Roadside Redemption – Day 23

I had to laugh when I read this chapter this morning. Yesterday I had two conversations with folks that had such similar experiences – thinking that they had to do so much more than God intended from them. Just like Mark thinking he needed to be a theologian to his friend Kyle, the following stories illustrate that this partnership with God calling His own to Himself is more natural and rewarding than we might expect.

“We were trying to find a church!”

I’ve got a buddy who is a counseling pastor. He’s a GREAT counseling pastor. He claims he is a lousy evangelist. He sends me all his hard cases. I send him all my impossible (impossible for me) counseling cases. 

The short story he told me yesterday was that after sailing last weekend with his wife he bumped into a couple of nurses who were having fun sailing the bay as well. They struck up a friendly conversation that led to them asking what he did for a living. When he told them that he was a pastor they both shieked “We’ve been searching for a church!” They traded contact info and are headed for his church this weekend.

So there’s the formula – talk to people and answer their questions! Sounds challenging? Sounds natural to me. Simply partnering with what God is already doing.

“Persuasive Speech”

A young lady brought a wise friend of mine her idea for a persuasive presentation in her college speech class. She planned to persuade everyone to go to church. She was really nervous. My friend said that she’d be nervous trying to do that speech as well. She suggested that instead she might take “In Times of Trouble”, a great book of testimonies from real people who have had amazing experiences with God,  and simply presuade them to read the book by sharing a couple of the stories. The college student loved the idea!

She brought enough books for everyone in the class. Not only did this turn out to be a great presentation but many of the students were persuaded to pick up a copy of the book and later told her that it really spoke to the trial that they were going through.

Like Mark said in this chapter, we are a team – a family – and we have resources and wisdom that we don’t realize.

Keep Posting!