Seminarian finds tattoos, earrings prompt conversation

(Reprinted from the Northwest Baptist Witness)
By GAIL PERRY

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- You can’t help but notice the tattoo, a crown of thorns around his right bicep. As your eyes move to his face, you see earrings in both ears and note the tussled blond hair standing in loose peaks on top of his head.

So where are you? Perhaps in a park surrounded by teenagers on roller blades and skate-boards? Perhaps in the video game arcade of the mall?

No, you are sitting in class at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary’s Pacific Northwest Campus in Vancouver, listing to a Master of Divinity student answer questions you always wanted to ask him yourself.

“So why do you have a tattoo on your arm?” someone asks. “I just wanted one for a long time,” he replies.

Dan Miller, associate pastor of The Anchor Baptist Church in Seattle, is a third-year seminary student. He is sometimes a puzzle to his classmates and professors. And he’s a “Partner in the Harvest,” part of a mission effort of the Northwest Baptist Con-vention, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Church.

He successfully walks the fine line to which Jesus calls disciples. He is in the world. He understand the world. Miller even looks like the world. But he is not of the world.

“So why did you choose a crown of thorns?” the next interviewer asks.

“I wanted something that wasn't going to go out of style for me as I got older,” Miller explains. “This fit me,” he says, glancing at his arm, “since I'll never stop being a believer.”

“How long have you dressed like this? Did you always want to live ‘outside the box,’’’ another class-mate wants to know. “No,” Miller says. “It got weirder when I was in college. Somewhere I learned to read the Bible for what it really says and to think for myself.”

Miller’s church in Ozark, Ark., licensed him to preach as a high school senior. He attended Oklahoma Baptist Univer-sity, where he completed a degree in Biblical studies.

At Oklahoma Baptist, Miller “tried to be a really good student,” he says. He traveled around on week-ends in a suit and tie whenever he had oppor-tunities to preach.

The visual transform-ation began in 1995 when Miller served as a summer missionary in West Virgi-nia. “I shaved my head to get kids to come to our activities,” Miller says. “Then, I had wanted an ear pierced forever. When I was a junior in college, I finally convinced my mom to agree I could get ‘an ear’ pierced. I just happened to do both of them.”

When Miller came to the Seattle church as a summer intern in 1997, he found the Northwest culture refreshing.

“In the South, just about everyone can talk the Christian talk whether they really are Christians or not. You're never sure where they are,” Miller says. “But up here people tell you what they believe and you can talk about faith with them.”

Miller's appearance helps him break the stereotypes of what people think Christians and churches should be like. “Earrings and tattoos open doors,” he says.

“What do you think is the best way to reach people in the Northwest culture?” comes one of the final questions.

“Develop intentional relationships where you legitimately care about the person and get close enough to let their world view bump up against yours,” Miller replies.

For Miller, being intentional in relationships means sharing his faith after he’s had contact with a person about five times.

Miller finds contacts by being aware of his sur-roundings and by praying for opportunities to listen to peple.

“There's hardly anyone who doesn’t want to talk about themselves if people would listen to them,” Miller says. “They just think people don't care, and most of the time they don’t.”

Christians are called to touch the world, Miller says. He says he prefers like Paul to use all available means to bring everyone he can to Jesus.