Going First by Andrew Forrest

Back in January of this year, media channels were flooded with accounts and commentary regarding the immigration enforcement actions taken in Minneapolis by the current presidential administration.

Everyone agrees that two people were killed by federal officers. There are videos of each incident. What is striking about the videos, however, is that they do not seem to have changed anyone’s mind. People who thought the officers’ actions were justified continued to believe the officers’ actions were justified, and people who thought the protesters were innocent victims continued to think that.

Here’s why this should matter to the church. There is lots of talk these days about division and its causes — division, so the commentary goes, is caused by social media or money in politics or gerrymandering or the breakdown of the family, etc. But what almost no one is talking about is what I believe to be the central question for our time: what do we actually do about it? That is, how are we going to reach the people who don’t think like us or look like us or vote like us — maybe even the people who hate us.

The “facts” are not the way forward. This is not because facts do not matter — the truth always matters — but because the facts alone will not convince anyone to repent. Just shouting the facts about Jesus and his death and resurrection more loudly will not be the way to evangelize the world.

There is another way. The bad news is that it comes with both risk and cost. It might not work, and it could get you killed in the process. The good news is that it is the way of Jesus and Jesus was raised from the dead. The way forward is to go first.

Going first is about moving toward another in love. The reason this works is because humans are very simple creatures: we like people who like us. And every person you have ever encountered has a God-given need to be seen. I like how Andy Crouch puts it:

Every one of us came into the world looking for one thing: the moment we were born we were looking for a face. We were born and in the shock and surprise of birth we opened our eyes and we looked for a face, because until we see a face — until another sees us — we do not know who we are, and we looked for someone who would look at us… In the words of …psychiatrist Kurt Thompson, “Every human being… is looking for someone who is looking for us.” 

What happens when we move first toward another is that we upset the status quo and thereby open up new possibilities for the grace of God. This is one of the things it means when we say that God is love — God moves first toward the world that has rejected him. Every Sunday in my church I say these words as part of the liturgy for Holy Communion: “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, which proves God’s love toward us.” In other words, when we move first toward another we are simply acting in accordance with the reality that undergirds the universe itself — the love of God.

I believe the Lord is looking for people who are willing to go toward others in the name of Jesus. This is God’s plan to reach the world. It worked before, and it will work again.

World Methodist Evangelism will be hosting a book study on Love Goes F1rst. This will be a live event with the author on Thursday, March 16th at 9 AM United States Central Time / 10 AM United States Eastern Time. Join us on Zoom by clicking here. You can purchase the book here.