Resources for Pro-Life Ministry

/ Aaron Gannon / 1 Comment
Picture courtesy of Jon Sorensen

Photo by Jon Sorensen

Today I joined with others outside of an abortion clinic in NE Philadelphia and held a sign up to bring notice to the atrocities that were occurring in that Planned Parenthood building. I joined other Christians in praying for the unborn children scheduled to be aborted, prayed for the parents who were choosing this path, prayed for the staff who were assisting and perpetrating these horrors, and prayed to the one who can change it all. He is the Creator and Defender of every life. Every one.  

I found out about the Protest, Prayer, and Pleading event about a week ago and spent the last 7 days reviewing resources and praying so that I might be equipped to be used by God today. I don’t know if anyone reading this might have the same burden so below I linked the resources that were helpful to me this week. May God grant us strength and boldness to speak for the voiceless and to protect the vulnerable.

1. Abortion and the Gospel article by Russell Moore

  • Our message does not stop with truth and justice but moves on to grace and forgiveness
  • If you are planning to attend as a “prayer” or “pleader” please consider how you will pray and plead with a woman as she enters the clinic as well as how you will plead and pray with her as she leaves the clinic.

2. Story of John Barros’ ministry (8 minute video) with commentary from R.C. Sproul Jr.

3. Speak for the Unborn (Website)

  • Watch this 10 minute video profiling street ministry and see engagement with women approaching an abortion clinic. This is a good “what should I expect to see” video to watch if you are planning to engage in protest or ministry outside of a clinic.
  • This is a Resource Guide to guide prayers and equip for sidewalk ministry.

4. Abortion: Making the Case slideshow from Tim Challies.

5. Desiring God – Collection of sermons from John Piper related to abortion. Some quotes from Abortion: Shall we listen to God or Man? – 

  • “In order to be bold and forthright and clear in what you say for Christ in public, you do not need to be formally educated or unusually skilled. What you need is real fellowship with Jesus—real experience with Jesus, the kind of experience that enables you to say: “I cannot but speak what I have seen and heard.”
  • “So the first lesson for today is that you don’t have to be formally educated or unusually skilled in order to be bold and forthright and clear in what you say for Christ in public. What you need is real fellowship with Jesus.”
  • “The Bible says that the law of God is written on the heart of every person (Romans 1:32, 2:15). It says that everyone is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). There is reason to believe, then, that your witness to the truth—about abortion, or any other issue—will trigger something deep inside of people. It will have the ring of truth in their heart of hearts, though it may be temporarily suppressed in unrighteousness. And who knows what God may be pleased to do if his truth is spoken boldly and clearly by tens of thousands of evangelical Christians?”
  • “on the abortion issue and every important issue. We are not called to win; we are called to witness.”

6. Most Important Question in the Abortion Debate – 7 min. sermon excerpt by David Platt

7. Abort73 – offers facts and arguments for the end of abortion.
Abort 73 Overview of abortion (5 minutes)

Parenting is a Group Effort

/ Aaron Gannon / Leave a comment

Stick Figure Family

I recently had my daughter wander off at the beach while everyone was occupied setting up our site. This was terrifying and I needed my neighbors at the beach to help to search and locate her. There were dozens of concerned beachgoers spreading the description of the girl we were trying to find. She is safe now, but I was reminded that I need other people to help me to parent well. It was intended that way and parenting alone is not a virtue to be celebrated.

I shared Kelly Rosati’s blog post on Facebook that resonated with me and I recommend that you check it out. The post displays 3 scenes in the church surrounding how we care for those in our charge and help those in our church family to do the same.

These 3 scenes are all good scenes where we can see God at work:

Scene 1 – The church is gathered to hear about the need, hurt, loss, grief, and broken effects of sin that are occurring outside of their midst. Those who have seen the need and thought “God needs to bring healing here so God’s people need to be here” are passionately relaying the message of God’s love for the fatherless. We need people to remind us continually of God’s word and what we may not see in the busyness of our day-to-day living.

Scene 2 – Christians who are striving to love as God has loved are talking to each other and sharing their struggles. They feel like they may be running on or close to empty but they can give each other only limited support. We need the honesty that is on display in this scene and need to confess our struggles so that God can give us the grace we need (I Peter 5:5).

Scene 3 – The same Christians meet but feel that they have “more in the tank” to parent well. They praise God for his goodness and for using the church as part of their family to help them. We need to work towards making this part of our church’s DNA since this is what we commit to during family dedications in our church.

These scenes show us some ways that we can act that will make us into a church that works together to welcome, love, and care for children that are in our charge. This isn’t anything new. We have an example in Acts of how God worked through the earliest church to meet each person’s need:

Acts 2:44-47a – And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

Parenting alone is not a virtue. Trusting God to give us daily grace is how we live humbly and how God gets the glory. God’s timely grace often comes through other people in our family and we need to be ready to receive grace from other people and also we need to be ready for God to use us to give relief and encouragement to others. Parenting is a group effort and we need to nurture the reflex of helping the new tired foster busy adoptive parents who are in our church and lives.

True Compassion

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I don’t have much of a memory of what was happening nationally and internationally in 1995. One vivid memory I do have is of the Oklahoma City Bombing. It wasn’t what I heard that was memorable but what I saw. I saw a photo on the cover of a magazine in a doctor’s office of a firefighter carrying the lifeless body of a child out of the wreckage. In the photo the fireman is fixed on the face of the child and likewise it was impossible for me to stop looking at this photo. What was captured in this snapshot of time was a moment of compassion.

okcity

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Who Should We Care For?

/ teemc83 / Leave a comment

What does God want us to do?

If I had to pick one Bible verse to give an answer, I might choose I John 3:23 which says:

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

Believe and love. Got it. I know who to believe but who should I love? Everyone?! Okay so if everyone is my neighbor, then which neighbor should I love first?
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