A Season of Faith: A position of Influence

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

A position of Influence

It is a different culture here in the desert. People tend to isolate and hide to get out of the heat. The culture of Arizona has adjusted to the weather. Movie theatres off free movies to children as an alternative to being outside in the heat. The shopping malls are packed with families during the day as a way of giving people some place to go. And parks are usually empty. In Minnesota, we were outside all summer. We did outdoor outreaches in the summer, because in the winter people hibernated. As I have wandered around Tucson praying for God to show me how to do ministry here I have come to this realization: Outreach looks completely different. My prayers have been for God to put me in a position of influence, so that people are drawn to me, rather than me going to them.

That has happened in a few ways. First of all, through being able to minister regularly at the Gospel Rescue Mission, God has literally sent guys to me who have let me direct them, teach them, and help them any way I see fit. I haven't had to convince them or prove anything to them, they came to me and I have been helping them build a community of support for them. Second, I had the chance to paint some one's house. This enabled me to provide income for two other guys for a couple of weeks. The Lord showed me that as I meet their physical needs, I instantly gain a platform to speak into their lives. In two weeks of ministering to the one guy I saw him go from being angry at God, to embracing him, joining a church, and being baptized. The third way it has happened is through coaching baseball. I volunteered to coach one of my son's teams, but by the end of the season was coaching two of them. I was able to directly teach these young men about being good citizens, having a vision and purpose for their life and pushing yourself to become better than you believe you are. I was also able to be bold with the parents about parenting with purpose and looking at the big picture of your child's life. I taught the dads how to affirm their children and we all watched together as these moments produced greater results. I also had a chance to do some counseling with one of the coaches and am watching him surrender more and more areas of his life to Christ.

My first temptation when I got to Tucson was to run out and began to promote my ministry and myself. When I found that those actions made people uncomfortable, I was forced to wait for God to promote me. Slowly, He has elevated me to a place of influence. It may only be over a few people, but I have to be faithful with the few if I expect to be given more.

The question for you is, who has God given you influence over? Are you waiting for God to elevate you to a place of influence? When that happens, what will you do with that? I pray for God to give you the boldness to speak words of truth, hope, and direction into all those who let you speak into their lives.

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Background: what led up to this adventure?

This has been about three years in the making. Three years ago, while attending a conference in Houston, Jean and I both sensed the Lord was telling us to begin to get ready for something. We didn't know what but we knew we had to start doing things differently. I started restructuring Community of Men and had a renewed passion for empowering leaders to take more of a leadership role in things. We sensed God was telling us to be ready in the fall of 2012.

Later that year, I began to get the nudging by the Holy Spirit to go and pay a visit to a friend in Alabama. I didn't know why and I began to pray for him. The more I prayed, the more I sensed I was to pay him a visit. Finally, in January 2010 I made the twenty five hour drive through all the elements nature can throw at you to see what God was doing. We had no money, but said we couldn't afford to be disobedient. It turns out God used me to confirm some things in him and I was blessed with the money needed to cover the cost of the trip.

Later that year, we took our first Family Ministry Trip. We left home with $500.00 in our pockets as we began our three and half week road trip that took us to Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado. God used every member of our family to serve other believers who needed some encouragement. I had received a vision from God. He showed me a map of the United States and told me that every place I saw a town, he had a remnant of people who loved Him and served Him. That was our mission, to be a support to the remnant of God's people. And it was awesome to see the opportunities that opened up to us and the ways in which God provided for our financila needs the whole way.

The next year, we sensed we were to take another Family Ministry Trip. The Lord had impressed upon my heart to go to Cody, WY, a town I had lived in when I was a boy. I had a vision of a mobile home park and the words "an overlooked people" in my head. So we hit the road, along with another family to see what God would do. He miraculously used us to draw people to Himself. And when we got to Cody we met a man who did ministry in a mobile home park where he told us, he and his wife ministered to the overlooked people in Cody. It was amazing to see how God had made that connection. He and his wife were doing a form of urban ministry but had no skill set or experience to do so. They had been praying for God to send them some help, and then we showed up. We ministered alongside them as well as doing outreaches in the local parks.

Which leads me to the latest thing. God had begun to impress upon my heart back in the spring of 2011 to resign from my current role at Minneapolis Believers In Christ and to begin to prepare for the next season of ministry. After going back and forth about it all summer, I finally decided this was God's will and I did so in August. That same week God spoke to me and said "Pack your family and get ready to move. I will show you where you are going when you are on the way." I consulted the scriptures and found a similar call God had given to Abraham. He packed up his whole family and left on a promise that God had a place reserved for him and that he would make him into a great nation. The Lord showed me that just the same as He led me to do all the things mentioned above and that lookinhg back I could see the evidence of why He did, this time will be just like all those others.

We do not know the full details of what God has prepared for our family. He has showed us glimpses of what we might be doing, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and try and figure out God's plans. We are excited to discover them as they unfold.

As I write this I reflect back to the time frame that we had always thought of and the time of fall 2012. That is a time when some obligations that we have to fulfill would be completed and always made the most logical sense for when God would open up the next chapter for our family. But faith defies logic. And often God's purposes for us require us to go by faith and not by sight, because He knows better than we can ever imagine what is in store for us. Please return to this site regularly as we update you on what God is doing, showing, and using us to do in the coming months. And pray for us as we take the biggest adventure we've ever embarked on. God Bless!

Brad Peglow
bpeglow@gmail.com
612-388-5320