My Testimony

Tonight I’ve been asked to share my testimony with our project students and staff. I am so excited. Testimony is amongst the most powerful things that the Christian wields. It is the power of Christ put on display in the life of a human being. Though I am a very conversational person, I’ve been asked to memorize a selection to give to the group. I think this is a great idea because it frees me from the need to pull out a piece of paper when I’m sharing it with someone. Anyways, here’s the basic text. Hopefully it’s pretty conversational.

I have always been the “chosen one”. I am the oldest son of my father. He is the baby of his family but the only son of his parents’ marriage. I was born and raised in the same church that my father went to all of his life. My family was one of the biggest and most well-respected of all the church. All the ladies that used to cradle me in the nursery and teach me in Sunday school tell me that I was a joy. No word of encouragement was ever withheld from me.

I quickly learned to play the part of the chosen one. After all, the benefits were amazing. I could choose to do whatever I wanted to do, so long as I was excellent at it. I could put on a smile and some nice shoes and become the pride of my parents. In reality, it wasn’t until high school, when I realized that being Tim Warnes was “kind of a big deal”, that this pride became sin. I was the #3 hitter, the valedictorian, and the right-hand man of my youth pastor. I knew that Jesus had come, died for my sins, and forgiven me. I had been taught that since childhood. But it was only then, as I entered my high school years, that the Lord entered my life and asked for all of it. If He was going to become Lord of my life, some things were going to have to change.

Thus, it was around this time of my life that God convicted me of this pride. However, I allowed the enemy a foothold. He exchanged my pride over being the best at everything for a pride of being the keenest at recognizing sin in the lives of others. I was a typical brother to my two younger sisters: annoying, boyish, and immature. Needless to say, car rides home were never fun. I was often short with them (and my mother). I was sometimes harsh with them. And I was occasionally a flat-out jerk. But God didn’t allow me to wallow in my ways for very long. He is persistent. He pursued me. He pursued my purity. He pursued righteousness for me in my relationships with my mother and sisters. It was impossible for me (Praise God!) to continue in my mistreatment of these women in my life and maintain my honesty with myself about my relationship with God. He transformed not only my feelings towards Him, but also my feelings and behavior towards them. Though it was a slow process, I can honestly say that I so much more enjoy my relationships with my mother and sisters now because of the transformation that putting Christ on the throne has wrought in my life.

In the end, I have determined that it is better to be chosen by God and then to choose Christ than to be chosen by any man.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Thoughts

Ministry in the inner city is no big deal. It consists of talking to people, taking an interest in their lives, and planting seeds. In this atmosphere, rejection is easy to take. There is no need to be discouraged if someone you meet doesn’t really want to talk, or if they don’t want to talk to you about something in particular. God goes about convicting hearts, not us. It’s our job, especially in the city, simply to be his hands, or his feet, or maybe his mouthpiece. I love this commission that we’ve been given. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” In his book A Theology as Big as the City, Ray Bakke states: “The frontier of world mission is no longer geographically distant; it’s culturally distant but geographically right next door.” He doesn’t expect us to go and make converts or to go and convince. He commissioned us to go and share. Bakke tells us “It’s news!” The gospel that we have been commissioned to share is news, not advice! It changes everything! In as loving a way as we know how, we must share this news. Advice is not always needed, but if we withhold the news of Jesus Christ from those who do not know Him, we leave them in the dark. Even when the news is shared (the light is shined) the decision to follow Christ still has to be made. Let’s be bearers of good news. Not good advice.

Weekend #1

Friday morning I woke up in San Francisco. My family surrounded me. We hopped on a shuttle, went to the airport and they sent me on my way after a sweet family prayer session. I sat down with my man Aaron Vargas at gate 23 in SFO and then got us some spots on the plane to Vegas together. Since neither of us had finished the book we were supposed to read before project, we did that on the plane. Also, I was made confident that this summer would be a good one just because of the conversation that we had. In the end, Aaron and I got here at 3PM local time and got picked up by one of our project directors, Aaron Miatke. We rolled up to City on a Hill a little before 4 and then I jumped in a van and went on a mini-job search with Sarah, Bryan, Jessi, and Erica. We finished the day with dinner in the cafeteria and some get-to-know-yous. That night I was very encouraged by the chat that we had with most of the guys in the guys lounge. It was the first night and I feel like it was a perfect start to our summer. Got to know the guys a little better and got excited about living with them this summer.

Saturday we had an evangelism training day at Bradford Beach and then a BBQ at adjacent McKinley park. I went with one of our part time staff, Chris Chambers, and we got to talk with a couple of guys from very different situations. Jay was a middle-aged guy, raised Catholic, originally from Minnesota. He had dropped his affiliation with any sort of church or God long ago, since college at the latest. Though he wasn’t interested at this time in knowing God in a personal way, the conversation with him taught me a good deal about how to carry on a conversation with someone who is not a college student attending my university. It’s sometimes harder to establish common ground. Next we talked with Neal, a homeless man who had just that morning been released from the hospital. He too, was very fun to talk to. I learned from that conversation that the Lord will go with you, even if the initiation of the conversation may seem awkward. Wrapping up the day with another group meeting, some game time, and another couple of late-night conversations, I felt that the day was certainly one in which God was gently breaking me from my ideas about summer being anything less than I now know that it will be. I will be attacked from every angle. I will be stretched in many ways. I will be totally inept apart from the power of the Holy Spirit working in me.

Sunday, we went to Berean Family Worship Center and really enjoyed the service there. Never before had I, as a guest, felt so loved by a church body. They knew the word, they taught the word, they sang and proclaimed the word. And even in the small things, the love of God was put into action. I most appreciated the purposeful speech of both the pastor and the congregation(in their responses to his spoken word). I heard no uhms, no uhhhs; only Amens, Praise the Lords and Hallelujahs. We had a debrief after church and before lunch and our group had genuinely enjoyed meeting with the Lord in their building with their congregation. It was a joy to worship alongside some of our ministry partners and to simply observe the way that they served and loved the Lord. At the next meeting Jeff shared with us his heart for the city of Milwaukee by relating it to the story of Nehemiah and Jerusalem. You could tell that this was a man who was moved with a deep compassion for the people of his city. My level of excitement for this summer continues to increase. Also though, God showed me a peace that transcends understanding today. I know that I am free to do any sort of ministry this summer an d that I do not have to worry about my effectiveness, my plans, my desires. God will handle the outcome; all I have to do is concern myself with His business: the business of redeeming souls.