We were buying a house—a brand new house. It was about to be
built just up the hill from the model home. Tina’s (my wife) mom came to visit;
of course, we took her to see the lot and the model home. We were young; in
fact, I was young enough to think that we would do a quick walk through of the
model and then go to lunch. Can you tell I had not been married very long?
Somehow Tina produced a tape measurer and she and her mother began measuring
all the windows and sliding glass doors so they could get started picking out,
and/or making curtains, drapes, etc. They were talking about colors and
accents, and all the stuff I didn’t care about. So I sat down on one of the
couches in the living room and watched the other people who came in to look the
model over.
As I sat there enjoying the couch and listening to my stomach
begin to growl for lunch, a man, probably old enough to be my father, sat
heavily in the easy chair next to me. He was a talkative guy. At times I have
been accused of enjoying the sound of my voice too, so we got into a
conversation. Apparently, his daughter was looking for a house. I excitedly
told him we had already bought one and it would soon be under construction.
When we exhausted that line of conversation and our women-folk hadn’t
reappeared, he asked me what I did for a living. I was in my very first lead,
actually solo, pastoral assignment, so I excitedly told him that I was the
pastor of Church of the Foothills, gave him directions, and invited him to join
us any Sunday morning for worship.
He asked me what kind of church it was. I told him what I
always say when people ask me that: “We
are a non-denominational church affiliated with the Church of God of Anderson,
Indiana. It’s sort of a non-denominational denomination.” He said, “Just so
long as it’s not one of the those evangelical churches.” I asked him what church
he belonged to. He said, “I’m Jewish.” So I asked him what was wrong with
“evangelical” churches, and told him that our church could be considered
evangelical. He went into a rant for several minutes about how his daughter had
been going to an evangelical church and they wanted her to become a Christian,
and why couldn’t we just let people be what they were born to be. At the end of
his monologue, he was pretty red in the face and he asked me if I tried to get
people to become Christians. I told him I did, and he asked why I thought I should try to get people to believe as I do.
After a minute or two he again stopped talking and I told him that the last
thing Jesus did on this earth was tell His followers to go into all the world
and make disciples. I told the man, we
have to try to persuade people to join us. We believe God’s Son ordered us to
do so. He huffed a time or two and then got up to go find his family. Tina and
her mom came back and said they were ready to go about then and we left. I
never saw that man again, but that conversation has stayed with me.
We are under orders to bring the world to Jesus. Doing the Great Commission is not something
we can do when we get around to it. It is what the Lord calls all of us to do.
Some people will laugh at you. Some will get angry. Some will avoid you. But
some will believe. Praise God, some will believe! The proper way to share the
Good News about Jesus is by building relationships with people who don’t know
Him and sharing our lives with them. It is more than can be done in a few
minutes on a doorstep … or in a model home. It’s about loving folks who need the Good News and earning the right to
be heard. I didn’t have the opportunity to do that with the man on the
couch that day, but I think someone was building that kind of relationship with
his daughter. I hope at some time someone came into that man’s life and got to
share with him on a deeper level than I had the opportunity to do. He was very
resistant to me and, I think, to anyone at that time, but maybe later someone
got the opportunity to help him know our Savior.
It’s a big job that
Jesus gave us. If we do it right it changes lives, cultures, and history.
It has done so in the past, and it can again. In recent months several things
have happened that demonstrate that the influence of Judeo-Christian values has
lessened on our society. That needs to change, but it won’t be changed by
winning elections and passing legislation. If the change comes, it will be
because hearts have turned to God. That only happens as we build relationships
with neighbors, colleagues, teammates, whoever we do life with who don’t know
Christ. It only happens when we risk being ostracized and even hated. It will
only happen when people see Christ’s love in us. Remember, we are under orders.
Jesus did His part on the cross. The
Holy Spirit will help us. We must do our assignment.
