Who Is My Neighbor?

News: Joe McKeever
Tuesday, September 27, 2005

I baptized Marshall and Barbara Sehorn a few years back. In the 50's and 60's, Marshall was a promoter in the Black rhythm and blues industry. He has tales to tell which someone ought to turn into a book. Like the time he toured the country with a busload of Black entertainers and him the only white guy. They pulled into his mother's driveway one Sunday morning after an all-night drive and she cooked them breakfast. That was Concord, North Carolina, in the days when this sort of thing raised eyebrows and hackles.

Marshall signed Gladys Knight to her first recording contract. In her autobiography, she tells of the time he came to their Atlanta home and persuaded Mrs. Knight to let her 16-year-old sensation Gladys go to New York City with her Pip cousins by inviting the mother to go along. "He was the biggest white man I had ever seen," she wrote.

In Marshall's home, you will see a huge framed photo of Paul and Linda McCartney and their daughters alongside Marshall and Barbara. Turns out Marshall produced a record for McCartney and his group "Wings" some years back. Along with a couple of friends, Marshall wrote a song "One Way Out" which the Allman Brothers Band scored big with, and which was featured in the "Almost Famous" movie a couple of years back. That's Marshall's tag now: "One Way Out." Ask him about it and he will not mention the song. "It's all about Jesus," he will say.

Twenty-five years after Marshall and Barbara were married, they renewed their vows before all the same music crowd who attended their original wedding. They gave a strong Christian witness to their faith in Jesus Christ and a testimony to what He had done in their lives.

Every place is unique, no question about it. Serve the Lord in Poplarville, Mississippi, and you will have people in your congregation unlike anywhere else in the world. The same can be said for Jasper, Alabama, or Beckley, West Virginia, or Laconia, New Hampshire, or your town.

The challenge for the people of the Lord is to speak to the people in the community where we live in terms they will understand. And no one does that better than the local people who have come to know Christ and who then turn around and tell their friends.

That happened in Scripture in a way that still serves as a great role model.

In Mark 5, after a man driven mad by demons was healed by Jesus, he wanted to leave everything and follow Jesus wherever He went. No, said the Lord. "Go home to your friends and tell them what the Lord has done for you and how He has had compassion on you."

Mark tells us, "So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed."

Two chapters later--at the end of Mark 7--when the Lord returns to that area, people meet Him bringing their needy friends. Soon a bigger crowd gathers and the Lord performs one of His greatest miracles, the feeding of the 4,000 (Mark 8).

People tell me, "My neighbor needs the Lord. Pastor, would you go visit them?" I say, "Nope. You go first. The Lord put you next door to them for a reason. They will see me as the professional. But they know you. They believe in you. So you go first. Then, next time I'll go with you."

Each one bearing a witness for Christ in our own circle. That's the plan.

Joe McKeever is the Director of Missions in New Orleans, LA