Meet some people who are thrilled to live on the edge for God

by Sandra Reimer

In the spring of 2007, Nigel Paul (name changed) visited a house church in a remote, northern Pakistan village near a terrorist training camp in a region known to be an Al-Qaeda stronghold. As he entered a small, roofless courtyard surrounded by hostile neighbours he thought to himself, “This is not the safest place in the world.” He put his life in God’s hands as he proceeded to preach the gospel through a translator to about 30 people. Why would he take such a risk?

Dr. Frank H. Farley, a psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia has been studying risk taking for more than 20 years. He categorizes people who seek stimulation through taking risks as “Type T” personalities (T for thrill). These men and women prefer unpredictability, uncertainty, novelty, complexity, ambiguity, low structure, high tension and high conflict.

Their need for adventure can be met negatively through substance abuse, promiscuous sex or riding a motorcycle at insane speeds without a helmet. More constructively, Type T’s may go white water rafting, invest in a promising but risky business initiative, or invent something.

Like many guys, Paul admits he loves adventure. “Some people seem to think that desiring or appreciating adventure isn’t spiritual. But the Bible is full of adventure.” Yet his desire seems deeper than a need for self-centred thrills.

Stifled by the status quo

Shawn Birss and his wife Kate reach out to punks and activists in Edmonton through an incarnational community and their church, Look to the Cross for Victory. Birss’s transformation from a suburban pastor to a punk-loving radical started out as dissatisfaction with the status quo.

He attended Christian school and later Bible college. At 21 he was a high-achieving youth pastor at a church in Calgary. He led worship, ran a youth ministry, went to school full-time and was even the student-body president. “I was very successful in this bubble but I didn’t want to be part of it anymore,” says Birss.

On his way to work at the church, Birss rode the bus with people who asked him for money and cigarettes—people he didn’t have time for sitting behind his desk “doing ministry.” But Birss was drawn to misfits. He would often watch punks from a lounge that was four storeys up. “I wanted to touch the people that others weren’t touching.”

Three years later, Birss was on staff with a Lethbridge, Alberta church plant that ran a sparsely attended drop-in. He wished youth hanging out on the streets would come. Then he had an idea. The church distributed 400 flyers inviting punks to a redesigned drop-in that included a live band and free food.

To their surprise, 75 people came to the first event. After the show, Birss mounted the stage and said, “This is our gift to you. We just want you to know we love you and Jesus loves you.” The punks booed and tried to drown him out. After they left, Birss found garbage everywhere and graffiti in the bathroom.

Despite the mess, Birss was over the moon that 75 people who never attend church were inside his church. To the punks’ amazement, he invited them back. The following week 85 people came to Punk After School Special or Punk A.S.S. for short. Many strong relationships were formed as Birss and the youth shared their lives.

Finding God through risk

More important than meeting their need for an adrenaline rush, men like Birss and Paul get to know God as they live an adventure with meaning and purpose.

Birss painting a leather jacket. Over the years, Birss has adopted punk dress. Sometimes people believe that this is what enables him to do his ministry. “My leather jacket doesn’t make me capable to love punks anymore than Peter being a fisherman makes him capable of walking on water,” says Birss. Instead he chalks it up to obedience and love. “Jesus said go there, love there. All credit goes to the One who says go.”

Jay Gurnett, assistant executive director of Vision Ministries Canada (VMC), a church-planting and leadership development organization with Brethren roots, is well acquainted with risk takers. In the last 17 years, VMC has helped launch approximately 45 new initiatives—including many church plants.

The people Gurnett works with dare to answer God’s call even when challenges are guaranteed but a salary is not. “When you have to put something on the line, you learn that God is real.”

Paul agrees. Though he is a successful young entrepreneur, after returning from Pakistan he moved into the kind of high-poverty, high-crime Toronto neighbourhood that most people avoid. “Suddenly, in this place of need, where I was pretty hopeless and useless on my own, I needed God. And He showed up.”

Living in community, Paul and friends pray together regularly, letting the Holy Spirit lead them as they interact with their neighbours—many of whom are immigrants from countries closed to the gospel. “I love seeing God make good on His promise to set captives free. I love praying—I love the deep fellowship of intimate, unity-of-purpose, in-the-battle, Christian community,” he said.

“When I meet bored Christians who are looking for the radical God they read about in the Bible, I can’t help but shout, ‘I’ve found Him! He’s in the places the Christians don’t want to live in!’” Paul invites other young Christians to live incarnationally in high-needs Toronto and Ottawa communities through MoveIn (www.movein.to), an organization he started in 2009.

Birss and Paul feel alive as they serve God passionately. In the end that seems to be more satisfying than the temporary thrill of driving fast or jumping off a cliff. Birss adds, “We have 70 some years on this planet—that’s not very long; it’s over in a flash. I want to live as many of those moments for Jesus as possible.”

Sandra Reimer is freelance writer and publicist. She runs Reimer Reason Communications and serves on the editorial advisory board for SEVEN.

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The article above was featured in the September 2009 issue of SEVEN magazine. For more information on SEVEN magazine, or to sign up to receive SEVEN, Click Here.