We Walk with You: The Power of Radical Acceptance

Dr. David Fraze: Adults and kids would start greeting,
and you could tell he was getting really uncomfortable
because he definitely wasn't a hugger.
If you show up to youth ministry as Boba Fett,
you're not gonna hug, but the students moved in.
And he was kind of sitting here like this.
Soon as the lesson started, Boba Fett returned.
That's how he started.
But he found something and he kept coming back.
Till finally we were doing a big conference at our church,
and I had Boba Fett's age group with another church leader
and a couple of student volunteers,
and we're sitting there,
and the question was something in the nature of,
when have you ever felt that you don't belong?
Where do you ever feel like that God has abandoned you?
It was one of these really honest moments
where things are gonna get real.
And Boba Fett took his jacket off, which was odd.
And we finally figured out what he was hiding from.
He just said this, "My dad beats me.
"I have problems at my home."
It was the most awesome moment
where I knew that somewhere, as our brand promise says,
"On every door we walk with you,"
that somehow this group of students
had walked with Boba Fett, so we would take his armor off.
And you know, that's a big deal.
Y'all have watched the Boba Fett series.
You don't take your armor off, but he did.
And there he was, naked before us.
And it was awesome to be able to be there in that moment.
You know, our brand promise that you see on our doors
is not just something the president came up with.
It's one of the greatest things he's ever done.
I'm just gonna say that.
I know he pays my salary, but it's huge.
Because it does talk about, historically,
where we've been as a university and where we wanna be.
We're not perfect at it,
but we really do wanna walk with everyone.
And some people that have private institutions,
they create private institutions to stay away from people.
And LCU is so strange 'cause we welcome all the Boba Fetts.
We love it.
Because we believe we have a message that's for the people,
and it's also based in a verse of scripture.
Jesus shared this right before he was crucified.
We don't have a lot of Vacation Bible School
puppet shows on this one 'cause it's kinda rough.
And it says, "When the Son of Man comes,
and glory and the angels with him,
he'll sit on his glorious throne."
And you know, the sheep and the goats,
you guys get punishment, you guys get reward.
And then he said this,
"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me in.
I needed clothes, you clothed me.
I was sick and you looked after me.
I was in prison, you came to visit me.
I was Boba Fett.
And you accepted me."
And a lot of people who did a lot of cool things,
I mean, they did the Christian life that became goats.
They kinda push back and say,
"Well, hold on, we played it safe.
I didn't even hang around people that did bad stuff.
I've been doing all this cool stuff my whole life."
And in these words, I tell you,
whatever you did not do for one of the least of these,
you did not do for me.
So I want everybody to hear very clearly.
We walk with you is because we wanna prepare you
to go into a lost world who needs light.
And needs something to get rid of the rottenness.
And we invite you to be on that adventure with us.
So hold that for a moment.
I'm gonna tell you about the greatest funeral
I've been to in a while.
Now don't judge me.
I would rather do a funeral than a wedding.
Now, I will say a funeral of a person who dies in the Lord.
And that happened Saturday.
One of our alumni, Todd Epps, his father passed away.
I've known the Epps family literally my entire life.
And if you know anything,
if you're an old Church of Christ or you know the name,
Paul Epps and Barry Epps,
because a lot of their songs are in the great songs
of the church.
And they used to run a singing school in Haskell, Texas.
And on this campus years ago, there was,
and think about this as an oxymoron.
We used to have a acapella how to lead singing camp
and a band camp with real instruments.
I mean, that's awesome.
Right here.
And we're still surviving.
So crazy.
He's been a part of this for a long time, Barry was.
So at the funeral, his son,
we just had it at the funeral home.
'Cause we're like,
we don't know how many people are gonna show up.
And the place was packed.
I mean, all they did was just put something out.
You don't even know the name.
They just put something on Facebook
and all these people showed up.
And what was so amazing is where the funeral home was.
There's this road called Edmond and Louisville.
My mother used to be the cafeteria manager
at the surrounding Lakeland Elementary.
But over there was the first church where all of us were.
The first church that became Garden Ridge and all this stuff.
And here's all these people
and these 90 something year old people started showing up.
And it was the most amazing thing.
This one lady, Jean, I looked at her.
She didn't have her glasses on.
I said, Jean, and I said, this is David Fraze.
She hasn't seen me in years.
And she put her glasses on and she goes,
"Oh, it's you, David."
And it was so sweet.
She put her hand on top of mine and we did that.
I had a cold, I hope I didn't kill her.
But I mean, it was kind of a...
That happened all over the place.
And I've never had this happen.
I've been in ministry 36 plus years, okay?
And the funeral director started yelling
so that the family would separate from the audience.
And so we could actually line up to walk in.
That is so cool.
And here's where the legendary thing shows up.
There's a legend at my church.
My dad died when I was 22 years of age.
And when he was on his final leg,
there was someone who came forward and he was baptized.
And they were like, "Why are you accepting Jesus?"
And he said, "When I met Henry Fraze,
I knew this is where I needed to be."
I've heard that story for years now.
And at this funeral, with all this gathering,
this man named Don,
which you're about to hear a little bit from,
he walks up and he grabs my hand and he goes,
"Your dad was the one who shook my hand
when I came into this building.
He changed my life."
So I asked him to do a video for me
and somebody sent this to me last night.
Go ahead and watch this.
Don White: Okay, I just wanna let you people know
that if you're watching this, my name is Don White.
And I wanna tell you how important it is
to be a door greeter.
A long time ago, I had this dream
and I woke up and felt like I needed
to go to church one morning.
So I get dressed and I go to church
and I go to Garden Ridge Church of Christ.
I got there, I sat in the car for a few minutes
and I thought, "Do I really wanna do this?
Do I really wanna do this?"
'Cause I hadn't been to church in years and years and years.
So I do and I go to the door and Henry was there.
Now, Henry was a white haired, older gentleman
with a really smiley face.
And he just like knew that I didn't belong there
because I was a new visitor.
And he walked up to me quickly, grabbed my hand.
Oh, people, let me tell you, it was almost
like the hair standing up on the back of my neck.
I thought, "I just felt this warmth all over my body."
I thought to myself, "Wow, am I in the right place or what?"
Anyway, I talked to Henry for a while
and I couldn't wait every Sunday to go to church
just to see Henry.
And I'd always get to shake his hand when I'd go in
and he'd say, "How are you doing this week?"
So he was the greatest man I ever met in my life.
Best Christian man.
Anyway, I went to church that Sunday.
There's another story behind that I won't tell right now,
but that's one of the reasons that I've become a Christian
is because of Henry.
30 some odd years ago.
But it's stuck with me all of my life
that somebody could make me feel the way I felt
and wanted to be a Christian and follow God.
Dr. David Fraze: It's awesome when you're old
and you've been without your dad
for someone to come up at a funeral and say,
"I'm the legend.
This is the story, it's real."
You don't know my dad.
Not a very good teacher.
He wasn't necessarily, he was a horrible singer
except "Ghostwriters in the Sky,"
which he was pretty good with that.
But he knew how to love people.
And I think about what Jesus says,
I think about our brand promise, it will walk with you.
The most important thing I think
after 36 years of ministry,
when people say, "I really do love this place,"
it's connected to how they're accepted
to the body of Christ.
When the gospel becomes real
is because we invite the Boba Fetts in.
But there are individuals that they say the same thing.
I don't know if I like this
because those people aren't friendly.
Those people talk to the same people.
Those people didn't even know I was there.
I think that's why this is at the last of Jesus' teaching
because the way that we live out the gospel,
the way that we are an ambassador
is the way quite often that we show
hospitality to others.
How we talk with others that are less than us.
And we go out of our way to be sure
that all the Boba Fetts among us,
and we've all been there,
know that they're seen.
It changed Don's life,
and I have a feeling it can change all of our lives.
So if you ever wanna know why people like Lisa and I
go crazy when we see people,
it comes from our DNA.
That's what we saw growing up
from a white haired dude that sat at the opening of a church
and welcomed individuals.
So here's your assignment.
I want you to think about everybody in this auditorium.
We're gonna get out here a little bit early,
but I want you to do something crazy and awkward.
As you're waiting to get your credits,
don't just visit the person next to you
that you always visit with.
Look around the room and see if there's someone
you haven't seen and maybe haven't even talked to,
and just introduce yourself, tell you what to do.
And you will be living out the brand promise
as our student body.
You're dismissed.