When God Closes a Door

As most of you are already aware, Dr. Michael Knapp is our new English professor here at SAGU. Dr. Knapp has just left the mission field of Northern Asia after 25 years of ministry. He worked full-time as a professor teaching English, and he used this role as a platform for sharing the Gospel. To reach as many people as he could, Dr. Knapp also did a lot of part-time work in middle and high schools along with businesses and hospitals when they wanted an English class. Everything Dr. Knapp did was with the intent of sharing the Gospel. He says, “There have been some conversions- some real genuine conversions. It’s really cool to see.”

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After Dr. Knapp and his wife struggled to get their visas renewed, they took it as a sign that they should come back to America. When looking for a job, he prayed, “God, I don’t really want to go back, but if I do, can I either work in a totally pagan, heathen school- so I can go in as a missionary or a real Christian school?” 

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He looked at a bunch of Christian colleges. Dr. Knapp stumbled across SAGU’s website and said, “That looks like a cool school to work at. Too bad it’s not in Michigan.” which is where he was from and wanted to return to. Although he didn’t hear an audible voice from God, he knew that God was calling him and his family here. Too many circumstances were working out. 

He believes his new calling is to equip students to preach the gospel. He spent 25 years serving and trying to “finish The Great Commission” as just one person, but now he is at a school where he can help and influence future missionaries by using his experience.

Much of Dr. Knapp's ministry involved sharing the gospel in a closed country, which is very difficult. He believes, “The Holy Spirit has to do the work. Whether you’re in North Korea and you get shot for doing it, or you’re in Texas, where it’s probably the freest place in the world to do it. It’s still got to be the Holy Spirit that works in the person. And you don’t take that for granted. You don’t think that’s just a formality that Christians say- it’s reality.” 

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The Holy Spirit also gives caution in dangerous circumstances. Every gospel-sharing opportunity is different, so we must ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and strategy. In addition to having the help of the Holy Spirit, there are strategies Dr. Knapp used to reach students with the Gospel. We can take some lessons from these as well. 

 

Good Quality Lessons Show Your Love

• He always told teachers who came over to teach, “Two things you must do to be successful at it: You’ve got to love your students and love them enough to give them a high-quality lesson because it shows that you care. Students have to feel loved, like anybody we would try to witness to. Pray for your students is the other thing.”

 

Partner With Other Christians

• “One of the things you have to do when you are trying to share the Gospel in a country like this is figure out who the Christians are; then they can be partners together with you for reaching other students.” A lot of people he has seen come to Christ, or at least had seeds planted, were with the help of another Christian in the class

 

Contextualizing the Gospel 

• Since a big roadblock in his previous culture is that people think Christianity is a foreign or Western religion, you must present The Gospel “in a way that they feel that this is for them, not just information about our culture for them, but this is really for them.” You must “find things to relate to their culture.”

 

Discussion Questions 

• Subtle questions give Christians the chance to plant seeds of the gospel that can lead to relationships. You can ask things like: “What gives you joy? What do you do on the weekends- Saturday and Sunday? What is your favorite book? What is the meaning of life?” 

 

Set up a Meeting

• If the people you are ministering to start asking questions and becoming genuinely sincere, you can schedule an appointment at a coffee shop or something. 

 

Keep in Contact 

• It is through relationships that the discipleship process is continued. If you’re not able to keep meeting with them in person, make sure to keep in contact through messaging of some type. Dr. Knapp said, “You have to follow up the rest of their lives.” 

 

It’s clear that even though the door was closed in one space for Dr. Knapp, God opened the door for him here at SAGU to pour into the lives of students and use his experiences to prepare new missionaries to serve wherever God calls them.