Tuesday Testimony: Being Called to Accountability

Matthew Law listened on the other side of a call as his mom described her frustration with a family friend.

“Mom, God loves us,” Matthew recalled saying to her. “So, then we can love other people. If you’re not loving other people, you’re not loving God.”

Matthew is beginning to take on the role of accountability partner for his mom, a role others have taken in his life to help his Christian faith soar beyond the faith of those in the home he grew up in.

“We went to church,” Law said. “We prayed. We celebrated Christmas and Easter and all that,” Matthew said. 

Matthew described his family as “Culturally Christian.”  In elementary school, his parents would wake him up on Sunday to attend the kid’s service at their church. He was baptized in 7th grade, but after that, their church attendance dwindled. 

“I gave up after I got baptized,” Matthew said. “I thought, ‘I’m baptized. I’m a follower of Christ now. So, I don’t need that anymore.’”

This was his attitude towards the faith until his sophomore year of high school when his friends encouraged him to go to life groups at church. The same year, he attended Christ in Youth- Move, a 5-day Christian youth camp. There, he began to feel a call towards ministry and was invited to take a step toward that vocation.

“I prayed about that for a couple days, and then at the end of the week, they asked the question, who wants to go into full time ministry, and I knew this is what I’ve got to do,” Matthew said. “I want to use my story to help the youth.”

But in his senior year of high school, his grandfather died, a friend committed suicide, and Matthew was drinking often. Additionally, his brother, who had left the faith in high school, discouraged Matthew’s faith.

“He said, ‘Oh, this is stupid. Why do you believe that stuff?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, why do I?’ And that’s how my separation from church (during) those years happened,” Matthew said.

He continued to attend life groups with his friends but turned away from the call to be a youth minister. When he graduated high school, Matthew went to the University of Indianapolis to study sports management. 

As a freshman in college, he ran a group for eighth grade boys. It seemed to be a step in the right direction towards his calling, but he recognized hypocrisy in his life. On the outside, Matthew appeared to be walking with God, but when he left the church at night, he was still drinking and not pursuing what God called him to.

“They didn’t know what I was actually doing,” Matthew said. “They thought I was the greatest person, but little did they know, I wasn’t doing what God would want me to do.”

Matthew’s former life group leader and good friend Josh Howerton, however, saw through him.

“[Josh] said, ‘You were called sophomore year and now you’re running away from it?’” Matthew said, recalling the conversation.

“[Josh] said, ‘You’re going towards this. No matter how long you stay there, you will be going into youth ministry.’”

At Thanksgiving during his freshman year, Matthew told his parents he made a decision to transfer and study youth ministry at Liberty University.

“I’m the only one in my family that is really strong in my faith,” Matthew said. “They encourage me in what I do but sometimes have doubt.”

Matthew said that his parents no longer attend church, but still try to pray and follow the Christian faith. Despite their doubts, for Matthew, taking the step to pursue his calling was all about community and accountability.

“Community has always been there,” Matthew said. “I don’t want kids to go through that alone. Going through things alone is a dangerous thing. You need community to help you get through things. What we always said for my group is that we’re a brotherhood. We are going to work together through anything that goes on in our lives.”

Jacqueline Hale is the Feature Editor. Follow her on Twitter at @HaleJacquelineR.