Article 3 of 4 in the "Culture Changing Church" Category.
How our pro-life clinics, sidewalk counselors and related nonprofits (including legal/political action groups) can use their leverage to change the way the church has responded to abortion.
Don't have time read?
Listen instead.
As I hover over this keyboard, I find myself at a loss for how to adequately praise the people who work on the frontlines of the abortion crisis. I’m talking about the sidewalk counselors, crisis pregnancy clinicians and those who run related nonprofits. It’s a gut-wrenching calling. You deal with life and death moments on a regular basis doing your absolute best to persuade moms in difficult and sometimes even tragic circumstances. It's a stressful job, on par with any first responder and it comes with a cost. Without sufficient support, it will inflict real trauma on your heart, mind and soul. Operating in this space over a prolonged period can lead to significant fatigue, depression and even cynicism and eventually, loss of empathy. Regardless, you say, “Yes, I’ll stand in the gap and wave a flag of hope and help to all who will come and see.”
Your efforts have been valiant and significant. If you’re affiliated with Care Net and their 1,200 crisis pregnancy centers nationwide, they say, you change the minds of approximately 67,000 moms who darken your door every year. That’s enough to fill every seat in a mid-sized football stadium with a newborn baby. It may not be the 10 stadiums filled with babies we’ve lost to abortion every year1, but it’s truly remarkable, especially when you’ve done it with one arm tied behind your back. Meaning, you’ve been able to change the minds of desperate moms without being able to offer them the full gospel that Jesus preached, the complete good news they long for, what they were made for…what God desires for them from all of us. Imagine what might happen if you could.
You may be aware that over half (500,000) of the abortions committed in our land stem from moms living at or below the poverty line. These are moms stuck in cyclical, generational patterns of destruction, who have lost their dignity, their purpose…who feel forgotten or left behind. What if, in a more complete partnership with the church, we could make these moms a better offer? What if we could make a public and personal offer of a new life in a new kingdom, a kingdom where they were put on a path toward experiencing unconditional love, grace, justice, mercy, dignity, purpose…restoration? In other words, what if in a very real way, we could effectively connect these moms and hopefully the dads to the kind of community Jesus designed to usher in the life they long for…the local church?
As it stands today, if you’re like most clinics, nonprofits or sidewalk counselors, that’s not the kind of partnership you have with your local churches. You’re unable to connect them to your local church in any sort of meaningful way. Your partnerships are one of financial and/or volunteer support which is good, but it stops short of what God wants for these moms/kids. He doesn't just want life for these kids but the abundant life for all involved. Tragically, that’s the difference between the church changing the culture on this issue and only persuading 15% of moms who have abortions to choose life.
See, when those of you on the frontlines can’t speak of or offer the kingdom to these moms, in this manner, when you can’t say, “I’ve got people ready and waiting right now who will love, serve, sacrifice and care for you, not just for nine months but a lifetime,” we fail to use our most persuasive tool. Because our current partnerships with the church lack intentional and effective ways to connect these moms to one of their life-giving, long-term, shepherding communities, … the new kingdom, we can’t expect to change hearts and minds made for so much more. Bottles, blankets, buggies, onesies, ultrasounds, parenting classes, prenatal vitamins, etc, are all good and needed, but they can’t be expected to persuade or influence the vast majority of the desperate moms who obviously never, ever come to us.
Because we stop short, because that’s all we can currently offer these moms, it’s given us the reputation we only care that the child is born and then we’ll leave them to struggle on their own. Most of you know this and are extremely frustrated by it. You’ve told me time and again how you’re thankful for the church’s financial support but oh how you wish you could offer these moms more. You wish your partnering churches would complete the circle of care, playing the role only they can play. You wish their leaders would remind their members that the kingdom cannot advance without personal sacrifice and risk. You wish they would tell their members that unless they offer to come alongside these moms for a lifetime, our current efforts to change the culture on the issue are in vain. To your frustration, I say, “Good.” It means you haven’t hit the final stage of cynicism and loss of empathy yet. The ”good fight” is still within you.
If I could appeal to that fight, to that courageous and faith-filled part of you that led you to this work in the first place, I would tell you this. Whether you want it or not, you all may be our last hope to change the church’s response and change the culture on this issue once and for all. Here’s how you can do that.
The reason I ask you to draw upon your courage and “faith-filledness” is because as someone who runs a nonprofit and is responsible for raising all your mission critical funds, it’s going to require you to resist your fears, take a risk and go against what the fundraising “experts” have always told you and probably what you’ve been doing for years.
The current perception throughout Christendom is that what you currently do as pro-life clinics, sidewalk counselors, related nonprofits (including legal/political action groups) is the best we can do to fight against abortion. This is perpetuated by WHAT we choose to share by way of success stories of our ministries. That we share those stories to raise necessary funds is of course of utmost importance. (See numbers above.) However, when we present what we do in such a way that makes our donors believe “we’re winning” or leave them thinking, “they’ve got this covered!” we’re doing the body of Christ and the advancement of His kingdom a great disservice. The numbers of saved lives are significant, but the losses are even more so. When we follow the fundraising experts advice and only tell the positives, leaving out the huge numbers of lives we’re still losing, the growing problem of easier access to the abortion pill, the repeat moms, the demographics we consistently serve, etc, etc,….it prevents us all from asking the question of “What are we missing?” The numbers aren’t consistent with a, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” church narrative. Telling only these stories in this way unwittingly blinds the body of Christ, our church leaders, our donors from seeing the vital roles we desperately need them to play, the roles which would complete the circle of care God wants from us and help return the church to the culture changing force it once was.
So instead, because you hold such sway over Christendom on this issue, because you’ve been dubbed the experts, they need to hear you say, “We can’t and were never meant to provide the long-term care and support these moms need and is necessary to change most of their minds. Only God’s people, publicly committing to come alongside them, sacrificing their comfort and security, pledging to love, serve, shepherd and restore over a lifetime can do that. In other words, if we offer anything less to these moms and dads it forces us to negotiate with them from a position of weakness instead of one of influence. And if we can’t connect moms and dads to you in an intentional and effective way, then it’s unrealistic to think we’ll ever change the culture. The church is the hope of the world.”
By all means, please continue to make much of your role in this crisis but resist the temptation to make more of it than you should. You have a significant role to play but the church needs to see the importance of theirs as well. As an action step, please, make it a point to sit down with your partnering churches and explain how if you had the ability to offer moms the full gospel, the gospel Jesus proclaimed, it would make all the difference in the world. Always has. Always will. That gospel is powerful. These videos will help you explain how.
As a final action step, please consider taking our pledge and registering your clinic or related nonprofit on ProMomProBaby.org/Register. Doing so will put a marker of your organization on our map giving moms searching for abortion an opportunity to see all the help that’s out there. It’ll help the church change her reputation, perhaps get a lot more moms to darken your doors and as a result, change a lot more minds and even one day, the culture.
May God give you the courage to sound the alarm. Peace and grace to you.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Gal. 6:9