Wooed by the Word

Dean Flanders rolled into my life on a Triumph motorcycle in jeans, a T-shirt and a beat-up old James Dean leather jacket. And everything I ever believed about Christians was about to come to a screeching halt.

Dean was 5-foot-3, with jet black straight hair, dark, deep set eyes and was incredibly intense. He was supposed to be the new host for "Higher Power," the only Christian radio program at WCAR, where I worked as an engineer/announcer in a suburb of Michigan.

But our 6-foot-4 station manager, in a neatly pressed suit and tie, was not impressed. He towered over Dean and told him coldly that it was not yet determined whether he had the job or not. Dean calmly looked up and said, "Well, in the final analysis, what really matters is not what you or I say. If Jesus Christ wants me to have the job, I’ll have the job; if he doesn’t, I won’t."

And Jesus Christ obviously wanted him at WCAR.

I had never met a Christian like Dean. He was so apparently fearless. His faith was an absolute reality to him. And he was one of the most intelligent and articulate people I knew. I had come to the conclusion in my early 20s that born-again Christians were phonies, wimps, and intellectually inferior. God used Dean to single-handedly refute all three. And it struck the final blow in my proud wall of animosity toward Christianity -- a wall that had been teetering for quite some time.

An earlier host, Will Hatch, had tried to talk to me about his faith, but I shot him down with accusations that Christians were hypocritical phonies, carried away with an emotional "crutch." But Will challenged me with logic I had conveniently overlooked. He pointed out that it was unfair to judge Christ by His followers. He said that the followers of Christ are only human and may make huge mistakes and get it all wrong, but that doesn’t change at all who Christ is and what He said. I had to admit I had no answer for that.

Another program host tried to win me to Christ through Contemporary Christian music. Knowing I had a background in rock music, he kept giving me tapes of Phil Keaggy, Second Chapter of Acts and others. I looked down on the idea of accepting Christ just because some Christian musicians weren’t too bad, but I was truly touched by his sincere concern and persistence.

I was especially impressed by Keith Green’s music. He was so passionate and real, and his lyrics had guts and depth. I can’t say I always understood what he was singing about, but what I did understand struck a chord with me.

I remember talking to my girlfriend about it at one point when this Christianity stuff just wouldn’t go away. I asked her, "Do you ever wonder if it could really be true, after all?" And she said, "But it isn’t." I remember answering, "But wouldn’t it be cool if it were?"

When she was so quick to dismiss the whole idea without even considering it and was so impatient that I would consider it, it made me even more open to Christianity. Why would people find this so offensive that they wouldn’t even allow the possibility it could be true? What was so threatening to people that they would so hate this Jesus Christ? Maybe there really is something to this after all.

So when God finally brought a radical Christian like Dean Flanders into my world, I was primed.

Dean was in the recording studio one evening, taping a program for later. I needed to get some tapes in there, so I waited until the "On Air" light went off to go in. When I did, he was talking in a very animated fashion to his assistant, John, about the grace of God in saving men from sin. I acted busy, pretending that my task took me longer than it did.

I remember him quoting from Galatians and Romans, declaring that there was nothing man could do to save himself, but that Christ had done it all. He said that all man could do was cast himself upon the grace and mercy of God and simply believe.

Dean seemed slightly surprised but undisturbed as I actually pulled up a chair and silently listened on. Every verse he quoted was supplying the missing pieces to the puzzle of my mind. What I had never understood as a boy sitting in the pew of our church was why so much depended on me to get to Heaven if Jesus was supposed to be the Savior?

It had traumatized me as a 12-year-old thinking that I had probably already disqualified myself anyway. I had some vague idea that going to Heaven required believing in God and Jesus, keeping the Ten Commandments and going to church. And I knew I had already broken the Ten Commandments. So how could I ever get there?

What I didn’t realize until that night with Dean was that Christ had done it all. All I needed to do was believe it. And later that night, the teetering wall of resistance finally came tumbling down -- and I believed.

Now at 26, I felt like God had handed me a brand new life and the opportunity to find the one thing that I had always longed for even since boyhood -- a noble purpose. I didn’t want to just exist. I wanted a life work that was meaningful and significant. Something that would make a real difference in the world. And broadcasting was definitely not it. But I had no idea what it was.

Three years later, I was invited to attend a mission conference in Wisconsin. The day before I left, my friend told me, "Ernie, whatever you do, don’t get lost in downtown Waukesha, because you’ll never get out again."

As it turned out, her words came true.

I did get lost in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and in driving around aimlessly for several hours, came across an interesting looking old building on a hill. Like a huge, beautiful magnet, it drew me for a closer look. As I came up the brick drive, the stone sign read, "New Tribes Bible Institute." That stunned me. Everywhere I turned lately I kept hearing about New Tribes Mission. Now curious to see the inside, I went in and asked for directions.

After finding my way back to the conference and seeing the slide presentation, "Each Stick Had a Name," I did become a missionary with New Tribes Mission. But it wasn’t until several years later that I finally discovered the area of ministry that was it for my life personally. The kind you eat, sleep, breathe and drink, because God made you that way. But most of all, the kind of work that makes you want to get up in the morning because you know it’s leaving a lasting mark.

I found out that I absolutely loved reading and studying God’s Word, both on my own and during the formal Bible and missionary training with NTM. And I became so enamored with the truths of our identification and position in Christ that I literally couldn’t stop talking about it. I felt that if I didn’t tell someone, I would pop from the sheer excitement. So I took every opportunity I could to share those truths with others. And after speaking in chapel on one occasion, I was asked to come teach at that same wonderful old building on the hill in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I packed up my family and couldn’t get there fast enough.

For me, it was the perfect culmination of all that God had brought me through. Having fought so hard against all the claims of Christianity, now God would use me to expound on them.

Every day I get to stand before our future missionaries and make the case for Christ -- preparing them to do the same for tribal people all around the world. And there is a joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in that beyond what I ever could have known or hoped for.