Charging to a better life

Prior to that, he was an NFL football player for the Chargers from 1982 to ’85. That’s not the unique part of his journey.

What made McPherson’s road to a spiritual life so stunningly unlikely is an entry that could accurately appear on his résumé:

—	Experiences include marijuana and cocaine use.
—	Philosophy: "I figured that getting high, playing football, hanging out, partying, having sex, there couldn’t be anything better than that."
—	Reference: His former drug dealer (no longer available upon request).

Anyone interested in the career path to doing God’s work would probably do well to do exactly the opposite of what McPherson did from age 16 to 24.

A man who is destined to become a pastor and evangelist, one would think, would get high on life, not high on drugs.

"Some friends offered it to me," McPherson says. "Just have a try. Actually, the first few times I did it I didn’t get high. I probably didn’t smoke enough but eventually was determined to experience what they were talking about, and then once I started I just kept doing it."

"I did it (marijuana) mostly just because I enjoyed it and all my friends were doing it," McPherson says.

By his senior year in high school, McPherson was using marijuana three or four times a week.

"I think it contributed to maybe cutting a lot of corners in my education, and I was distracted by … trying to get high and/or once I was high just being high and not doing well in school," McPherson says. "I did not do well. I wasn’t a disciplined student, and that just contributed to it. It was a big distraction in my life."

McPherson’s drug use would span eight years. It really took off when he became an NFL player for the Chargers. It was as a rookie with the Chargers that McPherson first tried cocaine.

The road less traveled for a future man of God took this detour when McPherson walked into a hotel room. Unbeknownst to McPherson, there were about five teammates in the room who had cocaine.

"They just offered it to me," McPherson says. "And I reluctantly did it. … That was the beginning."

"I spent thousands of dollars on it," McPherson says. "Maybe even over $10,000 on it."

The Chargers may have signed McPherson’s paycheck, but the cocaine was really his boss.

"I would find myself at five, six o’clock in the morning having been up all night, 24 hours, and doing cocaine all night, and I realized I was destroying my life," McPherson says. "With marijuana you smoke a couple joints, you go to sleep, whatever. But the cocaine would keep you up, your heart’s beating, you’re losing weight, you’re spending your money and you can’t say no. And I started to realize that I was trapped and that I wasn’t happy and that everything I had was not fulfilling me and then that cocaine was robbing me of a great life. I was in the NFL, but I was destroying it. So it was during those first two years in the NFL that while I was in the prime of my life doing exactly what I always dreamt of doing that I was trapped, enslaved to this drug, and it was like a hell."

McPherson took his first step out of this private hell at 5 a.m. on April 12, 1984.

"I had done cocaine," McPherson says. "I was laying on my couch — and I had basically been up all night, and this was after 24 years of living and two years in the NFL — thinking about what I was doing to myself and where I was going. I had played two years, and I had not been a starter. Your life is so uncertain in the NFL, and there were two guys on my team who were Christians that I had been watching. … I had watched them and realized that they had something that I wanted. They had peace. So I was very familiar with the gospel, very familiar with what I had to do. And I just made the decision that day that that was the end. I had experimented enough, and I had partied enough, and I realized that it was never going to deliver what it was promising. So I just made a decision that day, I told Jesus Christ I confess my sins. I acknowledge that you’re my lord and savior. I’ll do whatever you want to do."

This was the turning point for McPherson, but his inspiration had not come as quickly as the snap of his fingers and was not fully realized as fast as the blink of an eye.

The seeds of thought for this turning point had been planted six months earlier on a plane ride. One of McPherson’s teammates was Sherman Smith, who is now an assistant coach for the Titans. Smith was doing bible study on the plane, and he asked McPherson if he would go to heaven if he died. Smith then shared the gospel with McPherson. Six months later the date was April 12, and McPherson was ready for a change.

Just as Smith’s words did not sink in immediately for McPherson, neither did his vow to change his life lock into place the second it was made.

McPherson followed up his decision to make Jesus Christ his lord and savior by calling his drug dealer not once, not twice, not three times, but, well, let McPherson tell the story.

"I called my drug dealer," McPherson says. "I called him seven times to try to get some drugs. It was either that day or the next day, and I said, ‘If he doesn’t call me back, if he’s not there, I’m never going to call again.’ And basically, he was never there, so I never called him back."

This might seem like a strange way to turn one’s life around, but as McPherson says, "It’s a process of weeding that part of your life out."

McPherson knew what he wanted to do, but he still had to determine if he was ready to carry out this new plan .

"It was, I got saved and I said, ‘OK, God, I’m done.’ " McPherson says. "But now you’re sitting there going, ‘Hmmm.’ It was almost like a half test, half I’m weak still."

McPherson was scratching his head at the fork in the road, struggling to finally take a better path. What would have happened had his drug dealer been home or returned the call?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe he would have gotten high but then found the right path soon thereafter. Maybe he would have gotten high and blown it for good. No one will ever know because the drug dealer never called back. Call it the best unreturned phone call of McPherson’s life.

A corner had been turned, but McPherson was not home free yet. Temptation is always around the next corner. Another test of his will awaited.

"He had some cocaine with him, and he asked me to get high with him," McPherson says. "And I had never gotten high with him, and I really didn’t like him anyway. So I said no. And it felt really good to say no, and it felt right. And he asked me again. And I said no, and it felt even better. And I realized that I had been set free. So I started following him around so he would ask me just so I could say no."

Finally, McPherson exited the club, looked up to the sky and said, "God, it’s over. I’m done. That’s it. No more clubs. That’s it."

Indeed, that was it. McPherson says he never again used drugs after that. He started going to church. Just to show you what kind of life McPherson had been living until that point, consider what a security guard with the Chargers suspected when he saw McPherson going to church with regularity. This security guard had previously been suspicious that McPherson was on drugs, but hadn’t caught him in the act. The security guard had tried tailing McPherson before in an attempt to find out where he was getting his drugs, but McPherson had always lost the tail because he was driving so fast.

When McPherson finally turned his life around, there was no way for the security guard to know this right away. When the newer, better version of McPherson started going to church, he still had the security guard on his tail.

"He started following me to church, thinking I was getting my drugs at church," McPherson says.

The Miles McPherson that you see today is nothing like the Miles McPherson of old.

In time, the Chargers’ security guard realized he was following a new-and-improved version of McPherson. The security guard was actively involved in community service, and one day he took McPherson and a half-dozen other Chargers players to a high school to speak at an assembly.

McPherson had never spoken in front of a group before. Each player spoke for about five minutes.

From hooked on drugs to hooked on helping kids. That just may be the greatest trade of all time.

McPherson retired from football in August 1986. A month later he became a youth pastor at a church called Horizon Christian Fellowship. He did that for five-and-a-half years. He started a youth ministry. He spoke in high schools. He spoke at youth conferences. He spoke in prisons. He spoke at churches.

McPherson left Horizon Christian Fellowship in 1992 to start Project Intercept, which later became the San Diego-based Miles Ahead Ministries whose mission is, in the words of McPherson, its founder/president/evangelist, to "preach the gospel to young people, all young people everywhere. We want to get kids saved."

McPherson does a lot of youth crusades, which can best be described as a large Christian concert with a gospel message at the end. It’s entertainment designed to draw young people into the crusade, give them a great time and then lead them into worship.

McPherson also founded The ROCK Church on the San Diego State University campus and is still the pastor there.

"The lord just led me to establish a base of operation from which to invest in the same group of people over time," McPherson says.

There are about 3,100 people who attend The ROCK. They meet on Sundays. Plus, there are about 80 bible study groups that meet in homes during the week.

McPherson has also tried to get his message out by writing a half-dozen books, half of which target kids and the rest of which are for parents. He is also a national speaker for numerous well-meaning organizations.

"That’s the group that God has placed on my heart," McPherson says. "I can tell you … that I love kids and I loved being a kid, but that’s just a group that God has chosen for me to focus on. I would say that’s the reason."

If you want to put McPherson’s reason for working with kids into a concise sound bite, it would be that it’s better to train a child than fix an adult.

"That means that young people are in a very moldable, pliable state," McPherson says. "They’re searching for truth. They’re looking for answers. They’re making decisions that will affect the rest of their life. They’re not stuck in their ways yet. And if you can get them on the right path at a young age, it’s easier and more likely that they’re going to be productive when they grow up. You get an adult who’s stuck in their ways, they’re entrenched in their job, they’re hard-headed, it’s so much harder to turn them."

The style McPherson uses in speaking to kids is bold and up front with a sense of humor. He’s originally from New York, so he is direct and bottom line in his approach.

What works especially well for McPherson is that he does not preach from an ivory tower. As a reformed sinner, McPherson has credibility with kids that can only come from having faced temptation in one’s own past. Drug use is obviously not a recommended area of study for the ministers of tomorrow, but McPherson’s past does help in some ways when talking to young people.

"In their minds, yes it does," McPherson says. "It does. I’ll say this. It does give me credibility to them, but when change happens in a person’s heart, it’s a spiritual awakening and stories about my sinful past don’t cause that wakening. Only God can. So it’s a twofold, double-edged sword. It does give me credibility, but the spirit of God is working through me, and it’s nothing of me. It’s God. That’s what brings about the change."

As a messenger of God, McPherson’s sinful past, as he calls it, does give him a unique perspective from which to spread God’s word.

"I understand very clearly what it means to be empty, what it means to be enslaved and lied to by sin," McPherson says. "Sin promises to bless you and satisfy you, but its desire is to enslave you. And I am very familiar with that promise, those false promises of drugs and sex and money and having fun.

"In the NFL you had six months off, so you had a lot of free time to do what you want. I’m very familiar with the false promises of a good time. And when I talk to kids and they tell me what they want to be when they grow up and how they want to get there and the fun they’re having, I know exactly what they’re thinking, what they’re dreaming, and I know what that kind of life is going to bring. So I’m grateful that God brought me through it relatively safely, and I’m grateful for the pain that I experienced, because I now can relate to what these kids are going through. And the fact that when I tell them I played in the NFL and did the things I did, they know that I’m talking from experience and not just like their parent might be talking."

The Miles McPherson who once sinned and the Miles McPherson who now takes the lessons learned from those sins to make a positive impact on today’s youth could not be more different. What would the old Miles McPherson have said if told that he would go on to become the man of God we see today?

The present-day McPherson laughs at the thought and says, "I probably would have said you’re crazy. … I probably would have laughed at you."

The old McPherson struggled with a life poorly lived. The present-day McPherson can be proud of a job well done.

"The most satisfying thing for me is to hear God say, ‘Well done good and faithful servant,’ " McPherson says. "And when I feel like I’m doing what God wants me to do and I’m alone with him and he smiles down at me and says you’re doing what I want, you’re being faithful and the little things, that’s the most satisfying thing.

"I’ve seen thousands of kids whose lives have changed. I’ve seen families whose lives have changed. But God does that. If I’m obedient, and he can look at me and say you’re being obedient, you’re trusting me, that’s probably the most satisfying thing for me."

In some ways, the satisfaction McPherson now gets is similar to that which he experienced as an NFL player playing before enormous crowds.

"It’s definitely comparable," McPherson says. "It’s a big rush because sometimes I’ll speak to 50,000 people, and I’m scared to death, but when I get out there it’s a perfect match for how God created me."

"It’s a better rush because it’s ongoing," McPherson says. "When you’re in a football game, you’re very consumed in the game. But when you’re preaching, for the whole time God is speaking to you and through you, that rush is ongoing. So I would say it’s an even sweeter experience.

For more information on Miles Ahead crusades through McPherson’s ministry, visit www.milesahead.com

For more information on The ROCK Church (which has cyber church Sunday broadcasts), visit therocksandiego.org

Miles McPherson gave up drugs during his football playing days and eventually found his mission as God’s messenger

By Ron Pollack, Editor-in-chief
Aug. 29, 2001