker and friend. I never tried to be PASTOR Chris. Then in one day, I was given an opportunity to share my heart with the people on my job. I'm still amazed.

If God sent us to Harrisburg to simply live the life, then we could pack up and leave tomorrow, and we would feel totally fulfilled and at peace. We would know that we didn't fail in Harrisburg.

Today showed me that it has never been about becoming the pastor of a church, but about bringing the life of Christ into the real world. Anybody can preach a sermon, but it's far more important to BE A SERMON.

Closure

Yesterday we got together with Dave and Geri Parker. As a background reference, they are the special people we are connected to at the Worship Center in Lancaster, PA.

How wonderful it is to talk to people who understand and know what you’re going through. From ministry to parenting, they knew what we were talking about.

In so many ways, they related to our feelings and frustrations. This was indeed a great moment of settling some issues in my heart and mind.

As we sat and talked at the restaurant table, I was reflecting back on our first years in Harrisburg when “mom” as we like to call her said to me, “It was not a mistake and it was not a failure. You had to find out and see what would not work here.”

All I could was just say, “Yes, ma’am…you’re right. I receive that.”

With just those few words of encouragement, the past two years of feeling like a failure and fraud, were wiped away. It was like the final page of a chapter in a book was turned for me. I cannot put it in words right now, which is unusual, but it was as if though God used her to turn the page for me. I had become so trapped by the outcome of all that happened, that deep inside, that page of the story was still open.

Even though a lot more has been written, and a lot more has been said and done since that time, it’s been like having a bookmark set in that one place, so that every time I come to the book, the story always opens up to that page.

God used mom Geri to remove the bookmark and turn the page. That chapter is closed. I told her, Carol has always told me the same thing to which she said, “God has sent confirmation.” Then Dave told me a couple of stories of his own both concluding with, “lesson learned.”

I feel like I’ve been set free from a heavy steel ball that had been chained to my leg. Over the past few months, some of my blogs have been filled with venting, ranting and crying. It was basically because this page had never been turned.

God is doing something special in Fruitful Life right now. Carol and I are ministering to an expressed need in this community. People are actually asking for help regarding relationships and marriage. When it happened and we realized God had literally placed a legitimate ministry in our hands, it was like the V-8 commercial where the person is popped on the head because they should have realized what was available to them.

For us, this is our "aha" moment. But before I could venture too far down that path, Dave told me, “But you weren’t ready to receive this ministry at that time.” And he was so right. I was so focused on ministering to the community from the church and the pulpit that I was not ready to address the real need that God was going to bring before Carol and me.

So God took us totally out of the church world, gave us secular jobs, and let us live a typical life and lifestyle of a citizen of Pennsylvania. He let us experience their frustrations, disappointments and pain.

After we came to KNOW AND UNDERSTAND, God released people to come and receive what He has for them, through us.

Everything is new. Everything is fresh. I’m writing again and the text is flowing like never before. I’m literally writing four books at the same time. There is not as much music coming, as in times past. I feel some songs stirring within me, but they will come forth as we get into the flow of ministering to those that come on our Friday night sessions. O’ how we look forward to that.

Carol and I are video taping teaching sessions and re-writing materials. All I can say is that by the grace of God, “WE’RE BACK!”

God has just been so faithful to us. Everything is not what we’d like to be, but we’re so thankful that it’s not what it used to be and certainly not as bad as it could be.

In every way, we can just sense that the new thing has already begun. Our main focus is to stay in the place of rest. God is doing this, so we’re just staying out of His way. As mom Geri told us yesterday, we just need to be available to Him.
She said, “Now God has your ear.”

When she said it I thought to myself, “You got that right, mom. I don’t want to make a move unless I hear from Him.” Then I also thought about making sure I don’t get too busy. Even though we’re writing, and teaching, the point is for us to stay open and available to the Lord. We have to minister from hearts and lives that are connected to a fresh resource and supply of His spirit.

I just thank God for yesterday. It was such a closure that when I woke up this morning, it was the beginning of not just a whole new chapter, but a whole new story. This is the beginning of a new book in this on going journey with the Lord.

Standing In The River

Sunday night, my mother called me from St. Louis to share a dream that the Lord gave her about us. She told me that in the dream, Carol and I were leading a small group of people through a heavy, thick forest or jungle type area.

She said we led them to the bank of a river and I told everyone that we were going to cross the river and get to the other side. She said Carol and I went out into the river and stood in waist deep water and kept encouraging everyone to come on and cross the river.

Two things stood out to her in the dream: First, the water was very clear. It was so clear that she could see our feet on the floor of the river. Secondly, we stayed in the river until we were able to get everyone across. There were some who were very hesitant to cross, but we kept encouraging them until they all made it.

When she woke up from the dream she said the Lord brought to her remembrance the story of Israel, crossing the Jordan River to come into the land of promise. She said the Lord made her to know that we were in Harrisburg to bring this group of people out of bondage and into the land of promise, more specifically, into their deliverance.

She wanted to know if I thought the dream represented a literal or a spiritual land of promise, and if this was our true assignment in Harrisburg, to lead this small group of people out of the bondage they were in. She said she did not recognize the faces of the people. She only knew that she had never seen them before.

I cannot answer the questions that she asked because I honestly don’t know. I only know that what God showed her was very accurate.  We do indeed, lead small groups of people and I know we are standing in the middle of the flow of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. We are trying to live what we are teaching, so that we are presenting more than lip service, but a life service.

We are no longer assuming that we were sent to build and establish a church here. What I mean by this is: I believe God sent us to Harrisburg to build people, not to build a ministry. The best part is that I'm at peace with that. We just know that we are to stand in the river and lead small groups of people out of the jungle they are familiar with, and to cross over into the land of promise.

Mom wanted to know if we are going to return to St. Louis one day. Again, I don’t know what the future holds. God’s reason for sending us to Harrisburg, PA has been manifold and a big part seems to have more to do with our personal restoration, family reconciliation and emotional healing, than anything else.

We recall that GOD called us catalyst for this community. I know from my studies in chemistry that catalysts don't always become part of the reaction that they cause. The catalyst can start a reaction, and yet not become part of the substance. I see and understand, now, that it is possible that that's all we were sent to Harrisburg to do, as far as reaching the community goes. I’m beginning to accept that possibility.

Right now, I can’t concentrate on all of those questions and scenarios. I’m just concerned about getting this first precious group of people to cross the river and come into God’s purpose for their lives.

After we complete that assignment, I don't know what comes next for us.

A Fresh Start and A Second Chance

A lot has happened since my last entry. There's lots of pain and loss as well as some victories in between and I won't go into all of that here. Maybe I'll put in the next book that I write which will be an expanded version of chapter 9 of the my current book titled What Now?

Chapter nine deals with repairing broken places in our lives and in our hearts. In our first few months of establishing a new ministry here in Pennsylvania, a whole lot of my broken places came to the surface. One of the local pastors who befriended me told me that the first five years of their church were for him. He said the first years of a church are all about the forming and shaping of the senior pastor. He added that the people who stick with him while he's going through his process, those are his leaders. "The ones who can't go through it with you," he told me, "they are not supposed to be with you."

I learned that lesson the hard way. I discovered that I still had not gotten over the abuse we took from many people, as associate pastors. There were many years of taking blows from people in the congregation. I buried it deep inside, but when we started the work that God sent us out to do, I unleashed a lot of that anger and frustration.

Our sons and daughters who followed us here to try to help us had all been abused by leaders in their lives. So when leaders who had been abused by people tried to work with people who had been abused by leaders, all our broken places came out!

I trust that one day we will be able to reconcile. God has done a lot to heal us and restore us since that season. We are now just "regular people" working "regular jobs" and ministering to a small group of people every Friday night out of our life and marriage. GOD has caused us to prosper and excel here. I'm working in my profession of communications. Carol is working in her area of skill also. Our income is good and solid. We are connected with a good church and pastor and our children, now, have friends and young people they can connect with. Our home is, again, filled with teenagers on the weekends. It hasn't been like this, for us, for a very long time.

I pray that all goes well for everyone that had to leave us, as well. Even though we HAD to part ways because we were all still dealing with the wounds of the past, I pray that they receive the kind of healing God is giving us. We will not be able to fulfill what GOD sent us here to do without this healing.

I see that the true lesson in all of this is forgiveness. If you don't forgive the ones who hurt you, you will, one day, hurt the ones who trully love you. We all did that to one another.

I thank God for a fresh start and a second chance!

And, So It Begins

Well, we've finally landed in Harrisburg, PA. After the most overwhelming display of support and help that I have ever witnessed, much less ever received, we were all packed up and ready when the moving company arrived on Thursday morning July 8th at 8:00am. It took them about six hours to pack it all up and the driver told us that he'd see us again on Tuesday morning, July 13th in Harrisburg.

We left St. Louis with a 5'X 8' U-Haul trailer in tow with the things we would need until our clothes and furniture arrived. Corn and Connie Robinson stopped by for one more bit of help. Pastor Ray and Brenda and their family along with Dad Green and my younger brother, Jonny gave us the final send off with a family prayer.

I did a final memory lane slow walk through of the entire house (pictured above), our home for ten years, before heading out the front door and locking the door for the last time. Ariel drove up in a big rush to say good-bye. She hugged us and her cousins. Jonny, with a very tearful good bye, hugged us and drove off so that he didn't have to see us driving away.

Finally we were on the road and heading east on I-70. We drove all night and arrived in Harrisburg and at our new home at exactly the appointed time to meet with our real estate agent. (9:00am EST)

She brought us doughnuts and juice to get our day started. We did a walk through of our new home and drove to the Title company to sign the official paperwork. After that, we went to see Carol's mother at her job and surprised her with flowers and the announcement that we had just moved officially. She proudly introduced her daughter and her family to everyone around us.

We spent the day unpacking, buying food for the weekend, and walking around in amazement at how smoothly God was making this transition.

There is still so much to tell and I can't put it all here so I'll post it in on the Fruitful Life Prayer Network. Once again we want to express our appreciation for everyone's help. You all went over and above the call of duty. We were blown away at the Appreciation Service. We were blown away by all the people who came to help us pack. We could not have made our dead lines without your help.

So to all of Metro Christian Worship Center in St. Louis, MO : THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!