REACHING RECENT IMMIGRANTS
HINTS FOR A LIFE CONNECTION
Came to Christ in 1972 Married in 1980
Graduated Bible College in 1983
Ordained in 1993
One son (Jeremy) now 36
I enjoy Adrian Monk, the 3 Stooges and long walks in the park with Lorena
Celebrating 43 wonderful years of marriage in June to Lorena
Today, some come for religious freedom, or economic. Some are fleeing war and violence; others still see Lady Liberty as a beacon for a better life.
One hundred years ago America sent missionaries to the farthest corners of the world. Today the world is coming to us. In recent years, we’ve seen at Gateway women from 47 different countries. Thousands have been given the truth abortion their pregnancy and have had the opportunity to hear about eternal life through Jesus Christ.
So, how can you and I reach recent immigrants, encouraging them to make life and eternal life choices? Let’s look at three directions: Around, back and forward.
I: Look Around and see the benefits
of looking at the blessings and challenges
of recent immigrants relative to life issues
Blessing: Fewer outside sources of pressure. Their boyfriend or parents may be in another country. Pressure, especially from their boyfriend may not be their number one determining reason on whether to have this baby. Coming here alone may allow the client to be open to the truths we have to share.
Challenge: The availability of abortion in America. This may fuel their desire to quickly resolve a crisis pregnancy not because of long-held belief but what they’ve heard by some along their travels.
Blessing: Abortion may be frowned upon, rare or even outlawed in their country of origin. This allows us to compassionately show them a better way.
Challenge: Pressures due to their legal status, lack of work, lack of housing
Blessing: Many come as a family who have dealt with more severe situations and excited about a new life in America
Finally, a real blessing we have seen
at Gateway:
3. Gateway has seen clients from 47 different nations in the past 3-5 years. An admittedly complex immigration problem has resulted in great opportunities to reach recent immigrants with the gospel (their number one need) and with the help they need to make Godly life decisions.
4. I’ve never been so excited to see the convergence of the results of the demise of Roe v Wade meet the unexpected surge of recent immigration. Future generations are being impacted -today -because we have been handed these two blessings. But do we see them as blessings?
5.. The pressures of their flight to America allows many women to be open to our help. We’ve seen it. Thus, they are also more open to the gospel, their real need.
6. Suffering in their homeland has driven many not to take the easy way out during their pregnancy. Many coming to our pregnancy center have considered the claims of Christ. This is yet another reason to intentionally share the gospel. They may know we are Christians by our love, but they are still lost without Christ.
7. Only Jesus is the answer to their real needs (immediate life decisions) and
their eternal life decision.
Immigrants often are more receptive to the truth:
A church planter, born in Chile but serving in Missouri has said this, speaking of recent immigrants: “It’s a ripe time in someone’s life, especially that first year when they’re in the country. Many of them are coming from very difficult circumstances and are very receptive to someone reaching out to them, especially with the gospel. There’s a great chance of them coming to Christ because when you are going through this hard time you may be open spiritually.
Opposing Views!
Many churches may be trapped in the middle of the debate
Keep it out of OUR church!
Sadly, a recent survey from the Pew Forum on Faith and Public Life suggests that just 12 percent of white evangelicals see this issue primarily through the lens of their faith.
Matthew Soerens points out that pastors are wary to discuss this issue because 1) it’s politically charged (like abortion by the way), 2) they don’t wish to offend (weak reason, I believe) and 3) because in the U.S. nearly a third of immigrants are present unlawfully—they see a paradox between the repeated biblical commands to welcome and love immigrants and the equally biblical commands to be subject to the governing authorities. Unsure of how to reconcile these seemingly conflicting commands, some pastors just avoid the issue altogether or agree with some members who say, ‘Keep it out of our church!’ By the way, it’s Christ’s church, not ours.
Government programs help but don’t address many needs of pregnant immigrants and
they certainly don’t address their spiritual needs.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement have the Targeted Assistance Program (TAG) which
helps refugees obtain employment within one year's participation in the program in order
to achieve self-sufficiency.
* Some states like New York have detailed state guides that cover benefits and resources specifically geared for recently arrived immigrants. But how can they really help everyone who is coming?
One example: About seven million refugees and migrants have left Venezuela since last September. That’s 24 % of the entire countries population of 29 million!
Many pregnancy centers, like Gateway Pregnancy Center, in Elizabeth, NJ, are strategically positioned, especially in light of the fall of Roe v Wade and the increase in Do It Yourself chemical abortions to minister to these recent immigrants.
II: Look Back - the benefits of seeing
what’s the Bible says about interaction with
immigrants, especially in the life of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
God Loves Immigrants and Refugees: God’s special heart for immigrants and refugees shows up throughout the Scriptures. From the beginning, God commanded the Israelites to show special care to aliens, foreigners, and strangers—that is, to those who lived among them and were separated from their country of origin. These people weren’t in a position to enjoy the same rights and resources as they had in their own nation. Still, they were to be cared for just as much as Israel’s widows and orphans (Exodus 22:21 and Exodus 23:9).
The basis for spiritual intervention: Whether in caring for recent immigrants or people who’ve lived here all their life, making a life connection must include the client being given an opportunity to address eternal concerns.
Unless our work is seen as and permeated with evangelism, we’ll miss the window of opportunity to really see lives changed.
Trying to reform people’s behavior without focusing on their real need for spiritual transformation will only lead to frustration (for you as well as the client) and ultimately to spiritual consequences. Change of behavior without a heart change is temporary.
To say that we are a Christian ministry, we need to have more than Christians participating; our focus must be to see spiritual change and not modification of behavior.
Seven benchmarks of a successful ministry have all been modeled by our Lord Jesus Himself:
If we’ve focus on seeking God’s help to achieve the first and last requirements (compassion and spiritual concern) we’ll be prepared to be instruments to be used by God to achieve success with the other five requirements.
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center?
A clients legal or illegal status should not influence our compassion for them. At our pregnancy centers this has nothing to do with circumventing existing laws but everything to do with the dignity that should be given to all people.
Here’s the question: I’ve seen the sense of urgency in explaining the abortion procedure to the client (and rightfully so); why should the urgency of eternal spiritual consequences be treated any less?
2. The Bible speaks of concern - Leviticus 19:34: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
Believers are to show concern Someone has said that ‘this concern for us today comes from our identity as “elect exiles” (1 Peter 1:1), and as “aliens and strangers.’ We see this in I Peter 2.
To put this in perspective, someone else has said that ‘our current laws are not adequate for the situation being faced by those who come seeking refuge. They fail to take into account that many people are driven from their homeland by violence or crippling poverty.’
As some of you well know, some immigrants coming to your centers are victims of rape, gang abuse and human trafficking. They’ve been lied to, coerced and physically or sexually abused. The CPC is no place to make judgments on immigration laws but to offer compassionate care while those laws are being enacted.
This is what needs to change in our debate. It needs to be framed around respect for the human person and what our laws can do to protect and promote it (human respect). Immigration reform should take into account both our citizens’ needs as well as the dignity of those who are forced to leave their home to survive.
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center?
What we need to say at our pregnancy centers is this: While waiting on and working toward laws to be changed, we have a moral and ethical responsibility to care for the women coming to our center. Compassion and concern are the centerpieces of this care.
3. The Bible speaks of an absence of judgment or prejudice
I John 4:20 says this: If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is – what? a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
A general rule of Bible interpretation is that a passage cannot be contradictory but can have a number of applications. In context, this Bible verse refers to our love, concern and respect for fellow believers; by way of application, how can we say we love God whom we haven’t seen while disregarding or esteeming less the person made in God’s image, believer or unbeliever?
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center?
Heartbeat’s Commitment of Care and Competence is upheld by training in our centers. Do we allow the Holy Spirit to dig even deeper as to our motives or do we allow the media or our personal views to influence our interactions with recent immigrants?
Most of our staff speak one or two languages. Scholars tell us our Lord Jesus spoke in at least two different languages, Greek and Aramaic and Hebrew.
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center?
Besides our client’s level of understanding of English -
The obvious example of patience is our Lord Jesus. We are told that the patience of Jesus
Christ is seen in his relationships with people and in his perseverance through trial and
suffering and death.
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center?
As we reach recent immigrants to make a life connection, we need great patience. Besides the obvious pressing concerns of those in crisis, immigrants bring to the table unique challenges in the areas of language, customs, education, job skills, influences, fears and expectations that may be associated to their recent journey to America.
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center? Listen to the stories of the immigrants. Show concern for where they’ve come from and where they wish to go in their life. Listen, but be directive, not passive. Yes, our clients make choices but we need to share truth with them, which never changes, even for those of different cultures.
Compassion, concern, absence of judgment or prejudice, language skills, patience, listening and responding and finally,
7. Jesus showed spiritual
concern
John 4:13-14 ‘13 Jesus answered and said to (the woman at the well) “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”’
How do we apply it to our work in the pregnancy center?
Yes, our client has physical and emotional needs but her greatest need is spiritual and we have the ‘water of life’. Are we focusing on sharing this with each of our clients?
Look around, look back, finally
III: Look Forward
A look forward must include a look up – the benefits of making the gospel first as we reach recent immigrants.
The procedure of ‘Spiritual Intervention’ - These ideas are from Hope National,
whose motto is ‘Bringing Christ into the Choice for Life’
The goals in every client interview must include:
How are these Goals achieved? Through
Rev. Curt Young, one of the early founders of the prolife movement in America once said that to fail to address the clients spiritual need will lead to frustration and ineffectiveness in ministry.
Many centers have already seen that as they’ve added countless programs to guide the client into right decision making. Although most if not all are helpful, they don’t address the clients real need and therefore keep the client on a behavior treadmill which isn’t victorious and far from what God intended for them.
�����HELP YOUR CLIENTS TO KNOW THE TRUTH AND TO GET OUT OF THE DARKNESS:��MANY CENTERS HAVE ALREADY SEEN THAT AS THEY’VE ADDED COUNTLESS PROGRAMS TO GUIDE THE CLIENT INTO RIGHT DECISION MAKING. ALTHOUGH MOST IF NOT ALL ARE HELPFUL, THEY DON’T ADDRESS THE CLIENTS REAL NEED. ��THEY KEEP THE CLIENT ON A BEHAVIOR TREADMILL WHICH ISN’T VICTORIOUS AND FAR FROM WHAT GOD INTENDED FOR THEM.�������
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I recently spoke with Pastor Horn, who leads a Lutheran congregation in California. Here are his four (4) suggestions on how to share the gospel with recent immigrants.
1. Start mission work with prayer. Regularly in our congregational prayers, we’ll say something like, ‘Lord, please bless those who have wandered from You and draw them back. Bless those who don’t know You, and let them know this to be a place where they can see Your light.’”
2. Offer resources in a language the non-Christian can read. They may have a graduate degree but have no knowledge of the Bible. Share the gospel in a way to connect with her. One writer gave an example: All the stories were there in the Farsi language to start making a connection between Adam and Eve and Christ, from Abraham to Jesus.’ Unless we reach people where they are, we’ll lose them.
This is good advice whether you are sharing the gospel or talking to a client about abortion. Start the discussion where they are, not where you are in your faith or knowledge of prolife issues.
Pastor Horn gives a real-life example of reaching out to immigrants: ‘Farah was raised Muslim, but the Quran is in Arabic, and she doesn’t know Arabic,” “So two things stood out to her: (1) This was the first time in her life that she heard of a God who loves her. And (2) she could also for the first time comprehend God’s Word because she could read it in her own language, understanding what God’s message really is.
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3. Be flexible with cultural differences. When developing relationships with people from other countries, Pastor Horn suggests: ‘it’s important to just be a friend and walk alongside them,” “It’s also important to be sensitive to differences regarding interactions between men and women, or relationships between the young and old, or regarding position and respect, shame, things like that.’
4. Finally - Just try.
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Three helpful hints as we close out
our session
Helpful Hint # 1: Focus on follow up that includes you but centers on Christ and the people in your clients immediate circle. For the immigrant, inviting them to your church is an excellent idea, as long as your church welcomes and incorporates the immigrant into the local church.
Pastor Daniel Chan from California gives us a good Biblical illustration: Jesus refused to allow a demon-possessed man he had healed to follow him, but rather told him to go home to his friends in the Decapolis (a region of 10 cities in Eastern Palestine) and tell them of the Lord’s work and mercy (Mark 5:18–20).
Point your client to a church, call the church ahead of time, or do what some of our volunteers do – offer to take them to your church
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Helpful Hint # 2: In the form of a question: Doesn’t attempting to reach recent immigrants for life mean that my culture, my ethnicity, and my values may be challenged? Answer: Yes, but it's worth it. The One Mission Society, based in Indiana, presents five reasons we need to step out of our comfort zone.
1. Firstly, immigrants make up a large portion of the US population - An incredible 13 percent of the population living in the United States are immigrants born in another nation. That’s 41,347,945 (read MILLION) people. What a mission field!
2. Secondly, immigrants are seeking friends and places of love – Someone has said this: When people arrive in a new country to live for the first time, they are often disorientated. Initially, everything that is new is often seen as different but interesting. But soon after arrival, it often changes to being uncomfortable and difficult to manage. Often, new immigrants search for people of their culture or language and live in close proximity to familiar food stores, cultural centers, and place of worship, which remind them of home and make the transition to living in the new country easier.
My Greek immigrant grandparents did just that, and that’s why you all have diners and enjoy ice cream and hot dogs!
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3. Thirdly, immigrants are open to new ideas and religion - The wonderful news is that a significant portion of immigrants are more open to new ideas, including religious beliefs, than their counterparts who stay in their nation of origin. Again, missions coming to us.
4. Lastly, Immigrants are the least reached mission fields at arm’s reach - Here in the U.S., there are immigrant populations from some of the hardest places on earth to reach with the Gospel. People in these nations are traditionally closed to Christianity, and the governments in these nations actually prevent evangelism. As these people see the church living their faith in Jesus through loving them, and as they understand their need for Christ, they often give their lives to him. What are immigrants hearing from you? – get out, go back where you came from! (probably not) but are they hearing ‘come to Christ’ and are you and your center using this great opportunity – this ‘window of opportunity’ to share the gospel with them?
5. Immigrants make ideal missionaries to their own people - As they are discipled and grow, they become great missionaries to their own people group.
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Matthew 13:3-23 is commonly known as the Parables of the Soul. Be sure to focus on a presentation that allows your client to bear ‘fruit that lasts’.
v. 19 – hearing but not understanding. Use terms that are understood by the clients generation, culture and possible educational level. Avoid the obvious terms ‘save the baby’ ‘prolife’, ‘receiving Christ’ (on this last one, it’s better to say ‘trusting Christ’s finished work on the Cross for your sins’ – after of course you share the need for repentance of sin.
v. 20 – hears, immediately receives it with joy but has no firm root in himself. Share the gospel (the need to repent and trust in the finished with of Christ on the Cross) not techniques. (an immediate, emotional response to an immediate crisis – fear, shame, poverty). We’ll look at the world’s techniques in a moment.
v. 22- hears the Word but it’s choked out by the world’s worry and the deceitfulness of riches For many clients this may be pressure from a boyfriend, finances, immigration status, employment, housing – all important but not the greatest immediate need.
v. 23 – Hears and bears fruit that lasts. The issue goes far beyond this crisis, this pregnancy, this decision.
Helpful Hint # 3: Don’t reinvent or create a ‘slick approach’; use methods that are in the Bible. Let’s look at just one of them.
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Now a word about the world’s techniques: The world’s techniques of reaching people need not be used to reach recent immigrants for life decisions or for eternal life decisions. What are those techniques? Behavioral modification, the world’s promises (if you can dream it you can achieve it), emotional hooks. A word about emotional hooks. The world of ‘sales’ employs methods. The gospel, though, has inherent power in God’s Word used by the Holy Spirit to reach people of all tribes and all nations.
1. The world says.. Tell them a good story. Useful when the ‘story’ centers on Christ and not them and it’s stated that this is a 100% true story.
2. The world says.. Leverage the Fear of Missing Out. Fear should not be a motivator planned on. Allow the Holy Spirit’s love to flow through you and ‘conviction’ will replace fear.
3. The world says.. Make Your Client Feel Special or Powerful. The gospel itself shows how special they are – Christ died for their sins personally. The power comes from their trust in His finished work on the Cross and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
4. The world says.. People need to feel accepted, liked, and important. Some use a social and emotional hook. Acceptance by God can naturally transition to her need for Christ now and for all eternity rather than on the benefits of salvation.
5. The world says.. Unanswered questions are intriguing. We have the truth. State the truth even while asking compelling questions.
6. THE WORLD SAYS.. MAKE EMPTY PROMISES OF MEETING THEIR GOALS AND PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT. DON’T SELL CHRIST AS A BETTER PRODUCT.� �7. THE WORLD SAYS.. USE HUMOR (ONLY IF IT COMES NATURALLY)� �8. THE WORLD SAYS.. SURPRISE YOUR AUDIENCE (THE GOSPEL FOR MOST IS ALREADY A SURPRISE. STAY ON MESSAGE)� �9. THE WORLD SAYS.. INCORPORATE POP CULTURE INTO YOUR CONTENT. NO NEED TO, YOU HAVE THE TRUTH. AS PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE’S TV DAD �SAYS, ‘THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION!’
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Some final thoughts and questions:
We are to be “making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16)
‘SPIRITUALLY LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD’
THE 6 ‘IF’S’
��IF LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD, THEN WE WILL OBEY JESUS LAST COMMAND �
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All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth... Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations Matt 28:18-20
IF LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD, THEN WE��WILL UNDERSTAND WHY JESUS CAME
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For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost Luke 19:10
There’s a real place called hell.
��IF LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD, THEN WE�WILL UNDERSTAND HIS LOVE FOR THE LOST��
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For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Jn 3:17-18
IF LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD, THEN WE REALIZE AN EXCLUSIVE TRUTH
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And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12
�IF LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD, THEN WE WILL REALIZE THAT THE TIME IS SHORT BEFORE HIS RETURN�
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The Lord is patient.. not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
2 Peter 3:9-10
IF LOST LIVES MATTER TO GOD, THEN WE WILL SACRIFICE OUR TIME, TALENT AND TREASURE FOR HIM�TO REACH RECENT IMMIGRANTS�
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Focus on the heart
2. Is He able to change a heart through
His Holy Spirit without our attempts at
changing behavior?
3. Can we ‘stay on mission’
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Thanks for listening. Let me know what you think!