A call to urgency (Now THIS will get your attention!)

This was shared at my church a couple of weeks ago.


Brian Warner had joined a youth group, but he was a sort of outcast in it. I mean, the youth pastor would talk to him for a little, but then he would go talk to the more popular and more responsive kids. So Brian never got plugged in to this youth group, and never really was made to feel welcome.

One day, the youth group to a trip to an amusement park. The youth director announced once they had arrived for everyone to pair off. Soon, everyone had a partner. Except for one. No one would be a partner to Brian Warner. Soon after that, he left the youth group.

Years later, the old director had retired and a kid that was formally in the youth group had taken over. One day, the old director got a call from the new director. The new director said,

"Hey, do you remember that kid that was in our youth program a couple of years ago? Brian Warner? He wasn't really popular or anything."

"Yeah," the old director replied. "Vaguely."

"Well," the new one began, "He isn't called Brian Warner anymore."

"No?" The old director was confused. "What is he called?"

"Marilyn Manson."

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How does this make you feel? If one person in that youth group had dared to go against the flow, dared to reach out a helping hand to poor searching Brian Warner, then maybe he wouldn't have become Marilyn Manson. Maybe, just maybe, instead of having a violent persecutor of the Christian faith, we would've had a man on fire for God, passionately promoting it, declaring it to the world. All it took was one person to say a kind word, or befriend him. Or stand up and volunteer to be his partner. But no one did. And it changed the entire course of hundreds of peoples' lives.

I'm pretty sure he was not saved. What breaks my heart is that, someone slipped through the cracks. What bugs me even more is that i don't know if I would've had to courage to help him. I'm not blaming the youth group, they just did what everyone else, including me, would've most likely done. This is just a call to urgency: the outcasts of society matter too. Some of us don't realize this until it's too late. I want to prevent this. Ever since i heard this story i have been ministering to even the weirdest people i know in my school (anarchists, heathenist) because everyone can be saved. As Christians we are called to love our neighbor. This is the one rule we break too often...and now that i realize that i am guilty of sitting by and watching, and even sometimes joining in, i feel like crying. That's why i posted this. It's a call to conviction, no one's placing blame. But there are other Brian Warners out there that we still have contact with everyday. I want to encourage people to have to courage to stand up for anyone, so matter the personal cost.

Though I have many friends that are being raised in non-Christian households, I was blessed with two wonderful, Christian, righteous people for parents. I learned from a young age that I had to choose to accept Jesus, and they made sure I knew the facts, but still came to my own decision. This, I feel, is a great way to raise a child, and how I plan to raise my childre. My parents are the people I hold in the highest esteem. But I know that not everyone is raised this way from my friends with horrible home lives, and friends with parents who just don't care what they do.

Secondly, I learned the hard way how clicky some churches can be. I recently switched to a nondenominational church where a lot of my friends go, because the Methodist church I was going to was not sufficient. There was an almost non-existant youth group, and the youth was made up of two clicks, and even though I went there for almost 5 years, I never made more than two friends. So I finally got fed up and switched. This is why that story touched me so much, I know what it feels like to be rejected, because I have been, a LOT. I just ended up going to the different extreme, because of great parents and a wonderful moral structure in my home.

I have been so touched by this story, that I have done my best to change. I stopped joining in, and have even started to stand up a bit. Because that is what we are called to do, and that is what's important.