More Than A Hashtag
By: Justin Caton
If there was anything positive that happened in 2020 it was a simple fact that I was able to pause in the presence of God. As a student pastor, I am consistently planning events, teaching, going to extracurriculars, meeting students for lunch, and performing the many other roles that my church asks of me; I rarely get a chance to pause and just listen to the Holy Spirit. God had also begun working on Bridget’s heart, my wife of 10 years, and she became very intentional with her quiet time with the Lord. We had no place to be or anyone depending on us to get anything done so we would spend that extra time with the Lord; hours sometimes. We grew closer to the Lord than ever before; journaling and praying more than ever in our lives.
At the same time, every time we would turn on the news there were two main topics that were consistently present. Of course, one was COVID, but the other was social injustice. It was on every channel, every newsfeed, and every topic of conversation. The statement of “Black Lives Matter” was honestly something, I could just not understand. It was in this that the Holy Spirit started speaking to Bridget and me. He brought to mind ways that we could make a difference with our actions, and not just with our words.
As we did research, education continued to come up as a solution to many of the issues around injustice. The desire began to grow deeper and deeper for us to partner with people in our community from different ethnic, social, and racial backgrounds and offer a free tutoring program for all ages. We honestly did not know where to begin in finding help so we did what anyone would do...we googled it. We searched for African American churches in our community, and found one! We looked up the pastor’s name, reached out to him, told him about our desire to start a program...and then a few months later we had started a free, Gospel-driven tutoring program every Tuesday for three hours open to anyone who wanted to join. We named our program Open Door.
A year later I can report that children have improved their grades and work ethic, but even more important, children were fed the Gospel every Tuesday night along with a free meal. Donations have been coming in from every direction, computers, and supplies being donated, and teachers volunteering countless hours to help tutor children. Through all of the pain of that last year, God had started something incredible in our community!
But then something even more remarkable happened! Do you remember that pastor I mentioned earlier? Well, out of our desire to serve our community and see reconciliation, a friendship with Pastor Orlando and his wife, Lady Tereika Weeks, with The Word Christian Center blossomed! We have joined together for several services, sang songs together in worship, and connected in a way that has felt like a life-long friendship.
When we gather to worship with them, we feel at home with them, a part of them, united by the Holy Spirit.
Open Door’s Theme Verse:
Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open.”
The people of the Word Christian Center are so loving and caring and without the negativity that was present on the news, we may have never met them and established such awesome friendships. It is a picture of how God turns what was meant for evil into good. I started this by talking about how in the midst of the pandemic Bridget and I were able to slow down and being quiet long enough to hear God’s voice. It took a global pandemic for God to slow me down and allow time for me to just focus on who He was in my OWN personal life instead of always worrying about others and their spiritual growth.
Without an intentional, devoted time of reading the Word and praying, I am not able to write this blog about what God is doing.
As our hearts grew closer to God, so did our desire to do God’s will, and we began asking ourselves; “how can we be a part of the solution instead of just talking about the problem?” We are most definitely not looking to be a hashtag on social media, we are looking to see unity in the body of Christ, within our community, and prayerfully beyond.
I want to end by asking you this question, “If your church closed its doors would the community notice?” I was asked this one day, and at first, I was hesitant to answer. But now, because of that very question, I pray every day that my church will always be a lighthouse in our community meeting as many needs as possible so that if anyone ever asked me this question again, I would be able to firmly respond with a confident yes! I want to ask you the same thing; “Would your community notice if your church ceased to exist?” Don’t just talk about change, be the change. Don’t just talk about how we are called to love others but take initiative to LOVE others. What are the needs in your community right now, and how can you and your church meet those needs?
Justin Caton is the Student Pastor at Thorsby First Baptist Church, where he has served since 2012. For more info and to contact Justin you can find more here!