2 posts tagged “evangelism”

One of my favorite words to use is "intentional."  It's a word that describes the actions and words of someone with a purpose.  Oftentimes, I find myself telling others, especially college and high school students, to be intentional with their time, their conversations, their actions, their time on Facebook, and life in general.  It's not only an encouragement that I give to others, but it's also a challenge for myself.  I'm constantly telling my leaders to be intentional with their conversations at Crash and One, middle school and high school youth group respectively, and other youth events.

When I was younger, primary or middle school-age, someone gave me one of those giant Blow-Pops.  It was one of those you dreamed of having every time you went through the grocery store check-out line with your mom but never were allowed to have.  They were huge!  They could barely fit into a small child's mouth (probably the reason mom wouldn't let me have one).  And as a child, we all dreamed of biting into that massive sucker to find the massive amount of bubble gum inside of it.   So the day arrived:  I honestly don't remember how I acquired the mammoth cavity creator.  All I know is that I finally had that thing I had always dreamed of.  I remember taking the Blow-Pop home almost fiending to unwrap it and choke myself with it's cherry goodness.  Something really strange happened when I got home though:  I realized that if I ate the Blow-Pop at that moment, it would be gone the next moment.  I was torn!  I wanted the Blow-Pop so bad, but I decided that i had to wait for the perfect time to eat it.  What would the special occasion be?  I had no idea at that point.  I simply knew that moment was not right, so I opened my junk drawer at my desk (Everyone has one.  Don't deny it), threw in the thing I had always dreamed of, and waited for the right time.  Guess what?  I remember cleaning out that drawer YEARS later and finding that same Blow-Pop.  You read correctly - YEARS LATER.  I never found the right time to eat it.  I got the thing I wanted but didn't enjoy it. 

This ridiculous story illustrates one of the things that has been on my heart over the past few years.  In ministry, we always talk about "building relationships" in order to win the opportunity to share our faith with someone.  We pray and pray and pray that God would help us establish those relationships.  We even dream of the day that we get to lead someone to Christ.  However, when God provides those relationships, we somehow fail to experience and enjoy the very thing we've prayed about.  We spend so much time talking about building relationships that we forget one of the reasons we wanted God to provide us with that relationships anyway.  At this point, I have to put a major disclaimer:  Please know that we should never de-value people to the point of only seeing them as potential converts.  Our motivation for building those relationships is completely shallow and conditional if that is how we see people.

Nevertheless, back to my point:  There comes a moment where a relationship is built, and conversations and interactions must begin to move from surface level to spiritual level conversations.  We've got the Blow-Pop that we've dreamed of, but we've stuffed it in the junk drawer waiting for the perfect moment.  Stop waiting for the perfect moment and be ready for the God moments.  Stop talking about the latest upset in college football and find out what upsets your friends.  When you ask how someone's day is, listen and engage a conversation according to their response.  It's pretty difficult to make disciples if we're unwilling to speak of Christ.  I'm not saying that every conversation has to consist of sharing the Gospel and someone confessing their sins.  I'm simply challenging you to stop waiting for the perfect time to speak of Christ.  Let Christ flow freely from your speech and your actions.  The relationship you've dreamed of is built.  The bridge is there!  Quit sitting on the side of the road trying to figure out if the bridge can hold you.  Get in your car and trust that the person who built the bridge knew what they were doing. God has given you something much better than a giant Blow-Pop.  Are you going to take that gift and throw it in the junk drawer only to never finish what God started?