Miles McPherson by Outreach Inc

How

The Rock Got Its

Foundation

Miles McPherson THE OUTREACH INTERVIEW B y S c o t P H O T O G R A P H Y

t B Y

M a r s h a l l m att m c f ar l a n d

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Miles McPherson THE OUTREACH INTERVIEW A former starting safety for the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers and currently the pastor of one of the Largest and Fastest-Growing Churches in America (No. Your new book refers to “white hippies” witnessing 19 and No. 36, respectively), Miles McPherson is no stranger to the spotto you when you were 19. Starting with that, lead light. He’s the founder and leader of The Rock Church in San Diego and me through how you became a Christian. the national youth ministry Miles Ahead. He has spoken at conferences nationwide and has written six books—including the soon-to-be-released I was waiting for my girlfriend as she was getting off work. My Do Something! Making Your Life Count (Baker). He spoke at the 2008 friends were there; we had been smoking pot. And these hippies Republican National Convention, has appeared on national network news walked up. They came over to me, had Bibles in their hands, and I knew programs and emerged last year as a leading voice in the gay-marriage dewhat they were saying was true. I intuitively knew that we’re people of bate as he supported a California proposition that permits only marriage between a man and a woman. However, his notoriety is far removed from his middle-class upbringing in a largely segregated neighborhood on Long Island, N.Y., in the 1960s and 1970s. One of five children born to a father who worked as a police officer and Miles McPherson’s latest book, Do Somemother who toiled as a nurse, his football skill thing! Making Your Life Count, is the basis of led him to the University of New Haven and, a new churchwide campaign from Outreach ultimately, the NFL. But he also experienced Inc., this magazine’s parent company, to help firsthand the scourge of drug use, from the church attendees increase their impact on the marijuana he began smoking at 16 to the counchurched and live a life of significance. A caine he snorted as a young professional athlete church campaign kit, the book and a smalluntil he finally submitted to God’s call on his group study guide, and outreach tools are life 25 years ago. available. (Baker Publishing Group is releasToday, McPherson exudes enthusiasm and ing the book for sale to the public in January.) energy and a commitment to spread the Gospel. For more information on the campaign, visit DoSomethingOutreach.com. He recently spoke to Outreach about his life experiences, his dependence on God and his Do Something! Making Your Life Count (Baker, 2010) views of ministry today. “You and I are not messiahs, of course, but just as Jesus came to do something to love this world, we too have a mandate to do something loving and in our own small way, to bring hope to someone who is hopeless. Just as God made What were you exposed to spiriall the necessary preparations for Jesus to accomplish His purpose, He has tually as a child? done the same for our success as well.” We went to Catholic Church every I Don’t Want Your Sex for Now (Bethany House, 2001) Sunday. My mother had five kids in six years. We’d sit there in a row in our suits, and Parenting the Wild Child (Bethany House, 2000) we wouldn’t peep. We’d kneel down, stand up, genuflect, boom, boom, boom, sign of the cross. Bad to the Bone: Fifteen Young Bible Heroes Who Lived Radical Lives for God I don’t think our father came to church one (Bethany House, 1999) time, other than maybe at Christmas and a wedding. We did first Communion and confir21 Jump-Start Devotional: Getting Started on Your Incredible Christian Life mation, but it was more of religion and going (Bethany House, 1999) through the motions. When I left the church in ninth grade, I never went back. The Power of Believing in Your Child (Bethany House, 1998)

BOOKS BY MILES

Q A

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“Don’t be a pastor if it’s just an option. It has to be the only thing your heart burns like fire in your bones to do, because it will kill you.”

November/December 2009

relationship, and it would make sense that God would want to have a relationship with me. It clicked immediately. I was so strongly convicted that it was the truth that I said, “I’ve got to accept this.”

But you didn’t get discipled or follow up after that. Did you still feel the presence of Christ in you, or did you just go back to the way things used to be?

I did go back to the way things used to be—and then worse. I did cocaine when I went to the NFL, but I could tell you now that every day, the Lord was telling me, “You know that prayer you prayed was real, and whenever you’re ready, I’ll get you off marijuana. I’ll get you off cocaine. That girlfriend right there (a different girl at that point) is going to be your wife.” He told me every day when I would sin. I was convicted by God’s truth. That haunted me every day, but it took me five years to heed the haunt.

Q A

What made you finally respond?

I was using cocaine for a year and a half or so. I had an experience at a crack house, watching my friend smoke crack, and he looked like he was going to die. I remember after he smoked from the pipe, I went into the other room and did powder cocaine, thinking, Why am I any better? I’m in here by myself putting this in my nose for what? What am I doing this for? I just kept going, I need to give this up, but I kept feeling like I’d be missing out on something. Then, sometime later, on April 12, 1984, I just said, “This is not making any sense.” I decided to obey God with my life. I stopped using cocaine and never did it again.

After that day, you started working with youth at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego. You eventually became a youth pastor, and then you started the ministry Miles Ahead. To what do you attribute your passion for reaching youth?

Husband. Father. Esteemed Community Man.

“This is an amazing testimony.” —Chuck Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship

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90 November/December

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I can only really say God. I think the first high I was at Horizon, and I was teaching Sunday nights school where I went to speak on my own was Mira for five years. I was very content doing that. I knew Mesa High School in San Diego. My heart broke seeing I wasn’t going to take over that church. That was not my and hearing these kids’ stories about what they were going intention. When I decided I wanted to take the ministry to through. I did drugs in high school and slept around, and another level, I thought, The only thing I can do now is I knew exactly what they were talking about. It hurt me start another church. because I had something that could help them. What started me in ministry was a 16-yearold kid who lived next door to me. His older brother got arrested at 5 in the morning one day. Later that day, he was sitting in his brother’s car. I called him in the house and led him to the Lord. I said, “Go get your sister.” For close to a quarter of a century, Church Chair She came over, and she got saved. I said, “Go Industries has been producing chairs of outstanding get your other friends.” We ended up having quality, comfort and value. So, before you invest in the future of your church, check and see why Church nine races and nationalities in that house, and Chair® is the right choice for you. these kids were from local high schools. They Use the Church Chair® Checklist just came over. I said, “Is this that easy—to get Church people saved and see their lives changed?” I just Chair Others saw the fruit in it, and it was fun. I said, “Why Do they make their own chairs don’t I just do this?” in their own plants?

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“If we have everybody here talking Christianese, we’re doing something wrong.” LEE STROBEL,

Best-selling author of The Case for Christ

“How to Share Your Faith will give you the conﬁdence you need to lead people to Christ. It’s simple, clear and easy to learn. I highly recommend it.”

What advice would you give to someone who’s starting a church now?

Make sure God is calling you to do it. If there’s anything else you can do and be fulfilled, do that. Don’t be a pastor if it’s just an option. It has to be the only thing your heart burns like fire in your bones to do, because it will kill you. The other thing I would say is, in the end, you have to walk by faith. Theory and leadership slogans are not going to sustain you because God is always going to call you to step out of the boat. The only thing that’s going to hold you up is trusting in the Word of God.

The Rock is a pretty diverse congregation. What does the broader Church need to do to become less segregated?

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Many times, a church reflects the pastor in different ways—in attitude toward the Gospel, attitude toward culture. They’re going to follow the lead of the pastor in how they live their Christianity in general. They’re also going to follow him in age and style and demographic. I am a blend physically. I have white, black, Jamaican, Chinese and Scottish ancestry. And I’ve grown up in a blended world. We all have, but I was forced to interact with all kinds of different people, and New York is a big melting pot. But I think for other churches, other pastors, it’s going to be an issue of do people have music they can relate to? Do people see themselves in leadership? Is their life reflected in the message illustrations and communication style? When you go to seminary, they teach you to target a homogeneous group to build a church, which, to me, seems backwards. We just encourage people to do something for the Lord wherever they are and don’t segregate or eliminate groups of people. But when you bring them, you’ve got to have a service, an experience, those people can relate to. That’s where seeing people like them and hearing a message and music that are relevant to them factor in.

You have talked about people coming to The Rock who need to be here, including one man who said, “F---, you. I’ll park where I want to” when he was told his car might be towed for parking in a nearby shopping area. Is it a positive that at least people like him are here, or are you ever disappointed that some are not changing?

If we have 100 percent in small groups, we’re doing something wrong. If we have everybody here talking Christianese, we’re doing something wrong. I don’t ever want that. I’m trying to get everybody saved and discipled, but I’m also trying to ensure that there’s always someone to save and be discipled. We have people here who are active strippers, active drug addicts, active drug dealers, active everything-you-can-imagine, and I’m glad that those kinds of people are here. We hope that they get converted and sanctified and go get the type of people they were.

voice on California’s Prop. 8 and the issue of gay marriage—an issue that seems to be one that makes people say they think Christians and the Church are judgmental, hypocritical and unloving. How do you balance remaining

Church Maturity

Why do you think an active stripper or an active drug dealer comes to church here on Sunday?

Why did people go to Jesus? They heard that He would hear them and love them. I think people have heard that there are people here who would love them and won’t judge them. Also, we have people in strip clubs ministering to them. We have people on skid row. We have people in the convalescent homes, in the foster homes, in the jails, ministering to these people. They are experiencing the love of Christ on site, so they think, I want more of that. They come and hear a relevant message, and of course, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God work in their hearts. They come back, and then they go get their friends because they know their friends have the same issues they have.

The Rock is one of the Largest and Fastest-Growing Churches in America. You’re reaching a younger demographic that a lot of churches are not, and yet, you were a leading

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true to biblical convictions while reaching out to people who see those as intolerant?

It is a complete testimony to God. How can we be the bigoted church in San Diego—we are the gay-hater

and the most judgmental, to some—and yet we’re growing, faster than maybe any church in San Diego? God said to me, “I’ve given you that church. It’s My church. It’s not yours. And I’ve given you the success you have. I want you to use it for Me. If you use it for Me, I will bless you. You just have to trust Me.” So fighting for Prop. 8 as diligently as we did was a step of faith out of obedience to God. We didn’t do it hatefully, even though we were accused of that. We did it God’s way, and God said, “I’m going to honor you for that.” And we did it while remaining true to who we were. We were still doing the things that brought people here before.

The Rock has several ministries started or led by laypeople who developed a passion for certain areas because of their life experiences. How do you encourage and empower laypeople to know that they can and should be starting or leading ministries instead of relying on you or the staff?

We believe, especially based on Ephesians 4:11-12 and Exodus 18, that the people should be doing the work of the ministry. We fail if we don’t equip them to discover and utilize the gifts God has given them. Then, we challenge them every week to do something. We give them opportunities to go to ministry fairs to either join a ministry or start a new ministry. And, then people create their own ministries based on what God has called them to do, and that’s how all the ministries have come about.

Anybody in a position where people are focusing on them or they receive a lot of attention probably has to struggle with how to keep pride in check and not “believe your own press.” How do you do that?

The more well-known you get, the more negative press you get. It’s really a misnomer that when all the bright lights are on you, it’s all good because there’s a lot of bad and a lot of disappointment and attacks and betrayal. Look at Jesus’ life, David’s life, Moses’ life—every leader in the Bible—they all were betrayed by very close people to them, so I think any leader who’s out there trying to do something is going to get the darts thrown at him, and those darts,

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through them to get it done. Not only were they blessed, but obviously, the people they served were blessed.

those thorns in the flesh, will keep him humble. In addition to that, we run regular staff evaluations on all the leaders and congregational evaluations on sermons, so I’m always getting anonymous feedback from people about things I’m doing well and not doing well. That helps keep everything in perspective.

On the flip side of that, do you have anything in place to encourage you when you get bad press or a negative comment?

Every day, before I get out of bed, I pray and ask God about my day and get a sense of what’s going to happen today. My constant reliance on God and communication with God just reminds me that no matter what happens, no one can snatch me out of His hand. The ups and downs and the darts, I know, are part of it. I liken it to football. You are going to get hit, but that’s just part of the game. Keep going. My life’s goal is not to avoid that, it’s to be obedient and fulfill God’s calling in my life.

For more information about McPherson, visit OutreachMagazine.com

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A fair number of people probably think of the Caribbean just as a nice vacation spot. What did you see on your mission trip to Jamaica last year that people should know about?

We took 280 people on the trip. We had 60 medical professionals who dispensed about $4.5 million in medical services in four clinics, and they literally saved a few people’s lives from ailments they had. We also built a wall around a school where people were coming onto campus and raping the girls in the bathroom. We cleaned the school’s bathrooms and fixed the plumbing. We had school assemblies. We had people ministering to the deaf community at a camp up in the mountains. We were off the beaten path, ministering to people.

Q A

What effect did that have on you?

I’ve been to those places many times before. I think the big impact was how it affected the people that we brought. They were all people using the gifts God had given to them to minister and change people’s lives. It was all what God had put on their hearts and what God had worked

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