by Dave Reynolds, national team leader for Church Multiplication
Remember the animated Christmas classic, “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer?” Rudolf found himself on the “Island of Misfit Toys,” the place for rejects that didn’t make the cut by some untold standard. Rudolf himself was a misfit, but in the end, he became the hero.
God works through misfits. As we read in Acts 11 and 13 about the church in Antioch, we find that it started because some Jews broke the cultural barrier and started sharing Christ with the Gentiles for the first time (Acts 11:20). The Antioch church emerged as a young, initially immature, multicultural congregation on the edges of Jerusalem.
When the believers in Antioch heard of a need in Judea, these apparent misfits sent aid to Jerusalem. They did something with what they had instead of focusing on what they lacked, much like many of our Alliance church planters (see Acts 11:27–30).
Grace for the Prisoner
Myron Pierce, C&MA pastor and church planter, grew up in a single-parent home in Village One, Omaha, Nebraska’s most impoverished community. Both of his parents were drug addicts, and his mother was in and out of prostitution.
Myron got involved with drugs and gangs; by age 16, he had dropped out of high school and was facing a 100-year prison sentence. Bobby, the chaplain at the detention center, visited regularly to tell Myron and his fellow inmates about Jesus.
“It seemed like the reality of this Jesus and the reality of where I was living were too far removed,” Myron says. “I didn’t give in to Christ because I thought I was too far gone.”
Myron’s sentence was reduced to three years, so in 2001, he was back on the street in the same neighborhood with the same friends. Five months later, he faced a 200-year sentence.
Feeling hopeless, Myron dropped to his knees in his cell, looked up with his hands raised over his head, and prayed, “God, I’m destroying my life. But if you change me, I’ll serve you for the rest of it.”
At that moment, Myron experienced a love he had never felt before. Not long after, he was told that he would be released in 2008.
“As I was walking out of the courtroom,” Myron recalls, “I heard a whisper inside my heart, saying, Myron, I still have a plan for you. It’s not over. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. I love you.”
Planting Churches to Reach the Inner City
Since then, Myron has planted six churches. The most recent is Mission Church in Village One, the neighborhood where Myron grew up. On average, 263 people attend each service. Of the 32 who have come to know Christ as their Savior and Lord, 10 made the decision at the first service in September 2017.
“There’s been a stirring in my heart to unleash unprecedented hope in every inner city around the world,” Myron says. His congregation is partnering with others in the area to plant 15 churches in Village One by 2021. Mission Church will launch its first plant in September 2018.
“I know I should be dead and if not dead, still in prison, but God loves me,” Myron marvels. “I’m a living example of how when you accept the free grace of God, everybody wins.”
God continues to work through misfits like Myron to share the love and hope of Christ through the U.S. Alliance church-planting movement. If you would like to read more stories like this one, please visit our Church-Planting Sunday article.