Dear Friends,
The below podcast is a modest, anecdotal offering, but one that I hope is encouraging to you. It is brief, while my introductory greeting is longer than usual.
Over the past two weeks, “a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum,” or, in this case, “a delightfully surprising thing happened as I was writing our new podcast—Rolling for Jesus. In specific, I am referencing the unusually high numbers for our last podcast of May 28—Celebrating Perversity. Currently, they are: 328 views (readers), 829 podcast downloads (listeners), for a total of 1,157 readers and listeners, which represent 37 countries, the latest 1% coming from Turkey. Welcome friend, whoever you are, from Turkey!
While these numbers in themselves are not particularly stunning, two years ago (April, 2023), I began The Church’s One Foundation by inviting a dozen or so friends to become “free subscribers.” Except on rare occasions, I’ve done little to “promote” the podcast, wanting it to develop naturally at its own organic pace. Though I’ve been far more interested in the quality vs. the number of subscribers, these latest figures are encouraging to me, and reflective of you, my friends, viewers and listeners who share our podcast with others when prompted by the Spirit. Thank you! As we move forward, always feel free to “Leave a Comment” or “Send a Message,” which several of you do directly to my personal email account, our having known each other for many years.
I recently received one such message, which commented on the Celebrating Perversity podcast, expressing that I “vehemently criticized” the drag eucharist and evensong and drag performers. Guilty as charged! The Church need not set the stage for the fantasy cosplay of drag performers—save the show for the theatre, and, in specific, the “Theatre of the Absurd.” Far more than any “vehement criticism” I may be guilty of, my intention is to encourage the believer and spread the gospel, seeking and finding …a precious individual—a precious soul—not unlike ourselves, in desperate need of a Savior, searching for his or her true identity, an identity that can only be found “in Christ.”
And that “in Christ” will remain the constant theme of The Church’s One Foundation, which we know “is…Jesus Christ Her Lord!”
Here’s wishing you, my brothers and sister in Christ, a blessed Pentecost!
Pressing On!
D. Paul
ROLLING FOR JESUS
God uses us purposefully wherever we find ourselves. While it becomes more and more challenging to bear witness for Christ in the workplace, every grocery store, dry cleaners, gas station, and post office are opportunities to bear witness to the love of Jesus. Thanks to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our steps are never purposeless.
As I was coming out of the post office a few days ago, a shiny, ruby-red Cadillac pulled up with a “Rolling for Jesus” bumper plate on the front. Its oversized white tires and polished chrome wheels let me know that there was nothing shy about the man behind the wheel, who graciously obliged me in rolling down his window.
“What’s up, my brother?” he asked.
“I couldn’t help but notice the Rolling for Jesus plate on your front bumper.”
And that was all the introduction we needed for me to learn the story of William Bumbhus: After twenty-three arrests and multiple incarcerations in various Indiana prisons, he turned his life over to Christ when four other transformed inmates shared the Gospel with him. Ah, the Gospel— the “good news” as found in Jesus Christ—capable of turning around an abused, abandoned, and addicted young man some forty-seven years ago and putting him on a path of ministry and service to prisoners around the country since 1981. Do I hear a hallelujah anywhere?
In many ways, William Bumphus’s story reminded me of Chuck Colson’s legacy, the so-called “hatchet man” for President Richard Nixon, who served seven months at the Maxwell Correctional Facility in Montgomery, Alabama, pleading guilty to an “obstruction of justice” charge involving the Watergate scandal. While awaiting his trial and sentencing, Colson was engaged by a group of believers, read C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, and had, as he calls it, a “born again” experience in 1974. Most of the press mocked his “conversion” as purely cosmetic, nothing more than a “ploy” to reduce his sentence. If his conversion were such a ploy, it turned out to be a very long one. Colson went on to found Prison Fellowship and Prison Fellowship International—two organizations instrumental in leading thousands of prisoners to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. For over thirty-seven years, until his death in 2012, Charles “Chuck” Colson worked tirelessly in building the Kingdom of God among the less fortunate among us. All the cynical, media aspersions can now be put aside. No doubt, this saint of God has heard those words (or a variant thereof) coveted by all believers: Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:21 NIV).
My conversation soon ended when my newly found brother in Christ, William Bumbhus, informed me he had a service to conduct at a prison in Kentucky, a quick, ninety-minute drive down the I-65 from Indianapolis. As I watched the seventy-eight-year-old youngster for Jesus roll out of the parking lot, I could only imagine the hundreds if not thousands of lives William had touched for Christ.
For some strange reason, standing there in the post office parking lot, I thought of my father, remembering how in the last few days of his life he had told me, “I don’t feel I’ve done enough for Jesus, son.” This Pentecostal season, I’m having the same thought. We are not called to be cul-de-sac Christians, rolling back and forth in the ol’ rocking chair on the front porch. Yes, if you’ll pardon the colloquialism, we are told to keep “rolling for Jesus.” The promise is ours to claim and live out: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8 NIV). Whether it be Indianapolis, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, Albuquerque, or Los Angeles, we are living in that “ends-of-the-earth” epoch. And if we “keep in step with the Spirit,” we will find “His yoke is easy”—frequently little more than giving a word of encouragement to those whom we meet daily; mentioning, when prompted, the incomparable, life-giving name of Jesus; and offering a simple word or two of kindness—“I’ll be praying for you … is there anything I can do to help?”—these modest overtures can make all the difference in someone’s life.
MY PRAYER FOR TODAY: May that “Pentecostal fire” and “…violent wind [which] came from heaven” set our hearts on fire for Christ. And may we experience and know the promise spoken by the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams (Acts 2:17 NIV).
Amen
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