The Silent Preacher

The Silent Preacher

When you think of a preacher, you think of someone standing behind a pulpit talking, teaching and sometimes screaming. Sometimes you find preachers reading Bible verses, telling stories and giving out of this world illustrated sermons. From huge stage props to amazing video clips on giant video screens, this type of preaching can be very effective and I personally enjoy this type of creativity when delivering a message. But, if you really want to be effective, I have found that sometimes you don’t need to say anything at all.

You hear the saying “practice what you preach”, but what about practice while your preaching. What I mean is that your actions will speak louder than any words ever will. We see thousands of teens each month at the Fusion Warehouse. We are preaching the entire time they are there and sometimes we may actually say something. It’s not just what you say but rather how you say it. It’s your expression and what they see because seeing is believing. If you want to make a believer out of someone, don’t tell them - show them. You can say you love someone all day long, but unless you show them, your words fall to the ground. We hang out with the youth every weekend building trust and after a while we have their attention. Because we are not there one day and gone the next, we are consistently showing the youth of this community we care. We are silently screaming out that we care with our actions and not just words. This generation doesn’t really care how much you know, unless they know how much you care. The teens are watching our every move. A smiling face, a hand shake, a pat on the back may be best thing that has happened to them all week. When you give a youth a “high five” while walking by, that’s preaching. You tell a youth that that they are somebody and it’s great to see them, you just preached an entire sermon. MTV has their attention with the wrong message so what if we took that same approach and put a positive message behind the concept? Wow! Now you’re talking or should I say preaching? We use that concept with a positive message every weekend at Fusion Wraehouse now registering over 8,000 youth. While hanging out with the youth, we introduce them to our job training programs, like welding certification, how to budget their money, customer service and the list goes on. We give them the opportunity to learn job skills while they are hanging out and having a good time in a positive environment.

When Jesus went out among the people he spoke in parables, in a language they could understand. Jesus truly met people where they were. We must meet them where they are, and when you do that, then you’re really preaching.

Visit Fusion Warehouse on the web
www.FusionWarehouse.net

Story by: Randall Brown/ Founder/Executive Director Of the Fusion Warehouse Student Center in Anderson S.C.