In 10 minutes it would be concert time. The setup was complete. The worship center was packed. The busiest week of my life was almost over. I slipped back to Steve Green's private room to escort him to the platform. Steve was leading his band in prayer. He was unaware of my eves-dropping. He prayed - "Lord, help us to be a blessing to this church and the hundreds of pastors gathered. Give us genuine love in our hearts for them. We know that we will be flooded with people after the concert. Help us to be compassionate to each one and to love even the unlovely. Help us to love even those who might really annoy us... give us a love for them too. If we don't have love for these, then we are nothing more than Juan's (his drummer) cymbals. And they're nice cymbals... (laughs in the room)... but without love for these people we are nothing."
After hoping I was not one who was annoying to him, we headed to the platform. The concert was incredibly spiritually uplifting. Afterwards, I watched Steve interact with those he prayed about: the pastors, the floods of people, the unlovely, and the annoying. He treated them all the same. He patiently listened to the same words he'd heard a million times over from people saying: "we had your songs in our wedding!" "You've been my favorite singer since I was a kid!" "It is such an honor to meet you!" "Can I get a picture with you?" One missionary lady (who acted like a teenage girl talking with Elvis) said, "I can't believe I'm talking to you... I grew up on the mission field and your music was the only music we had to listen to!" He promptly, humbly, and sincerely replied, "I'm so sorry. There's so much better artists than me. But thank you so much. It really means a lot to hear you say that." I didn't see him blow off anyone all day. Steve Green is the same person on the platform as he is in a private setting. He set a living example to me of how to treat people in ministry. He prayed ahead of time for God to give him the strength to be loving and respectful - to everyone. Time and time again I got to see God answer that prayer. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." I Corinthians 13:1
It is great to know that there are genuine Christians that have a mega ministry and yet remember what the whole purpose of that ministry is. If only more of us would live our life in this genuine way, then we would see more impact on our culture.
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