Which Direction Are You Running?

Some people want to live
Within the sound of chapel bells
But I want to run a mission
A yard from the gates of hell

And with everyone you meet
I'll take them the gospel and share it well
And look around you as you hesitate
For another soul just fell, let's run to the battle
Run to the battle - Steve Camp


I love these words. They have a prophetic bite to them. I love Steve Camp. I cut my teeth on his songs and hard truth when I first met Jesus. A far cry from contemporary Christian music of today. 

For days I have replaying the above lyrics in my head. I keep rewinding the words over and over again. I look around me. I look at the many different churches filled with people who really want to live in the sound of chapel bells. They want to live in safe suburbia. They have comfortable lives. They insulate their families from the bad stuff. 

Then I think about those running to the battle and fighting the good fight of faith. Those more of us will never hear about. They live, serve, and minister in obscurity setting up missions in places where evil, sin, and wickedness run rampant. 

It is a rare breed of Jesus' follower who WANTS to live a yard from the gates of hell. My safe and comfortable world got rattled this past summer at Mission 58 Camp. I love this camp. The afternoons are filled with students serving in different locations. I traveled with the camp director, Keith Nash, to Cornerstone Baptist Church in Dallas, TX. This church has a vibrant ministry to drug addicts, homeless, and some that others choose to ignore. They are doing more than just offering worship services. They feed the homeless. They provide housing. They help people get off drugs. They are buying crack houses to drive out the drug pushers. I sat there on that day this past July taking it all in. I thought to myself, "This is what the church is supposed to be." 

Church is not supposed to be reduced to a preaching station and a singing station. We are to take the gospel to the darkest and hardest places and help people living about a yard from the gates from hell. It is dangerous. The work is hard and the progress may be slow. The very people you work and pray so hard to help may relapse. The finances are often limited. 

Since that day at Cornerstone I have found myself wanting to run to the battle to those who need it most. I disdain the country club church mentality. Something has shifted deep inside of me. Salaries and security hold no attraction in light of serving and sacrifice if I can really help make a difference. I think for the first time I can really understand what Paul meant when he wrote;

Galatians 6:14 (ESV)
¹⁴  But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.


 Running to the battle means running away from living within the sound of chapel bells. It means running toward the dark and hard places. It means loving those others may look at as unlovable.  Those people need Jesus too.