My Growing Burden For The Northeast

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Often when you leave an area, you realize how great it was.

As I sit in one of the buckles of the Bible belt, I’m feeling more and more of a burden for Philadelphia, New York and Boston...the Northeast seaport. Frankly...its easy to do ministry in a part of the Bible belt or a very Christian-centric region. Most of our massive mega-churches are in areas like this. Texas has a million of them.

But what about the northeast? Why have we been seeking to set up churches in a place that is easy, rather than sending people to a place that has more and more sent to an eternity in hell. Plain and simple...we need to begin to start attacking the northeast. It is a HARD area of ministry, however, we can’t keep staying in our Christian utopias and patting ourselves on the back while millions go to a Christless eternity. Since when should easiness be a deciding factor in ministry location? Isn’t that more about the self-affirmation a person desires by seeing throngs of baptisms? They can then brag about the thousands they baptized.

They would be greater celebration in my heart to see 3 converts in the northeast than 150 in the Bible belt. That being said...I think its clear that post-seminary, I will be venturing back to the Northeast. Philly would be the easiest place, Boston the hardest. Maybe its time to start attacking Satan on his turf.