The Current Emerge Witness Profile

In the early Methodist movement societies and bands (small groups) thrived on the practice of witnessing to one another. They would tell each other of the ways God moved in their lives. Here you are invited to encounter the particular stories of young people connected to the Emerge Community, hear how God is working in them, and unite in prayer with them for their communities.

Witness Profile || Andrew Schumacher

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

150 West Jefferson, Detroit, Michigan. August 2005 - A job with an agency serving the world’s largest automaker brought me to this new place. Eager to explore the city, I headed out at lunch those first few days to check out the area of trees, concrete, and water that I could see from our 5th floor offices. Welcome to Hart Plaza. The scene: Some folks setting up for some kind of concert later in the week. Men and women who, like me, dangled ID cards from their waists while getting some fresh air and sun during the lunch hour. The occasional tourist taking a picture of that foreign country across the river. And oh yeah, there were kind of a lot of homeless people around, too. So, I sat down on a bench. And I ate my turkey sandwich.

But that’s not the end of the story. Admist all this, I kept finding myself being connected, somehow, to the ones without dangling ID cards. The ones maybe even without proper clothing. The least of these you could say. I’d eat my lunch and hang around the plaza, and one way or another I would often have some kind of contact with the folks Jesus was always talking about. Maybe a smile and a hello. Or, “here’s a few dollars for some lunch of your own.” Nothing too much really…

But, if you’re not careful, and not paying attention, you start noticing how your life gets intertwined, even if just a bit, with your brothers and sisters who some folks might prefer not be present in the expanse of trees, concrete, and water. You find yourself telling two guys named Alvin and Robert about a place where your friend works that might be able to help with getting medicine. You find yourself doing laps around Hart Plaza while praying to God, asking Him how to help the people on the benches. You might even find yourself searching Biblegateway.com for scripture about lending money because the homeless guy you lent money to for a bus ride insists on paying you back double. More than anything, you find yourself dreaming about what a world would look like where there were no “social workers” because each in her or his own way would be doing that work daily. You find yourself. Transformed. By what I can identify only as the grace of God.

The thing is, others might also notice some of your peculiar, not-of-this-world sort of behavior. “Andrew, what was that homeless guy on the corner bothering you about this morning before work?” “Oh, he wasn’t hassling me. He’s kind of my… friend, I guess.” “Oh.” So Paul says not to be conformed to this world. And so this is some of the kind of stuff that happens when God is able to get my attention and have “His will be done [in Detroit] as it is in Heaven.” And His will is good and pleasing and perfect, for key danglers as well as all others. But for me, even though I know my faith tells me this, I need others along the way to help me believe and live. A community. Maybe even an Emerge community if that’s your thing. A group of folks who worship with you, learn with you, struggle along the Christian journey with you. A group of folks who will always recognize you—even when Paul’s words start to make you wonder if you even recognize your own self. And it’s because they recognize something in you that isn’t even of this world. Something that is of Christ. And that’s a pretty powerful and humbling thing.