EverydayEvangelism: Apprenticeship

After the talk of surfing and plowing, some more thoughts. My friend Theo commented that perhaps we should spend a year tending sheep and working on a farm...

I think there is something hiding in that thought-- not so much that we might simply do something like what people experienced in Jesus' time, as if we might gain a deeper insight into His words (although that might happen). Rather, the insights would be about discipleship.

Of the number of smells that remind me of precious childhood memories, two of them are the smells of dry dirt and fresh beans. Some of my best times were spent hanging out with my grandfather on his farm in California. The smell of dry dirt is everywhere in Central California. Last night, I smelled it in our garden on Charlie Derrickson's farm. It took me back. As I watered, I was reminded of a thought I used to have when I was a kid. When the dry dirt is damp, it has a different smell. I always associate that with morning. Days are hot in Central California but nights are very cool, in the 50s and 60s. There is a lot of dew in the early morning. And so we would head out to the ranch, the scents of dirt and dew and Papa's coffee swirling in the air. I used to think that smell of the dew and dirt was what the world must have smelled like right after God created it. It's funny, even when I was a hard-core atheist, I would remember that.

My grandfather grew a lot of beans, and when they were being harvested and taken to the processing shed... you could smell them for miles. Jessie was weeding the beans last night and I was thinking about how good it will smell to pick them.

But I digress. What I meant to say was that spending time growing things is a great lesson in evangelism and discipleship. Sometimes we hear Jesus speak and we wish he had told the parable of the remote control or the airplane. But He spoke of seeds and sheep and vines and growing things. Perhaps because to make things grow:

You have to work hard.

You have to be diligent.

You have to pull weeds.

You have to protect the plants from bugs.

You have to be patient, and wait for the harvest. You can't lose heart because you have worked hard every day, sweated, missed out on fun, and still no beans. But it's not time yet...

And you have to have faith that the process from seed to plant to flower to fruit to harvest is what is bound to happen.

But if I put faith first, you'd quit reading and be tempted to think it is magic fairy dust, and if we just have faith we won't need hard work, diligence, fighting pests, and patience!

Get out into the field today!

The Gospel Plow

One of our church members, Norma, told me about her response to my surfer-discipleship story.  She said that she loved her Dad, and one of her strongest memories is how he would plow their fields with a one-horse plow, and she would walk behind him, making sure to walk in his footsteps.  Wow!  I am not sure you can wear out the Gospel implications in that!

It reminds me of something that our friend Theo has said, "Memorize what the backside of Jesus looks like so you can be sure you are following Him."  He goes on to say we should know what His heels look like!  I am reminded of Teddy Ray's prompting me to have a Holiness/Evangelism/Discipleship conference called "Beautiful Feet."

Yesterday, another member, JoAnn was talking to some people at the grocery store.  She told them about our church and invited them.  The two she talked with were interested, saying they had been thinking of going to church.  JoAnn asked for their numbers, if they were interested in the pastor calling them.  They gave her the numbers.  Awesome to work together in the fields of the Lord!

Critical Mass

Here is my “conversion chain” not sure what else to call it. These are the moments of witness that I remember, things that when I came to Christ I realized were the people whose words and actions added up to the moment the Holy Spirit had His way and I came to Christ. I cannot completely put them in chronological order. It's close though. I do this for two reasons:

1. There is no pastor on this list. That's a good thing, not a slap against pastors. I was hostile to Christians and church so there would be very little chance for a pastor to reach me. You lay people have to do this!
   
2. Your seemingly small things, things you probably do not remember have worked with others to bring a harvest of repentance and salvation that you won't know about this side of glory. You won't always or often be like Larry Isitt, Dane Conrad, James Sims and Drew Barnes and get to see that I came to Christ after they witnessed to me.

Ed Higginbotham, my dad's commanding officer when I was 4 or 5, invited us to a service at a Presbyterian church
C.S. Lewis. No lie, in third grade, the idea that Aslan—an innocent—died for the sins of others stuck in me, even tho someone very important and influential in my life told me that was a ludicrous idea. I could not let it go.
Kids playing basketball in my subdivision in Texas. I knew one of them from Germany (Air Force brats...) I cussed while we played. The boy said simply “we don't talk like that here.”
FCA group playing flag football on a weekend at my high school. I was on a long bike ride and stopped to play, too. Same story. I cussed. They said please don't. Older kid tried to tell me about Jesus.
Kathy Kedzierski. Open about going to church.
Tim, from Governor's School. Just told me about salvation and asked me if I wanted to accept Jesus. He was totally ready to pray for me right then and there.
Guitar player at a party. He shared with me about the blues and Jesus.
Abortion protesters on a street in San Luis Obispo, CA.
JoAnn, my cousin. She invited me to church with her a lot while I was in college in Mississippi.
Anastacia Feldman, history professor.
Audrey. Can't remember her name. Would not go out with me because I was a pretty rank pagan. That stuck with me, too.

Erwin Burt, a friend who let me hunt on his land, and took me to church with him.

Tommy Blanton, boss

Stan Hauer, English professor
James Sims, English professor

Larry Isitt, fellow college student

Two girls from 37th Avenue Baptist Church who asked me if I knew where I'd go if I died.

Dane Conrad, fellow college student
Drew Barnes, fellow college student
Buddy Pittman, co-worker
Robert Allen, co-worker
Barry Burruss, co-worker

The Gideons. Getting that Scripture in October of 1994...

There are 23 items on this list.  There are no doubt some I do not remember.  The point is, will you be intentional about telling someone about Jesus, and be ok with always being number 13?  Never knowing that the person you share with will come to faith or not?

A Surfer's Joy

I have been reminded recently of something I saw a number of years ago, something that is speaking to me again about evangelism and discipleship. I think it has to do with a theme of joy. I was fishing with a friend who has not quite decided what he thinks about Jesus. His kids came to our Vacation Bible School. His comment about the closing ceremony was revealing. He said that he was impressed that everyone was smiling, that the kids were having fun. “There was a lot of joy. I think that's what church ought to be like."

I am reminded of an image that sticks with me. I was visiting family in California. We had gone to Morro Bay. I saw a fellow, perhaps in his 60s, long salt-and-pepper hair, in a wet suit on a surfboard. He was there with his granddaughter, perhaps 7, with her own wetsuit and child-size surfboard. What sticks out at me is not just the neat silhouette they made together, but the great joy he had in teaching his granddaughter to surf.

I think that is how we must be about evangelism and discipleship. Specifically with our children; let them see and know our joy in following Jesus. Do we pray with them, to teach them how, to hear and see the quality of our relationship with Him? Do we teach them to love to read the Bible? Do they know our joy when we are in worship with them?

And I suppose the same can be true with our friends who don't know Jesus. Do they know our joy? Do we share who Jesus is? What He has done for us? And the joy we have because of Him?

Recommendation

I want to recommend that you subscribe to a blog written by my friend, JD Payne.  JD is a church planter, was professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, and is now on staff at Brook Hills Church in Birmingham, AL.  His work is on how to be effectively in mission-- through evangelism, missions, and church planting.  He disseminates cutting edge information about the current needs in mission and evangelism, with a strong Biblical foundation.

Check it out: http://www.jdpayne.org

Back Again

I have not posted in a while, y'all probably think I don't love you. I'd like to say it's because I have been so busy. That's only partially true. Most of it is I have not had much to say.




It has been a fruitful time in a lot of ways. I have been part of a small learning group called Future Travelers. We met in Tacoma in February (I think!) and then Exponential was two weeks ago and next week is the last meeting with the Future Travelers. It has been really fruitful to be around some of the best church planters and practitioners of discipleship and evangelism.

A really good book I can recommend: Missionary Methods: St Paul's or Ours? By Roland Allen. Written in 1912, it still has amazing insight. That's not surprising, he is gleaning insight from the Bible, which is always relevant. Because America is a huge mission field, what he has to say about mission work is applicable to us.

Some leading edges: partnering with “networks” to plant new churches. A church planting network is a group of... what? Churches, planters, theologians, mentors who come together to help plant churches. It's a tougher job than people imagine. The networks are becoming much more diffuse. That is, instead of being “institutional,” they can do work on a case-by-case basis in many contexts with many kinds of planters. So, at one time there was a sense that you planted one kind of church one kind of way. Now the work is more “well-known” and there are broader, scriptural principles put to work in a variety of places. My great hope is that not only will the Kentucky Conference partner with a network—to either plant our churches or to teach us how to become our own network. And even moreso, I think that individual churches interested in church planting could work with these established networks to be fruitful in church planting.

And always-- who have you told about Jesus today?

Calves, Worms, and Evangelism

So yesterday, we got John's calf. We travelled out to a beautiful hilltop farm in Elliott County. John is working with Charlie Derrickson to learn about taking care of cattle. Mike King drove us out there because he had the only vehicle to get us out to farm if it was really wet.

This morning, John and I got up and went out to Charlie's farm to feed and water the calf (named “Buck.” I said we should name him T-Bone...) and also to let the calf get used to John working with it. I was surprised at how quickly John was able to get hold of the halter and put his hands on the calf. As we were leaving, John prayed a great prayer of thanks for getting his calf.

Thursday there was a really strong downpour. I was walking to the church and noticed in the gutter that a lot of worms were being tumbled along in the flow of water. I wondered if they were dead and just got swept up. When I came to a driveway, and the water spread out a bit before being forced back along the curb, I saw some worms crawling out of the water. No idea where they thougth they were headed.

But I was reminded of something my friend Starr Clay said one time, that has great wisdom and encouragement for evangelism. She said when she was a little girl that she always tried to save the worms that were stuck on pavement drying out after rain. She found out that you couldn't save all the worms.

This is definitely true in evangelism. First, a broken heart is cultivated in us for the people who do not know Christ, who will perish in everlasting fire without Him. And then, we set about sharing the life-saving knowledge of Jesus' atoning death and resurrection.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12) and “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13).

But we face problems. No one seems to listen or care. They may not even appreciate the danger of a life lived apart from Christ. (This baffles us, because even the worms know to swim out of the gutter!) Or we find that if people do listen, no one is converted.

It can be discouraging. But if you went into it thinking you could save all the worms... We have to remember Jesus' words: “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and few find it.”

So we do not lose heart. We do everything we can so that we might save some.