7 Steps to Go from the Pro-life Sidelines to the Frontlines

Abortion is a fiercely controverted American issue. Arguments aside, in a piece I just wrote for The Gospel Coalition, I share a few stories from my involvement in a Louisville pro-life ministry that have encouraged me. Here’s one:

I and others have seen women leave the abortion facility, tears pouring down their faces as they comprehend the magnitude of their decision to save their child. I have talked with the boyfriend of a woman who was going to abort her baby because this man was caught up in the trap game, dealing drugs and headed for an early death. Several folks outside the clinic engaged this couple. Poleaxed by conviction, they got up from their chairs in that grim waiting room, clasped hands, and walked back into the morning light. They went to the crisis pregnancy center, got counseling and assistance from the sweet women who work there, and went home.

My TGC piece, “Dodging Haymakers Outside the Abortion Clinic,” focuses more broadly on how you can go from the sidelines to the frontlines of pro-life work. Here are seven uncomplicated, super-practical ways folks can get plugged into pro-life work without any prior experience:

1. Identify an abortion clinic in your area.

2. Find out what churches in the area are ministering to women at this clinic.

3. Rally like-minded pro-lifers in your own church to start praying about gospel ministry at the clinic.

4. Visit the Speak for the Unborn website to get resources and training for doing pro-life work that is church-centered and gospel-driven. Check out Scott Klusendorf’s materials as well.

5. Coordinate volunteers to do sidewalk counseling of abortion-minded women on mornings/days when the local abortion clinic is open.

6. Encourage your pastor and elders to pray regularly from the pulpit about the ministry.

7. Go when you can, share the gospel as much as possible, graciously entreat women and couples not to abort their babies. Celebrate when they don’t. In all seasons and at all times, thank Jesus, the Suffering Servant, that you have an opportunity to minister and to suffer with him.

Remember: as I say in the essay, don’t wait for someone else to come along and help. You don’t need a modern-day Wilberforce to ride into town. Normal Christians can do normal ministry that has cosmic consequences. That means you, and that means me.