BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK ME!

People ask me often, “What do you like most about what you do?”

Do you have a few days?

I like—no, I love—every part of what God has called us to do here at Faith and Action: Praying for and with our nation’s elected and appointed officials; taking the Gospel to them; gently—and sometimes not so gently—exhorting, challenging, rebuking, even chastising them; befriending sometimes lonely, seeking, searching, and even desperate people cloaked in the pretentiousness of power and prestige; and facing down the arrogant, pompous and God-hating.

I love working with our outstanding ministry team. Those who carry out our vital programs, manage our facilities, process the mail, order and stock supplies, set up delivery of our Christmas and Easter congressional outreach packages, collect and bundle our petitions, send out and receive prayer and praise lists, arrange our Ten Commandments presentations and special events, go grocery shopping and lay out gorgeous spreads for the many receptions and meals we put on, distribute our news releases and set up, video, photograph and chronicle our many news conferences, panel presentations, symposia, private and public meetings with officials and run people back and forth to airports, rail stations and subways. (And I didn’t mention those who manage an absolutely frenetic, never, ever boring schedule!)

Believe it or not I love the dozens and dozens of strategic planning meetings we have each month, as well as our regular trustee meetings, numerous conference calls, sit-downs with vendors, suppliers, planners and cooperative ministries. (And, while I can no longer sit in for the entirety of weekly staff meetings, I do drop in to add my bit—and I love that, too!)

I also love the privilege I enjoy of speaking the truth—hopefully in love—to reporters, editors, producers, interviewers, authors, commentators and opinion makers. Truth—especially God’s Truth—has a dramatic affect on everyone who hears it—whether they like it or not.

Oh, and I love sharing all this with God’s people! We host a lot of visitors at our ministry center on Capitol Hill. I also meet up with many groups touring Washington. Sometimes it will be in the U.S. Capitol itself, or in some other official building. I’ve even walked along with church and other Christian groups for blocks in the high summer heat of Washington, enjoying every sweaty minute giving testimony of what the Holy Spirit is doing here!

I love writing this blog—drafting the many E-mail alerts sent regularly each month to some 70,000 Internet friends—and dictating the letters that millions of people will read this year.

I look forward to every Wednesday when I broadcast our live missionary field report from my office looking out over the United States Supreme Court—across the way to the dome of the U.S. Capitol—up Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues to the White House. I am always excited to bring you these reports because, again, they are the answers to your prayers. God does hear and answer prayer!

I also love the hundreds of Christian radio interviews I do each year telling of the great acts of God here in the most powerful city in the most powerful nation on earth.

And I love hearing from you. I get thousands upon thousands of E-mails each month; hundreds of phone calls; scores of letters. I try to get to all of them personally. I don’t have “readers” or “correspondence secretaries.”

And, of course, I love very much the many, many opportunities I get to go out and preach, teach and report to churches across the country. In the course of a year I will visit the pulpits of churches of every size, shape, persuasion and denomination and I will speak at conventions, conferences, seminars and banquets. I will sit with countless pastors, ministry leaders, lay members of church and organization boards, vestries and missions committees. And I will visit with scores of major donors who make extraordinary contributions to this vital outreach.

I’ve left a few things off the list to spare you. But, as you can see, there’s plenty of things to like and to love here at Faith and Action.

Oh my! Did I leave you off the list? Certainly not intentionally. I guess I always risk taking those I love for granted. And I do love you in the Lord! You are God’s greatest gift to all of us here at Faith and Action! I love sharing this great calling with you. If you didn’t do what God has called you to do, neither I, nor my brother, Paul, nor any of our team members could do what God has called us to do!

Be careful about ever asking me again what I love about what I do. You may get more of an answer than you wanted!