I have told way too many people that I want God to open and close doors in my life but I wanted them thrown off the hinges or slammed shut so there would be no mistaking my selfish desires for His will. Crap! I think he was in on one of these conversations.
I have been convicted on the need to share not only my faith but in encouraging others to share theirs. Well I have been toying around with the thought of trying to teach people on how to be more comfortable in doing this. Hold up! This is not a push for E.E. or F.A.I.T.H. or any other SBC form of Tuesday night door to door evangelizing. (I still do not know why Tuesday has become the official night). I grew up with this mentality and have never been able to embrace it. I have always felt like a salesperson who should carrying a briefcase with a plethora of tracts and asking which one would you like. I have a Jesus tract for the single mom or one for the grumpy teenager. I always felt so much pressure to "close the deal". We would always meet back at the church and see who had the "best response" and who was insulted the most.
I have been given statistic after statistic saying how the church isn't growing because the church isn't reaching out. I was turned on to a newer form of evangelism only to find out it has been around for some 2000 years. It even predates E.E. and the life/death tract. It has recently been labeled relational evangelism or lifestyle evangelism. One man has even coined it as BBQ evangelism. Well, I have been trying to figure out a way to introduce this to my church and if God didn't set me up. During our informal staff meeting Wednesday night I was approached to lead my church in this area. There is a door that was completely thrown off the hinges! I had not shared this burden with anyone and yet God had shared it.
I was upfront and said I was not a fan of door to door Jesus marketing and that if I do it I want to have a class showing people they have opportunities in front of them everyday. I have all but officially accepted this added position and have begun to get extremely excited. I am hoping to get a small group together and go through Contagious Christianity with them and start a shift in the way we go about our lives together. I want to empower them and show them through scripture how this is an effective means and that we have been given the power to do this.
