The Church is the Answer! Written by Ethel Maharg of Love Life Ministries
I have been serving in the Pro-life community for over a decade. Five years as Client Services Director for Care Net. This is where God took me to set me free and then God cut me loose. Then God took me to Right to Life as their Executive Director and in the middle of this time, I ran for Governor. In all of this, my mission has never changed. It is to end abortion. In all of this, I have come to realize more and more that the answer lies in the Church.
In 2013 while serving at Care Net there was an effort to pass a 20-week ban on abortion. I was so excited and thought surely the church will get behind this and we will prevail. The church did not rise up. I say they weren’t asleep; they were snoring, and many wanted nothing to do with this issue. I was heartbroken. The greatest army on this earth would not participate.
In 2018 when Steve Pearce was running for Governor I took a 6-week leave of absence to work with Pastor Mark Gonzales in distributing voter guides throughout the state. 350,000 of them. Pastor Mark told the church that if we lost this one, we would be redistricted into oblivion, we would lose many seats and it would take us at least 10 years to get it back. At this time the church was helping to distribute them, but this time the party was, well, not that interested in the issue. We lost and his words are still ringing in my ears as now we are fighting to get back what we should never have lost.
We have made great progress over the past 10 years, but if we intend to win, the Church MUST engage. The Church is the Answer. This is why I am happy to say that God has called me to work with Love Life Ministries. The mission is uniting and mobilizing the Church to create a culture of Love and Life that will result in an end to abortion and the orphan crisis. We will be asking churches to become Houses of Refuge where women and men with an unplanned pregnancy can run to instead of away from. One in four women have had an abortion and over half of them claim to be attending church when they had their abortion. They never felt church was a safe place to be in this situation. We intend to change that. This is not something we are going to “Put on” the Pastor. They have enough to do, but we ask that they help their congregation engage and we will help do that. “God is using Love Life to awaken the Church. This isn’t Pro-life activism; it is Christianity 101. It is loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Whole families are being moved from inside the four walls of the church into the frontlines of the mission field in their cities.”
I’ve done it all, I served as Mayor of a community for 10 years, worked in a pregnancy center ministry for 5 years Lobbied and worked hard to get pro-life candidates elected, then ran for Governor, all in an attempt to end abortion. The harder I worked the more I realized it is only by the hand of God will we win this battle on life. It is now squarely in the hands of the Church of Jesus Christ and when she rises up, Katy bar the door. It is finished. I truly believe this is the missing piece and the final battle. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through His Church. I don’t know every Pastor so please introduce me. My job description is to love Pastors well. I will always make certain they get the honor and respect due them. Let’s go Church!!
God Bless you, Ethel Maharg
ethel@lovelife.org
Love the name of your Ministry and also love the calling you have on your life. Being an encouragement to Pastors. That’s Awesome Sister!! May God continue to bless you and give you favor in your walk!