Into the
World
Go, and catch a falling star.
John Donne, "Song"
In the spring of 1978, something for which Michael had prayed and yearned and worked ever since the fledgling days at Mansion Messiah came into being. He received a call from Anglican Canon James Wong of Singapore, inviting him to preach the gospel at public rallies and to address a convocation of believers. The call marked the beginning of his ministry as an itinerant international evangelist.
As pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship of San Diego, Michael had never concealed from his congregation the tug of the regions beyond or the conviction that God wanted him to extend a hand of love to the whole world. In the years that followed that first trip to Singapore he received invitations to conduct preaching missions and to speak at rallies in many countries, including Sweden, England, Scotland, Hungary, Poland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Nicaragua, and other nations of Central America. In addition to public appearances in these countries (in 1984 over one thousand Latin American men and women responded to Michael's invitations),
Page 172
he met with evangelical Christians in Switzerland, France, Denmark, East and West Germany, Czechoslovakia, Uganda, Austria, Romania, and the People's Republic of China. In 1982 he knelt in prayer with the persecuted "Siberian seven" in the basement of the American Embassy in Moscow, where they had been living for nearly five years. The people of Horizon Christian Fellowship sent truckload after truckload of food and medical supplies into Poland and Uganda, and in some cases Michael was the driver.
Michael was invited to take part in Billy Graham's 1983 Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam, Holland, and to lead a workshop on how to give an evangelistic invitation. He has visited with Dr. Graham, has traveled with members of his team, and has no illusions about the glamour of such a ministry. As one who has emerged from a culture and time-period different from that of the Billy Graham crusaders, Michael brings a different emphasis, a different style, and a different set of interests. Yet the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same — just as the message Michael heard at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, was the same one he heard as a boy in Portland's Montavilla Baptist Church.
As he begins his forties and looks down the road ahead, Michael says, "I want to erect not buildings, but men and women who will stay on fire for the Lord their whole lives. If they are single, I hope they will catch the vision and the zeal, and go and serve the Lord. If they marry, I hope their partners will have the same zeal and vision they have. I have just so much energy. I want to use it in a people-centered ministry. If there is a change coming in evangelism, I want to be part of it. To get hold of key people, to motivate them, to send them out — that's the goal. I would like to see every church involved in sending people out to do evangelism, not just supporting parachurch organizations that do the job for them."
How does Sandra feel about all this? She says, "I am called to be Michael's wife, and that's what I am, no matter what he does. I will function in whatever capacity God leads Michael to. When Michael travels, as he does, then I miss him. But as Ruth Graham said about Billy, I'd rather have him part time than any other man in the world full time. Michael and I have no wonder-working formula. We are just like everybody else. Michael's success and anointing as a minister almost stops when he comes in the door. He is a consistently faithful husband and father from one day to the next. It is God who provides the miracle ingredient, and my chief concern is that the glory goes to God." Sandra's parents, the Riddets, by the way, have become Christians and are among Michael's enthusiastic prayer partners.
Pastor Chuck Smith was once asked his opinion about the future of Michael MacIntosh. "Mike," he said, "is a visionary. He has a vision for the world. I really believe there will be fellowships all over the world, led by people who have gone through his school of evangelism, and who have been inspired for the ministry and are just out doing
Page 174
it! I see it as touching the world, without any limitation on it at all."
Much of Michael's story has been sad — he was a young man whose path kept taking him downhill, and he belonged to an eager but distracted generation that often could not find itself. But his and Sandra's is a tale with a happy ending, and it may well be in the providence of God that the best is yet to come. Five vivacious children (Phillip was born in 1979) are growing up in a home in Poway, California, that seemed at one time to be smashed to pieces. Now, by a miracle of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, it rings with praise and laughter. And so, by the same grace, does many another home.
