More Than Inclusion: Why Belonging Matters in the Body of Christ // Cameron Horner – Transcript

00:00The way you get relationship with Jesus is very similar to relationship with a a human being. You spend time together, you get to know each other, you let the other person influence you, right? So you spend time with somebody, you start taking on their characteristics. That that type of thing. It's it's relationship with him is like relationship with a person except, you know, he's the best person. He's the transcendent person.

00:23Welcome to the Living Wholehearted podcast, helping leaders live with integrity. So on August 11th, 2011, Cameron's diving accident resulted in a spinal cord injury and immediate paralysis.

00:40Cameron couldn't move his body, but Cameron called up to the Lord to rescue him from the waters of the lake. And at the last moments, Cameron was pulled into the surface by his friend Christina. Cameron has a unique take on suffering and desires for the church to grow in their understanding of how to relate to the pain that we all experience in life. Well, Cameron Horton has a heart for helping churches with the topic of disability. He's experienced the good and the not so good

01:07when it comes to church tolerance, accessibility, messaging, etc., and is a resources for churches and other organizations as they desire to better understand how to minister to the disabled community. Cameron's also a newlywed to Annie, one of our living wholehearted counselors who specializes in parent coaching in teens. And he's also become a good friend. Uh so whether you're going through suffering, trying to make sense of suffering, or leading in the home, church, or community, and

01:35need help forming a suffering theology that is sound and good, this episode is for you. Hey Cameron, it is really good to see you, buddy. Welcome. Yeah, so excited to be on. I've been looking forward to this podcast. Yeah, it's so good. Well, let's just start with your story. We all know as leaders. I shouldn't say we know, but we we preach it all the time, but our stories shape a lot of who we are as leaders and the

02:00call on our life. And so, speak a little more about your broader story and then what happened specifically on August 11th, 2011. Yeah, totally. So, I uh had kind of a standard upbringing for uh a guy in the south. Uh it's a story you hear all too often. I grew up in the church uh going to a little Baptist church. Uh grew up on a farm. Um and actually had a I was

02:27exposed to the Lord at a young age and very thankful for that. Um had a positive view of faith. Um and even had some initial encounters with Jesus at a very young age. um encounters that I would say were of my own choice and were real. Um but you know, as it often goes, by the time I reached my teenage years, didn't really have much of a walk with the Lord.

02:52Um and there was going to be something coming in my life, uh which you you already kind of mentioned. Uh when I was 18, I had a diving accident, broke my neck, and I'll get to that in a minute. Um, but I think one of the beautiful things that the Lord did for me was he actually um recaptured my heart prior to that moment um occurring when I was 18.

03:15And so by the time I was a teenager, I didn't really have a walk with the Lord. I knew the stories had been going to church um had uh baked into me so much Bible um but didn't didn't have life to it, I would say. Uh and then I met this group of people that they'll forever be in my story. We're not close anymore, but uh the North family is their names.

03:36And they were just on fire for Jesus in ways that I'd probably seen before, but I'd never recognized. They had an alive faith. They believed in the power of prayer. They were always talking about the scriptures. Um and I just kind of picked up the Bible. Uh well, they started kind of mentoring me and I picked up the Bible and started forcing myself to read a chapter a day in the Bible at 16 and then 17. and it turned into uh an addiction is kind of the only

04:03way that I've best explained it. Just loved the scriptures. Um and my life began to transform. Um it was actually very charismatic which is um I'll get get to that part of my story as well. Um but just a a a true genuine awakening to the spirit, to the scriptures, to God. It was also like immersed in the scriptures and Bible.

04:27Um, and by the time I turned 18, I felt a call to ministry. Um, and I graduated high school. Uh, had a summer job and then was planning to go to a two-year Bible school up in Minnesota and then was going to begin ministry. Didn't know what it looked like. Didn't really know if I wanted to be like a pastor or anything. All this was just so powerful and real and fresh. Uh, but packed for college, everything was beautiful. Had

04:54some of the best friendships. seeing prayers answered for family members that I've been praying for years. Had so much peace and joy in my heart. I mean, really just such an beautiful life at that moment. Um, I'll always look back at those years. Um, such a walk with Christ. And then, um, a few days before going to college, again, I'm packed for college. Like, everything

05:19is everything is set. uh the family decides to go on family vacation one more time uh before going on before before I go off. Um and so we go to where we I had grown up going, my dad had grown up going there. Uh it's a little lake called White Lake in North Carolina and um Family Lake, you know, the motel hadn't been updated in 50 years, that kind of place. Um and uh for for years I'd been swimming in those

05:44waters. Uh, but I, uh, day one of the of the, uh, vacation, I was doing what's called shallow water dives. Um, which is where you dive into the water and you kind of skim the surface. And you really shouldn't do a dive in shallow water, period. But if you are, that's kind of how you do it. Um, my lifeguard friend was telling me, Cameron, you should stop diving. You should stop diving. But I wasn't listening. And on day two of this family vacation, uh, I ran down the dock as fast as I could. They have long

06:13longer docks there. So, I was running full speed. Got to the end, jumped in the water, spread my arms, and hit the water and went straight to the bottom very quick. Um, yeah, I guess trigger warning. My uh head hit the bottom. My head went down, shoulders came up, and my spine just shattered, and I had a immediate what's called spinal cord injury. Um, and was immediately completely paralyzed. I could kind of wiggle an arm, but that was about it.

06:40Um, just felt the shock go through my body. Not very much pain. Flood of emotions. Uh, I kind of had to go through, okay, what's happening? Uh, okay. I think I know what's going on. Uh, can I get out of this situation? Okay, I can't help myself at all. Uh, I didn't pass out. I was just under the water holding my breath. And then in the moment of, okay, I can't do anything. I'm just waiting.

07:05Then the emotions of, okay, I might be about to die. uh how's my family going to take this? How's my dad going to take this? Then kind of in the swirl of all those emotions, the only way I can explain it is the spirit of God came and met me under the water and uh led me to prayer um as like this first uh reaction to the intensity of the moment. And as soon as I began to pray, I mean, I felt it in my

07:30body, a peace came over me that uh I still talk about to this day. um just started praying and praying and praying and um the details of the story I don't want to spend too much time here but essentially about a minute in I was given miraculously more air um I was at the very end and just like breath came like this half breath just to keep me a little bit longer that I felt was a

07:57miracle for sure. Um, and then I was, but I was continuing to wait under the water. Um, continuing to call out to the Lord when right beside me, my the figure of my friend, uh, my lifeguard or well, former lifeguard, but lifeguard friend just appeared beside me. Um, didn't know, she didn't know where I was, but she just appeared there. Um, pulled me up, supported my head, and began pulling

08:22me back to shore. Uh, we were about 25 yards from the shore because the docks were longer. Um, and it was like the spirit of God met really both of us again. And the scriptures that I had been meditating on and putting in my heart in the year leading up to that moment of this profound spiritual awakening season that I had had, suddenly these scriptures are just coming to my heart to to speak out. And so those scriptures just start rolling

08:49out. And she's she was a very spiritfilled person as well. And so we just like called to the Lord all the way back. Um she got me as close to the shore as she could and uh my family came around and prayers began and essentially I just say in that moment we called out to God and he came near and then he didn't leave he just stayed near um and we continued to rely on him and call out

09:13to him. Um the the details of the story there there's more uh but essentially that day of story uh kind of went not viral but it went it it spread kind of quick. It was 2011, I guess, a 2011 version of viral happened. Um, and we were hearing stories from other countries by day two of people hearing that story and giving their life to

09:38Jesus. Um, so just so much of God coming and using what we were going through for his glory and the good of others. It was like it it didn't take away the intensity of the moment, but it was almost like it just overwhelmed it.

09:58It overwhelmed the the pressure intense moment. Now there were tears and there were difficulties and there were x-rays and there was doctors giving us news that was heartbreaking but it was like overwhelmed by the presence of God, the spirit of God and what God was doing in that moment.

10:19Um so yeah um I went to Atlanta, Georgia after that to do therapy for 4 months. Um slowly regained some function of my arms. My hands are still um mostly disabled, but I have most of the use of my arms. Um and after 4 months in Atlanta of learning to live life again from a wheelchair, I came home and people started asking me to share my

10:42story and um yeah, we've been doing that ever since. have started a nonprofit and um it's been a wild ride with the Lord for 13 years now of sharing his goodness and and there's a hundred things I've learned along the way. But that's the kind of initial uh input to how I've gotten started and and just to say like I felt the call to ministry and I did

11:08not think it would look this way but it it did. Um yeah. Yeah. So there there's more I could share. I maybe should, but we'll tease it out. It out. No, it's it's it's really sobering to just walk through those moments with you. And we're going to go back into kind of what's happened over the last few years.

11:30But when you think about some of the principles, some of the truths you go back to that shape you today, you know, over 10 years, I don't know, I think we're going on 15 years now. Um, is that true? Am I doing the math right?

11:44So, it's 13 years. um this past August. So I guess this coming August will be 14 years. Y yeah. Yeah. So thinking about what what how is that shaping you today and how you do ministry, maybe some of those key principles and then we'll go back through some of the story.