“He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…”
Luke 4:19a

The following post is from a series of blogs from the CBFVA Vision Team in preparation for the CBFVA General Assembly 2011. The theme of the assembly is “Beautiful Witness. Being Baptists Together. Doing God’s Mission” and the focal text is Luke 4:18-19.

This week’s blog was written by Joshua Hearne, pastor and a founding member of Grace and Main Fellowship in Danville, Virginia. Until the Grace and Main website is active, you can find out more about Grace and Main by emailing the community at graceandmain@gmail.com, or view Joshua’s other blog posts at www.ttstm.com.

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Chris and Laura showed up on a Thursday night to have dinner with our community. We’re a non-traditional Christian community of people, committed to making disciples (not members) and to addressing the needs of downtown Danville by a ministry of presence, stability, prayer, and social action. Chris and Laura came with Matt, one of our leaders, and seemed a little apprehensive at first. So, we behaved as usual: we broke bread together before offering them a plate and told them what was in the assorted bowls and dishes. We ate, we learned a little about them, they learned a little about us, and an entire set of relationships were started.

After the meal, we drank from our common cup and went into the living room to read scripture together and talk about what it means for our lives as individuals and as a community. It was evident that Laura spoke the language of “Bible study” but Chris seemed a little more distant and disconnected—he was listening, but he wasn’t asking the questions that were clearly on his mind. As the night closed, Chris asked, “Look, do you guys really think God loves you? Like, for real, like God cares about people?” We nodded and shared a little more of our stories and our amazement that a good God would spend time with broken people like us. Chris had more questions, but they would wait for another night.

We found out that Laura had recently been released from jail for possession of crack cocaine and for a slew of other charges that went along with her addiction. Neither Chris, nor Laura, have led a perfect life before or since that night we met over baked chicken and sweet potatoes, but then, real stories don’t end that way. They’ve both been back to jail since that first night, but they know they have a place where they can come and be safe. They know they have a place where they can be free from the addictions and challenges that haunt their every waking hour, with brothers and sisters who oppose the captors that prey upon them. They’re not perfect, but then neither are we.

The truth is: captivity comes in more than one form. To make a sanctuary for a brother or a sister who has been beaten down by the world and told that they are of little importance and will amount to less, is to proclaim release to the captive—it is to believe in freedom in the face of slavery. Chris and Laura are on their way out of Egypt, and that doesn’t mean they don’t look back fondly, but they’re taking steps a day at a time that will lead them to the same freedom that each of us so desperately seeks. This spring, we will have the sublime privilege of baptizing our brother Chris and our sister Laura as a sign, neither of their perfection or their current freedom from captivity, but as a sign of the promise that Jesus had made to them: release from all that binds them.

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To review other blogs in this assembly series, please visit www.cbfva.org/blog.