As a young actor about to head off into the dark, cruel, real world of the American theatre, I have often wrestled with the old adage above. “You don’t have to go into ministry to do ministry.” I know this to be true of course, and I have seen and heard about many examples of this in my life, but very few hit as close to home as this last week did.
This past week, my college roommate, and one of my best and strongest brothers in Christ took the stage as Jack Kelly in Broadway’s new hit musical, Newsies. Not only that, but I was lucky enough to win the ticket lottery and see him perform in his first evening performance as a Broadway star. Out of probably one hundred names, my name was chose. The Lord was smiling on me that day.
I sat in the audience and marveled at what a rare feat this was for a young actor, to have only graduated college three months prior, and now to be headlining one of Broadway’s hottest shows. This is not something that happens everyday, or ever for that matter. From the start I had a feeling that the Lord was doing something really special, although I was unable to see how at the time.
During the performance, I sat next to his fiancé and we began talking about what a wild ride this has been. She began to explain to me, as silly as it sounds, how much his Twitter account had been blowing up with followers over the past week. In just one week, he had gained nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter. For Kanye West, this is a normal day, but for a kid from Ohio who just got out of college, this is crazy. At first, I simply viewed this as a cool statistic about how popular my friend was getting. But then, as I stood outside after the show watching him sign autographs, I began to realize the spiritual implications of what was going on here.
Every night, when he takes the stage in front of over 1,000 people at the Nederlander Theater, he is gaining influence. In our culture that is overly saturated with negative news media and social media, he has the chance to be a positive force in those mediums. He has the opportunity to be a positive role model for the young actors who come and see the show. He can tweet Bible verses that go out to more and more people each day. He is now a leader in the Broadway community, and therefore, one of the more influential people in all of New York.
The sheer potential for influence that began to flood my mind was almost too much to handle, and as I watched my brother sign autographs and take pictures, I realized that the Lord could not have picked a better person for the job. His ability to meet people, and talk with them, and make then feel comfortable and loved is truly a gift that the Lord has given him, and now he has the ability, and responsibility to exercise it on a much larger scale.
This testimony was an answer to prayer for me, showing that we all have a place to serve people on their journey towards Christ. Some are presenters of the Gospel, and some are simply meant to be influential and grab the attention of the masses, while others are meant to grab the attention of an individual. We all have a different place to serve and a different calling to fulfill. The Lord has callings to give out and favor to bestow, now if only His people would open their hearts to receive their anointing, and run to fulfill their mission.
Go see NEWSIES!
-jon
This past week, my college roommate, and one of my best and strongest brothers in Christ took the stage as Jack Kelly in Broadway’s new hit musical, Newsies. Not only that, but I was lucky enough to win the ticket lottery and see him perform in his first evening performance as a Broadway star. Out of probably one hundred names, my name was chose. The Lord was smiling on me that day.
I sat in the audience and marveled at what a rare feat this was for a young actor, to have only graduated college three months prior, and now to be headlining one of Broadway’s hottest shows. This is not something that happens everyday, or ever for that matter. From the start I had a feeling that the Lord was doing something really special, although I was unable to see how at the time.
During the performance, I sat next to his fiancé and we began talking about what a wild ride this has been. She began to explain to me, as silly as it sounds, how much his Twitter account had been blowing up with followers over the past week. In just one week, he had gained nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter. For Kanye West, this is a normal day, but for a kid from Ohio who just got out of college, this is crazy. At first, I simply viewed this as a cool statistic about how popular my friend was getting. But then, as I stood outside after the show watching him sign autographs, I began to realize the spiritual implications of what was going on here.
Every night, when he takes the stage in front of over 1,000 people at the Nederlander Theater, he is gaining influence. In our culture that is overly saturated with negative news media and social media, he has the chance to be a positive force in those mediums. He has the opportunity to be a positive role model for the young actors who come and see the show. He can tweet Bible verses that go out to more and more people each day. He is now a leader in the Broadway community, and therefore, one of the more influential people in all of New York.
The sheer potential for influence that began to flood my mind was almost too much to handle, and as I watched my brother sign autographs and take pictures, I realized that the Lord could not have picked a better person for the job. His ability to meet people, and talk with them, and make then feel comfortable and loved is truly a gift that the Lord has given him, and now he has the ability, and responsibility to exercise it on a much larger scale.
This testimony was an answer to prayer for me, showing that we all have a place to serve people on their journey towards Christ. Some are presenters of the Gospel, and some are simply meant to be influential and grab the attention of the masses, while others are meant to grab the attention of an individual. We all have a different place to serve and a different calling to fulfill. The Lord has callings to give out and favor to bestow, now if only His people would open their hearts to receive their anointing, and run to fulfill their mission.
Go see NEWSIES!
-jon
