Pursuing God’s Dream of Restoration

The founder of the International Justice Mission, Gary Haugen, has inspired me to reach for the dream. At InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Urbana 2000 mission conference, I sat listening to Gary talk about slavery. He did not speak of the slavery of my people, of some abstract historical memory. Gary introduced me to the horror of the modern-day slave trade. I had no idea that slavery existed in our time or that there were people giving their lives to free slaves or prosecute their captors. As Gary spoke, God got a hold of my heart, and I wept through most of his short message. He spoke of the forced prostitution of children, of the exploitation of the powerful and of what a courageous faith in Christ must look like in light of such atrocities. In one brief message, Gary changed my life. His message was the flashpoint for what I call my second conversion.

My faith journey began after I came to Christ as an atheist philosophy student at the University of Michigan in the late 1980s. My childhood home had a sign on the front: “The Moores, The Atheists.” We had a barrel beside our house for burning Bibles and other religious propaganda.

I had experienced the power of the person of Christ during an attempted suicide on Christmas Eve of 1989. On that night, Jesus Christ miraculously saved me from the brink of death, and I was persuaded that God loves us and is at work to save us—all of us. From that experience in 1989 until Gary’s message in 2000, I had one singular focus: to reach as many people with the gospel as I could. Sharing the hope of Christ with lost people was and continues to be my mission. But at Urbana 2000, something happened—a conversion within my conversion.

My heart broke as I faced a crisis of faith. Weeping in my seat at Urbana, I experienced the heart of God for those who suffer the hell of this world. I realized my gospel and my vision of Christ were too small. I asked myself through tears, “How can my Jesus not only save sinners from the hell to come? How can he save them from the hell that is now?” If it was true that there were millions of people living as commodities, that there were children being locked in dark rooms by the thousands to be raped for pay, how could my Jesus do anything about their plight?

Before Urbana 2000, for the first time I held my great-great-grandfather’s slave papers in my own hands—government papers that documented his slavery. Burrell Avery was the property of a Kentucky slave owner. He was insured like cattle, recognized as such with the approval of the state and federal government. He served in the “Colored Army” on behalf of the U.S. government, and when he died, his family got absolutely nothing. My heritage as an African American is one of subjection and servitude.

I remember weeping that night at Urbana with these two images in my mind: the image Gary painted of modern-day slaves and the image of Burrell’s suffering. As the worship band came to the stage, I stood and said to God in a quivering voice, “If you were able to free my people from the last great global tyranny, you must be able to free those slaves today.” Ever since this declaration, this sinner’s prayer of my second conversion, I have invested my life as an abolitionist, seeking to mobilize resources for frontline organizations in their fight against modern-day slavery. I have played a small part in championing their cause, in encouraging them in our fight for justice, and along the way God has made my heart new.

Thanks to the courageous work of Gary Haugen and the International Justice Mission, I left the auditorium that night born again, again. Until that point, I had been sure that Christ saves sinners, but after hearing Gary speak, I was persuaded that Christ is out to save the entire world.

Reaching for the dream is what we’ve been left on the earth to do. When we reach for the dream, we actuate in our time and space a piece of what will come in fullness at the end of the age.

Gary and the International Justice Mission are not merely creating a picture of the dream of God, but a beachhead of its coming. Gary’s message that night was an invitation to a dream: the dream of justice, the dream of restoration, the dream of hope—the dream of God. That dream is at the heart of every great missional vision, the launch of every true church, the birth of all great organizations. The dream of God fuels all true mission. As we join God in bringing his dream to the world around us, we join the great historic mission of the church.

There are many obstacles to mission and to this dream. Our world is broken in so many ways. Children die in countless numbers from diseases that are treatable or preventable for lack of medicine that the wealthy can obtain at any corner drug-store. Poverty and greed form a vicious cycle, and often the children of the world’s poor pay the ultimate price. Currently, more than two thousand children under five die from malaria each day—that’s one child every forty seconds. Malaria kills nearly one million people each year; 85 percent are children under five. Each year an estimated 250 million people get infected with malaria. That’s equal to 83 percent of the U.S. population. Malaria is the fourth leading cause of child deaths worldwide and second leading cause of child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. The poorest of the poor suffer most.

Slavery, death from disease, displacement, hunger—we know this is not the way things are supposed to be. So we long for another place, a place of hope. Yet there is so much more after the child is saved from a life-threatening disease, after the girl is rescued from the brothel and the hungry family is fed. Remember, God’s dream ends in flourishing.

The Power of Hope, The Dream of Joy

For several decades in my city, Detroit, hope was all but lost. Detroit was the murder capital of the United States in the 1980s. Often, however, when we lose hope, something seems to drive us to seek it out. Now there are many in Detroit who dream again. There are corporations and government officials, teachers and civil servants, business leaders and scholars who know the secret of Detroit’s rich heritage. There is a sense of purpose and drive, a renewed sense of entrepreneurialism and innovation. Detroit is alive with hope. But this is not the first time.

R. York Moore
R. York Moorehttp://tellthestory.net/

R. York Moore is an innovator, strategist, revivalist and abolitionist. He serves as president and CEO for the Coalition for Christian Outreach. He is the author of several books, including most recently, Seen. Known. Loved.

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