“Do I have to get you shot for you to listen to Me?”
That was the sentence God used to mark the turning point in Alex Rodriguez’s story.
Having built a career in law enforcement and fire service, Rodriguez had no intention of doing anything else for the rest of his life. But throughout the months after hearing God’s voice, Rodriguez was slapped in the face with challenge after challenge as he worked as a narcotics agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, even coming close to losing his life on several occasions. God was trying to tell him something, but Rodriguez remained stubborn. He wrestled with God – wrestled with what was truth and what wasn’t. Finally, he’d had enough. Rodriguez told God if He had something to say, then to just say it. So God did.
“I’ve called you to the ministry.”
Rodriguez remembers thinking, “Lord, you’ve got to be kidding, right? The God of the entire universe … the best you can do out of eight billion people is me?”
Rodriguez’s story took a dramatic turn. God wanted him in ministry, and Rodriguez could do nothing but step through the doors that opened before him. He went back to school, pastored at multiple churches and eventually served as the evangelism director for Voice of Prophecy. Now as the SALT program director at Union Adventist University, he is preparing future ministers, evangelists and Bible workers to follow God’s calling.
SALT (Soul-winning and Leadership Training) is a one-semester program recently added to Union’s repertoire that offers an opportunity for students to learn how to better minister and share Jesus. SALT is built on the principle of Matthew 5:13: we are the salt of the earth and have been given the task to go out and spread the gospel across the world. The first SALT program was founded in 2011 as a joint venture between Southern Adventist University and It Is Written. Thanks to the leadership of the Minnesota Conference and It Is Written, the program is adding a second campus at Union. The university hopes to help prepare students for sharing Jesus with everyone they come in contact with.
For the people who come through the program, Rodriguez believes their stories will be a powerful instrument with which they can reach people. “That’s what we hope to bring to the attention of these SALT students,” he said. “They each have a story. We can help them tell it. They have a circle of influence who nobody else can influence. And we want to help them see that circle as a mission field and give them the techniques and tools to be able to effectively do what God has called them to do inside that circle.”
Rodriguez, his wife and five kids, are starting to settle into Lincoln to step forward with their stories. Instead of breaking down doors and putting people in jail, he’ll be teaching students how to knock on doors and deliver the good news of how earthly chains can be broken.
Learn more about the SALT Program at uau.edu/salt
by Sami Hoffer, a junior biomedical science major from Minnesota