Spirit overcomes cultural differences to touch three lives

When Southwestern student Pierre Price arrived in Pueblo, Colo., for his spring break preaching assignment (through the seminary’s “Revive This Nation” evangelism program), he was nervous and apprehensive. An energetic preacher from Detroit, Mich., Price feared that the cultural differences between himself and his listeners would prove to be an obstacle.

When he came to the church on Sunday morning to preach his first of five sermons, Price realized that God had indeed called him to preach to “a lot of people who don’t look quite like [him].” Nevertheless, he prayed, “God, you have me here. I can’t be without your grace, and I can’t be without your anointing. So use me as you see fit.” From there, Price preached the Gospel, and God blessed in a powerful way.

After Price finished his first sermon, he extended an invitation, and several people came forward. One elderly man requested to address the congregation. Upon being handed the microphone, the man said through tears, “I just wanted you to know, I’ve been racist all my life. But I want you to know, today changed my life.”

The man explained that he had not planned to come to church that day, but he was convinced to do so by his sister. He planned to leave when he realized Price would preach that morning’s sermon, but the man stayed anyway.

“When you preached,” the man told Price, “I felt the power of God. I want to change.”

The following night, at the conclusion of the third service of the revival, as Price shook hands with the departing congregants, an elderly woman wrapped her arms around him. “Pierre,” she said, “my husband died last month, and I’ve been ready to take my life, because I can’t live without him.”

“But what you’re preaching is giving me the strength to carry on,” she said. “Keep preaching like you’re preaching.”

Later that night, Price tried to gather his thoughts and evaluate the service. Overwhelmed with emotion, tears poured from his eyes.

“Here I am, this African-American kid from Detroit, Mich., who didn’t ever think I would be here, and a man who was old enough to be my grandfather and a woman old enough to be my grandmother—I touched them,” Price reflected. When later sharing his testimony with Southwestern’s chapel audience, Price said, “They’re not the same ethnicity as me, they probably didn’t grow up like I did, but here it is: the Gospel that we preach, that we celebrate, has now touched them through me. What an amazing God we serve.”

God had at least one more blessing in store for the final night of the revival. Following his sermon, a 13-year-old girl said to Price, “‘I didn’t like coming to church, but now I do.” When Price asked her why, she said, “Because you showed me that we can have fun in church.”

Having been used by the Lord to touch at least three lives—to draw three individuals back to God—Price considered his experience in Colorado. “I remember how I felt when I first started,” he says. “That I was apprehensive. That I was a bit scared. That I was a bit nervous. Because I was going to be in an uncomfortable environment with people who don’t look like me; with people who don’t come from where I come from.”

“But then,” he says, “I think I got a glimpse of what heaven may look like when we gather together from different cultures, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different ways of worship, and we expound upon our great Savior. … I have a new family there [in Pueblo, Colo.].”