FulfilledOne Column Page
and responsive to boot
Kingdom Now Ministries
by Rob Mitchell
This article appeared in the 2020 Fall issue of Fulfilled! Magazine
Tulsa, Oklahoma is a beautiful city, with rolling hills and lots of green, well-kept yards; a large business district downtown with revamped restaurants and vibrant new park areas; well known scholastic institutions, such as Oral Roberts and Tulsa University; professional sports, good schools, and a lively social scene. All of these make our city a pleasant place to live—yet we have a dark blot in our history.
One hundred years ago, our city burned. The Greenwood district, which was populated primarily by black families, was mercilessly destroyed. Anywhere from 300 to 1,000 lives were lost, 1,500 homes destroyed, and 10,000 left homeless. A bomb was dropped from a plane. The devastation has been described as the worst race riot in American history. Though the memory fades, we cannot hide from our past. Racial tensions still exist to this day, yet we persist in our effort to forget those dark days.
Though the Greenwood district since been transformed into a historical district, there are still many areas of our city with grievous poverty and crowded section-eight housing projects, creating low-income hot spots for gangs and drugs to prosper. Kingdom Now Ministries has set up shop in one of these areas. The corner of 61st and South Peoria is the site of a triple execution-style murder just three years ago. The neighborhood has five state-housing projects within a two square mile area. Gun fire is commonly heard on weekends.
It has been nearly six years since my youngest son, Reuben, come to me and said, “Dad, I want to give out groceries on the corner of 61st and South Peoria.” When I asked him why, he said “cuz there’s no hunger in the kingdom.” I said “I’m with you, son.” We had been having family Bible studies on the kingdom of God for the last several months and my four sons were beginning to see a revelation of how to “enter” (John 3:5) the Kingdom of God. First, we “see” the Kingdom (John 3:3), then we are washed and enter. To see requires faith, to enter requires action.
Having been part of the preterist community for about ten years, I have been blessed by many gifted teachers and expositors of fulfilled eschatology. When the present, active reality of the Kingdom is revealed, an immediate conflict arises: to postpone that kingdom life to a “future” age, or live it NOW! Raised Baptist, it took some time for me to change my view of the future. But thanks be to God, I am now free of old, biased restraints. The future has a bright HOPE and PURPOSE in the establishment and advancement of the Kingdom of God. His Glory will fill the earth (Isaiah 6:3).
For some time now, my spirit has been moved to consider just what the preterist doctrine means in the reality of our daily lives. Is our job primarily to convert futurists to our position? Is teaching and preaching the fulfilled gospel to those already in the Kingdom all there is? Or are we called to demonstrate the Kingdom, making visible the newness of this revelation. The fulfilled gospel allows us to join with the Father in filling the earth with His Glory, through the practical ministries described in Matthew 25:31-46; feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, praying for the sick. All of these practical ministries bring Glory to the Father. Taking our communities back from darkness is our calling.
Preterists have laid a firm foundation of eschatological truth, and now we must build on that foundation. It is time for those of us who grasp this truth to give it feet. Let us not be believers of words only, but of work also. Our inheritance is enhanced through works. So many parables talk about varying degrees of reward. We are not saved by works, but once saved we should go to work. Each person has a gift, talent, or ability from God. We can’t all be authors or preachers. Some must serve others, to build up the Body of Christ for works of service (Ephesians 4:12).
Since Kingdom Now Ministries has been on the corner, there has been a 16% drop in crime in that area. We are not taking credit for that, just observing the fruit. That is what we are after, real change, community improvement, and safer neighborhoods. We feed over one hundred people every week, praying, counseling, and encouraging them. We have a vision of getting a permanent location and establishing a clothes closet and food pantry. Right now, we are working out of the back end of a box truck, loading it full to the brim with food and giving it all away within two hours.
Although this is a Mitchell family ministry, we do very little of the physical work. All of the loading and distribution is done by those from the street. The idea is to get them involved in something bigger than themselves. One of the antidotes to addiction and lethargy is self-worth. Giving these precious lost souls a purpose is priceless. The change is a visible reality, seen in their faces, once down-trodden, now bright and chipper. This is not an outside group or a government program; this is them helping each other. There is so much more that needs to be done—addiction therapy, work placement, and home management are but a few.
Our definition of the Kingdom is “a little bit of heaven on earth.” The Lord’s Prayer states, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We seek to do the Father’s will in serving the heavy-hearted, hurting children of God, through loving and caring for those in need. All over America, as the truth of the fulfilled gospel prospers, may works that demonstrate this reality become ever more common. Please join with us. We maintain a Facebook page, Kingdom Now Ministries, Tulsa, where you can follow the ministry first-hand. We now have a website: www.kingdomnowministries.com where you can donate. I would also like to make myself available for assistance to anyone who has a similar burden and would like to start something in their area. Please contact me through the Facebook page.
I believe the preterist community is ready for this next step. Brian’s article from the last issue was entitled “Taking it to the Street.” That was a great confirmation of this move of the Spirit. Many I talk to are feeling the same way. God has truly blessed Kingdom Now Ministries—we started out with twelve bags of groceries from the back end of a Volvo. We now serve 5,000 families a year! Please prayerfully consider supporting us, or starting your own work. God bless!
Isaiah 6:3 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, The earth is full of His Glory.”
Rob Mitchell 7/1/2020
