January/February Plain Truth
All-pro Pastor
by Greg Albrecht
Jan. 8, 1996. The Inner City Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, was in flames.
The multiracial church had been tagged with barbaric racial slurs before the burning. It was only one of the many churches burned during 1996.
Reggie White, associate pastor of the targeted Inner City Church, is a well-known public figure. But not primarily as a minister of Jesus Christ. Reggie is known for another action-packed ministry played out in the fall and winter. To those who confine their worship to football stadiums, he is Minister of Defense.
Defensive end for the Green Bay Packers, Reggie is a sure bet to be remembered as one of the best defensive linemen ever to play professional football. Earlier this year, at a Pastors' News Conference, Reggie said, "It took our church to burn down which, I thank God, to be honest with you, because if ours wouldn't have burned down, we wouldn't have found out about all the other churches, and about all the other communities that have been terrorized, almost weekly."
Reggie White, pastor and NFL superstar (he prefers that priority), has stepped up to a serious challenge facing Christians today. He is disgusted that it took the burning of the church he serves to focus the crisis of church burnings in the public's mind. He is disappointed that the public media is more interested in football superstars than in the children of God.
But Reggie knows he is a Christian superstar and can use the media spotlight to help his spiritual brothers and sisters. He once said, "The main reason I play football is that it gives me a platform to preach the gospel."
Man With a Mission
Reggie is a man with a mission. He has preached in more than 100 churches. He speaks to young people, encouraging them to forsake drugs, alcohol and premarital sex. He has withdrawn his name several times from consideration for the NFL lineman-of-the-year award because it was sponsored by a beer company.
He told high school students in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: "I see a lot of young men who think they are men because of the way they walk. I see a lot of young girls who think having babies and a man makes them women. If that's what you're basing your life on, you're crazy. If you've got your virginity, keep it."
Reggie started studying the Bible at age 13. He loved church and decided early that he wanted to be a minister. He earned a minister's license at the age of 17, preaching a sermon on forgiveness. He was known in his high school for his size as well as the fact that he carried a Bible with him everywhere he went.
Reggie now lives his life for Jesus Christ. He lives to minister. He lives to help defeat racism and to bring economic stability to the black community. This mountain of a man--6 feet 6 inches, 285 pounds--is known to ask opposing linemen in the heat of a football game, "Are you treating the Lord right?"
Reggie is the NFL's all-time sack leader, but he is dedicated to more than chasing opposing quarterbacks. He is preparing for life after football, when he will completely dedicate his life to serving Jesus Christ.
In his book, Minister of Defense, Reggie tells of a vision his pastor once had. In the dream, the Lord took Pastor Upton on a tour of a hospital, a hospital that had three wards filled with hurting Christians.
The first ward contained Christians who were discouraged, but were being taken care of by spiritual doctors and nurses. They were being restored to spiritual health.
The second ward was filled with believers who had been injured in their warfare as Christian soldiers. They didn't have the same number of nurses and doctors available to them, but they were being cared for and would be restored.
The third ward was a catastrophe. Here were people who had horribly disfiguring injuries. Not only was this ward filled with Christians whose injuries were far more serious than the other two wards, these people were not receiving any attention. There were no doctors or nurses at all.
When Pastor Upton asked the Lord who these people were, the Lord's answer cut deeply into his soul:
"These believers have been wounded by other believers. There are no doctors or nurses because the first thing a Christian wounded by another Christian does is isolate himself from any form of ministry. Many of these will not make it back to spiritual wholeness."
Wounded Christians
Christians beaten, bashed, destroyed and left for dead by other Christians. Students of the Bible recall it was a Samaritan, a religious and racial outcast, who stopped to help the man who had been beaten and left for dead. Jesus' parable tells us that other more "religious" people passed by.
Churches are being burned to the ground by Christians. Synagogues, mosques and other places of worship are being destroyed by those who believe in God. Who and where is the enemy?
The destruction of houses of worship is not something new. We should never forget that it was the destruction of the synagogues in Nazi Germany that signaled the beginning of an attempted genocide of the Jews. Nor should we forget that all that is necessary for evil to prevail is for Christians to stand by and do nothing.
Martin Niemöller, a leader in the Christian resistance to Hitler during World War II, said: "In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
Gifted to Help
As Christians, we all have a ministry. The apostle Paul wrote that the gifts God gives the church help "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-13).
All believers have a part in restoring, mending and reconciling the larger body of Christ. We are all uniquely equipped by God so that the church might be built. Christians build the church. We are all charged with using our gifts to the glory of the Lord of the body, who is our Lord.
We are called to unity with the body of Christ. By faith we are united with Christ, who is the Lord of the body. Because we are united with him, we are united with each other. Anything that stands in the way of the unity of believers must be overcome and conquered. The walls of racism must come down. The burning of churches must stop. Christians build churches, we don't burn them.
The Plain Truth thanks Reggie White and all those lesser-known individuals who stand for unity in the body of Christ. Christians are not all the same, but Christians are, by definition, united. We have a passion for our Lord and a passion for building his church.