Anthony Bedford was met during Reach2016 by Jeremiah Lindley, a brother from The Memphis Church. He was immediately opened to the power of God when seeing nearly 17,000 people worship together.
God made him eager for change, and he studied three to four times a week with brothers from St. Louis and Memphis (joining via Skype!). Anthony soon came to the conclusion that total devotion to God is the only possible response to God's sacrifice. He was baptized into Christ on Sunday, July 31!
Anthony will be part of the Columbia Church of Christ in Missouri near William Woods University where he is finishing his last year of a social work degree.
Impossible to ignore
Sometimes God works in ways that are impossible to ignore.
This was certainly the case during all of Reach 2016 — but, for me, this was especially clear on the last day of the summit. After Sunday worship, my wife Egle and I had some time to kill, so we spent it in downtown St. Louis, meeting up with friends before preparing to fly out the next day.
All of a sudden, as we rounded a corner, we saw a man walking up the street carrying a seven-foot cross on his shoulder — a real, wooden cross. At first I thought he was a construction worker. Egle and I looked at each other and said, “We’ve got to talk to this guy.”
So we approached the man, who was wearing heavy-duty boots, a hooded sweatshirt, and blue jeans. His name is Lorenzo and, to our amazement, he started sharing his faith with us. As it turned out, he had been traveling across several states with his cross in order to talk to people about God, encourage them, and pray for them. He uses his cross as a conversation piece.
(Note to self: The next time I go evangelizing, try carrying around a life-sized cross.)
After sharing about his life with us, he warned us to watch out for all of the false teachings in the modern church — such as “once saved, always saved” — and talked about the importance of actually obeying Jesus’ commands and living as his disciple. So I asked him if he would be willing to sit down and study the Bible with us. “Absolutely!” he responded.
We sat down in front of the Mississippi River on a bench and began listening to his life story. He’s about 40 years old, a former member of the military, and lives in Texas not far from Ft. Hood. He had bumped around several churches and knew all too well the shortcomings of the modern Christian world.
After some personal tragedies, Lorenzo had started seeking God, repenting, and living out discipleship as he saw it commanded in the Scriptures. As we studied the Scriptures late into the evening, the sun made its way over the St. Louis arch and set, leaving only the street lamps to illuminate our Bibles.
When we started reading about baptism, one thing became immediately clear to Lorenzo: He had never received a Scriptural baptism.
He pointed to the Mississippi River directly in front of us and said, “There’s water right here! Let’s do this thing!” We hadn’t even gotten to Acts 8 yet. Lorenzo had planned to drive back to Texas that night, but, instead, he booked a hotel room to spend the night in St. Louis and finish studying the Bible with us.
The next day, we met him in his hotel room to study. Tyler Moser, who leads a region in downtown St. Louis, joined us. After much careful study, prayer, and deliberation, Tyler and I asked Lorenzo what he had decided.
“I don’t see what we’re waiting for… Let’s do this!” he said.
We found a handful of disciples from San Diego in the lobby and invited them down to the hotel jacuzzi to be witnesses. Then, less than 24 hours from the time we met him, Lorenzo was baptized into the name of Jesus Christ and he is now your brother in the Lord!
After a faster-than-usual baptism celebration, we hopped into Lorenzo’s pick-up truck — with his cross in the back — and he dropped us off at the airport. The next morning, he met with Tyler for a follow-up study before returning to Texas. He is now a part of the Heart of Texas Church in our fellowship, just a short distance from where he lives.
In the weeks since the conference, Lorenzo’s humble and responsive heart continues to amaze me in every conversation we have.
You can call him an Apollos or you can call him an Ethiopian eunuch. But one thing is for sure: When Lorenzo sees the Scriptures, he believes he must immediately and radically obey them.
However blessed Lorenzo feels because of our “chance” encounter, I feel infinitely more so. I thank God that he has allowed us to be a part of his work in Lorenzo’s life. Truly, it is impossible to ignore.
Frank & Egle McDonnell lead the Southern Youth & Family Ministries in the Boston Church of Christ. They are graduates of Boston’s New England School of Missions and dream of serving on the mission field in Europe, where is Egle is from.