Dying With Your Boots On

“Winning souls is noble work; so how is it that we quit so soon?”– C.H. Spurgeon

During my 35 years of prison ministry, I was privileged to share the gospel with an estimated 500,000 inmates across North America and Africa, and more than 25,000 of them made professions of faith in Jesus Christ.

One of the beauties of prison ministry is that you don’t have to convince an inmate that he is a sinner. The state or federal government has already done that by pronouncing him guilty of a crime deserving of incarceration. Now he is just looking for a cure for his sin disease.

However, working with at-risk youth is another story altogether. Most of the young men who attend our weekly Living H2O Initiative still think they have the world by the tail and aren’t ready to come to grips with the plain fact and the universal truth that we are all sinners desperately in need of salvation.

And so, whereas prisoners are “ripe for the picking” spiritually speaking, at-risk youth provide more of a long-term challenge. My task is to keep planting spiritual seeds in their lives in the hope that some will fall on good soil, take deep root, and someday produce abundant spiritual fruit. In the meantime, we (our staff and volunteers) simply try to be positive male role models for these young men, many of whom are being raised in fatherless homes.

The same goes for pastoring our small church plant, Midway Bible Fellowship. My job is to shepherd our little flock, feeding them God’s truth while protecting them from false doctrine and false teachers.

Whether it is serving as a prison minister, a role model, or a pastor, I plan to keep on sharing God’s word and His love as long as my health allows. Charles Spurgeon explains that resolve perfectly in the following excerpt from Morning and Evening, a collection of his devotional messages.

“Some are spared to a long evening of green old age; if such is my case, let me use any talents I still retain and serve my blessed and faithful Lord to the final hour. By His grace I will die with my boots on and lay down my commission only when I lay down my body.”

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President