I'm a link!

At heart I am an evangelist.  I want to spread the good news about Jesus as far as possible.  I want to tell everybody.  When I get to heaven, I want to meet people who say "I am here becasue of you".

The trouble is, I don't really have the gift of evangelism.  I don't find that when I tell them, people sign up for the deal.  For most of my life, my only achievement has been to convert an agnostic into an athiest.

The reality is that in western society, it is quite rare for someone to move from unbelief to belief as the result of one conversation with one person.  More commonly, it's a combination of a lot of incidents, lots of links in the chain, that nudge a person towards faith.

A long time ago I went to see our reclusive neighbour.  I think it was about the fence between her garden and ours.  She invited me in, and I found myself in a very messy house, with an under-exercised dog and an overweight and unhappy woman suffering mobility problems.  As part of the conversation, it came out that I am a lay minister in the church, and I offered to pray for her to be healed.  She accepted, and I laid hands on her and prayed.  OK, it wasn't clever that I laid hands on the nearest part of her body which was her knee - could have been misinterpreted.  OK, she wasn't healed.

I went home.  didn't think much about it.  Occasionally felt guilty that I hadn't followed up the contact.  Had occasional dealings with her over a shared water supply pipe, but didn't really get engaged in conversation.

But recently, my daughter's ladybird tent was picked up by the wind and dumped over the fence.

I had to go round and see the lady again.

When she opened the door, it was like a different woman.  Broad smile.  Colourful clothes.  Much slimmer.  "you're looking well" I blurted.  Expalied about the tent.  Went through her tidy house to shunt the tent back over the fence.  Then she said "I'm coming to your church tomorrow night for the joint service" [when the main members of the town's 'Churches together' group worship as one on a bi-monthly basis].  It turns out that she has been attending a course similar to the Alpha course at the Elim Pentecostal church, has also done a counselling course and is joining their counselling team.  She didn't say explicitly 'I've been born again' - but the evidence was there.  She did say that she was really touched by the time I prayed with her (and I don't think that was an allegation of sexual assault on her knee!), and from the contetext of the conversation it was apparent that it had been a factor in her being open to the church. 

So I was a link in that lady's salvation, and I feel that my life on earth has started to be worthwhile.

To fulfill the Great Commission, we don't have to drag people all the way from unbelief to belief in one session.  It's just a matter of giving them those little nudges in the right direction.

Kebabevangelism

So I resent going on courses for my Readership – they erode my family time.

I had forgotten about last night’s Child Protection course, until Mrs reminded me in our lunch time phone call. So I had to go straight to the venue in the evening with no evening meal. Fortunately there was a kebab shop near the church.

The owner was very friendly, and after I had placed my order he said I should order the popular chicken kebab next time. This gave me the chance to say I don’t normally go that way since I am from ***town 20 miles away, I was just there for a Child Protection course at the church across the road, but would be back for “Vulnerable adults” next week and would order it then.

This lead on to a conversation. Being an Asian immigrant, his knowledge of Christianity seemed to be limited to the fact that some Bishops are not allowed to marry. And so, my kebab lead to that man having his first introduction to the faith, although it was based more on administration rather than theology and we didn’t have time to get on to who Jesus is. But I have an urge for a chicken kebab…..

There are so many people out there who need to know, and we sit in our little introspective holy huddle. Paul says “Make the most of every opportunity”. My Dad used to make me cringe by handing tracts to every shop keeper that served him. I need to find my way to communicate, and so do we all.

So here is my challenge to myself and every reader:

In the next five days tell one or two people outside your normal circle about Jesus, and report back via comments below.

I promise to pray at least once for each person.

Horsing around

Not quite the usual thing at church this morning. We had a "special guest" - that is to say that the side fire escape was opened and they brought in a pony. This was the nearest they could get to a donkey! So this creature was paraded at the front for a couple of minutes, and was then lead down the central aisle and out of the front door, and the congregation was asked to follow it. So we all ended up in he church yard, which opens directly onto the main street of our town, and we finished off the service by singing hosanna, standing in a circle around the horse. This passes for a beginning of evangelism - getting the church our of the door and into the community.

It's just that the community is now convinced we are sect of horse-worshippers!