Spec Ops...The Finale...

Simply by appearance, they look like the unlikeliest of applicants. Some, barely able to comb their hair…others, obviously color-blind by looking at their clothing. One would seriously have to wonder how these recruits could even tie their shoes, much less serve on an elite tactical team. But then, I made eye contact with one of them. Then another…and another. Slowly it became apparent by the look in their eyes, just how serious each one was, and just how much each one belonged in this unit. A look of determination, a look of courage, a look of willingness, a look of compassion. A new breed indeed whose motto could honestly be termed, ‘Failure is no longer an option.” This is a Unit that has been tried and tested throughout the years with little success. Flirting with failure simply because the leaders believed the traditional methods were superior. But now a new breed of leader is emerging, and his focus has changed. Same target, new method…new squad.

Millions of lives hang in the balance whose eternal destiny lies in the hands of this new group of misfits. Willing to forsake the established traditions that had previously been set in stone, just for a chance to make a difference in someone’s life and eliminate the target that has taunted them for a lifetime.

The scenario described earlier, is not entirely what you think. It would be easy to picture that same sequence of events played out in the deserts of the Middle East or in some remote part of the country. We see this type of action brought to life each and every day on prime time TV, in theaters, and even on FoxNews. So it’s common place to imagine a team that’s arrayed in camouflaged paints to blend in with their surroundings for the sole purpose of being able to get off a clean shot from a high-caliber sniper’s rifle that would kill an individual who had been determined to be the ‘bad guy’.

But instead, it is a typical scene that could be at a local coffeehouse or maybe a park, even at a sporting event, maybe a café. The target is not someone who is simply profiled as one of Middle Eastern descent, a young professional with an Arabic dialect. Inside the coffeehouses and cafés of America, a new war is being waged. These new spec ops teams are the covert units that are being deployed to eliminate an enemy whose sole purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. The war of evangelism has a new face, and millions of souls are being snatched from the gates of hell like never before. No longer are the traditional methods of ‘cold calling’, ‘surveys’ and the like, accepted as the only ways to share the gospel. The foolish religious conception of ‘if we build it, they will come” is finally being exposed as just that, a foolish religious conception. Churches have to realize that just because we have these fancy ‘sacred cows’ that we meet in each week doesn’t mean throngs of people will be magnetically drawn to attend our rehearsed and choreographed Sunday routines that is filled with religious jargon and make-believe empathy. If that were the case, then it would be ‘standing room only’ in every church of every denomination and race across this country, each and every time a ‘church service’ is announced. But it’s not…

It is time that Christians pop this ‘christian bubble’ in which we live and step out into a real world where people, just like you and me, are searching and waiting to get to know the ‘real us’. Relationships are, without question, the spec ops unit of evangelism. The elite of the elite, willing to face excruciating circumstances…willing to sacrifice everything just so that lives will be changed. When we take the time to get to know someone, someone outside the church, and be able to be ourselves and to show what Christlikeness and Christ’s love is really all about, then we will see lives changes, souls saved and the landscape of America will be eternally altered. We have a Biblical mandate to ‘love our neighbor’, and the best possible way to fulfill this directive is to willingly be a friend to the friendless and to love the seemingly unlovable.

Sharpen your weapon skills and listen very close to your spotter.

There is a new Unit being deployed and is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. The Commander-n-Chief has given the ‘go ahead’ order. And He’s still looking for recruits…