Last week we began a 40 day focus on community. I know I have been inspired by God’s Word, by my small group and by what God is doing to grow in community. I want to learn to be more interdependent with you. We need each other. That is not a sign of weakness. It is reality and it is a blessing. If I had to go through life on my own, it would not be fun.
During our next 5 Sunday mornings, well really 4 more after today. I will be teaching about the 5 purposes we have as a community. These 5 purposes are the answer to the big question, “What on earth are we here for?” What is the meaning of all of this? I believe God has given us meaning and purpose as individuals and as a community. The 5 purposes Rick Warren lays out for us are Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, Worship and Evangelism. We will be specifically looking at each of those over these next 5 weeks.
Today we are going to start with the last one, the purpose of evangelism. Evangelism is the sharing of your faith with other people. We each are called by God to share our faith with others. This can be difficult for some people. Our faith is an intimate piece of our lives. It is bearing our soul to someone else. And the good thing is that we do not have to do this alone. As a group, as a community we are called to share our faith.
And we share our faith because we believe we are better together. If we are better together, then more of us together is even better. We share our faith also as an act of love. God loves all people and desires to have them in his family. God wants all people to come to him and God wants us to invite people to join the family.
One way for this to happen is for us to love each other. If we really create a true Christian community where we love and care for one another, people will be drawn to get together with us. When we act out of love towards each other in the church others will see that and want to be a part of it.
Now, to me that is the easy way to draw people to Christ, and yet we still have difficulty doing it. We still have a hard time treating our Christian brothers and sisters with love and respect. And if we can’t even do that, then why would a non-Christian be interested in God’s family. And I hope you understand I am not just talking about us in this church because there are plenty of other Christian churches that we need to treat with love and respect. We need to encourage and support them because we are not in competition with each other, rather we are to be compassionate to one another.
So one thing to work on is loving our Christian brothers and sisters. Next I want to give you some encouragement on how to share your faith with other people. First, pray. Pray for yourself that you can be a witness for God. Pray you would see opportunities to share. Pray you would be filled with compassion for others.
Pray also for the person or people you have the opportunity to witness to. Pray God would open their hearts to you and God’s message. Pray they would see that they too need to depend on God and others. Pray their desire for love would draw them to the Lord. And don’t just pray alone, but with others. Invite others to pray for that person as well.
And as you pray for them, love them. Care about them. If you are just out to share your faith because I gave you this assignment they will probably not really hear you. Your words won’t matter if you have not shown genuine love and concern for them. I think that is a good reminder that people can ignore your words and arguments, but they can’t stop you from loving them and they can’t stop you from praying for them.
Each of our small groups has been challenged to find a way to show their love for others. Each group is supposed to come up with a way to reach out in love to our community. I think the groups are still mainly praying about it. My group is praying about two possibilities. Our first idea was developing a transportation ministry to help those unable to drive to get to the grocery store or doctor appointments, those kinds of things. We also had a few people interested in possibly crocheting as a way to love others. Whether that is by crocheting hats for the stuffed monkeys that go to children at the University Hospital or by making hats and scarves for the Attic. I thought two great ideas. And I can’t wait to see what the other groups come up with.
You should have a little insert about a project we are going to do as a whole church in your bulletin. Because we are focusing on being better together. We are focusing on being woven together in God’s love, we thought we should be working on a quilt. Billie Recher who is offering her talents with our visuals up here said that we could gather pieces of fabric and donate them to groups who make quilts for the homeless. So that is what we are going to do. Through the rest of our 40 days you can bring in fabric pieces that will be made into quilts. These quilts are used in homeless shelters like Grace United Methodist Church in Des Moines when the cold weather rolls in. Now our home does not have a lot of fabric working going on, so we do not have fabric laying around, but we will stop into a shop and buy some for this project. So if everyone would take that reminder home, and in the few weeks bring in your fabric we will begin to gather what will be used to show God’s love to people we don’t even know.
We need to pray. We need to love. Then we can start to speak. After you have done those two things it is time talk. I want you to be God’s witnesses. Notice I said be a witness. That is what God calls us to be, His witnesses. If you think of a court room we are the witnesses who testify to what they have experienced. We are not the judge who decides whether someone is doing something right or wrong. And we are not the lawyer laying out the argument. Our main calling is to be a witness, just share what we have experienced. Just share your story and what God has done for you. Getting to that conversation can make some people nervous, so I want to share a few ways to bring your faith into a conversation if it is not a common topic.
One way is to listen for a problem that Jesus has helped you with. If someone else is going through what you have experience you can share how God helped you and you know God can help them. Let’s see how this works.
VIDEO 1
DRAMA SCENE #1 (Drama scripts from 40 Days of Community material)
Setting: Two people (guys or girls) standing in line for coffee. Each scene below is the same scene re-enacted with a different ending. Please feel free to change the jokes in Chris’ first line so that they are appropriate for your own church
Scene#1
Sam: Hey Chris, how’s it going? Sorry I’m late…hey how long have you been standing in this line?
Chris: I’ve been standing here so long that Pastor Tom’s shirts came back in style.
Sam: Wow…that is long. So anyway, sorry I’m late…..I really had a tough time getting out of bed today. Even the thought of coffee couldn’t motivate me.
Chris: REALLY? Wow! It must be serious….what’s going on?
Sam: Well, Erika and I broke up this weekend. And ever since all I can do is mope around the house, eat ice cream and watch movies on Lifetime.
Chris: I’m sorry to hear that…you know I’ve been there. That’s a horrible kind of pain.
Sam: How did you get over it?
Chris: Well, something changed in my life…and it’s made all the difference in the world.
Sam: Really? What was it?
Chris: Well, I started a personal relationship with Christ. Why don’t we forget about the coffee and we can go talk about it…
If God has made a difference in your life share that with someone. Another way is to relate to a current situation that everybody is facing or a current event. Let’s see how this one goes.
VIDEO 2
DRAMA SCENE #2
Sam: Hey Chris, how’s it going? Sorry I’m late…hey how long have you been standing in this line?
Chris: I’ve been standing here so long that Rick sold another 5 million copies of his book.
Sam: Wow…that is long. So anyway, I’m sorry I’m late…I just waited 20 minutes in line at the gas station to spend $40 to fill up my Geo Metro.
Chris: Yeah, and I read that prices are going to go up again next month…
Sam: Are you kidding me? I can’t take it any more…every time I fill up my tank now I’m doubling the value of my car! What is this world coming to? I’m so stressed all the time….
Chris: Maybe standing in line for coffee isn’t the best way to lower your stress level…
Sam: Well…what should I do? I mean…how do you stay so calm?
Chris: Well, I recommend switching to decaf for starters…..but actually, I used to let every little thing get me stressed too, but then something happened that really changed my life…
Sam: Well I’m open to anything at this point…What changed?
Chris: I committed my life to God, and it’s made a world of difference. Why don’t we forget about the coffee and I’ll tell you my story.
We can do that. We can relate to what is going on in life around us. There is one more I have to show you. This situation is for a long time relationship you have had that you have not really shared your faith. It can be awkward because you have wanted to tell them but the right time never appeared and now it is long overdue, but you aren’t sure how to do it. A great way is start with an apology. Just apologize saying you wanted to share but never found the right time, but you need to do it because it is important to you. Let’s see that one.
VIDEO 3
DRAMA SCENE #3
Sam: Hey Chris, how’s it going? Sorry I’m late…hey how long have you been standing in this line?
Chris: I’ve standing here so long that Rick wrote another book: “The Purpose Driven Work-out”
Sam: Really? [LONG PAUSE] Rick? So anyway, I’m glad you invited me for coffee. I really needed to get out of the house this morning.
Chris: Yeah…Actually I invited you here to talk to you about something. You know we’ve become pretty good friends, so I have an apology to make.
Sam: Oh…don’t worry about that…it will grow back.
Chris: No…no, not that. Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you; something I’ve been keeping back from you.
Sam: You have? Oh, oh is it about those pictures?
Chris: No…wait…what pictures? Never mind…it’s just…when a friend has good news, they should share it. And I haven’t shared this with you.
Sam: Wow…OK. What is it?
Chris: Well, there’s been a change in my life. I’ve come to know Christ and his plan for my life. And it’s made a world of difference. Why don’t we forget the coffee and we can go talk about it?
Of course your conversations will not go exactly like these, but that’s okay. The point is to have these conversations with those who do not yet know Christ.
And they do not have to be one on one conversations with no one else around. They can happen in a group. Inviting non-Christians into times of Christian community is a great way to show our love. In the passage I read from 1 Corinthians Paul says he became what others needed in order to hear the message of God. Now, he was not being fake, but rather he was finding that common ground to begin the conversation. He had been Jewish, so he could speak from that perspective. We too can find common ground to speak to others about Jesus. Use sports, use hunting, use shopping, use crocheting. Whatever you like to do, get together with others to do it, and invite some non-Christians along as well.
In that get-together, in that community you will enjoy the activity and conversations about Christ can take place. Get together with one another. Have fun enjoying life and one another, and use that as an opportunity to share God’s love.
I am very passionate about us doing this for two reasons. One, it is amazing to see a life changed by Jesus Christ. I have seen people ready to give up on life transformed into compassionate, joy-filled people because of God’s presence in their lives. I have seen people who appear to have it all together on the outside, but broken on the inside be freed from their masquerade because someone shared Christ with them. If you really love someone, don’t you want to invite them into the greatest love relationship they will have?
The second reason I am passionate about this is because it changed my life. Someone took the time to invite me into a community that loved me and I found Christ there. Before I became a Christian I was invited into a Christian community of young people. I was invited into this group, I think, simply as a favor for my mom. My mom as a single parent worked hard and raised three kids. I was invited to work at a Christian camp even though I wasn’t even a Christian at the time, because it would give my mom some free time from chasing me around. And quite honestly no one had a talk with me about believing because they assumed I was a Christian, but their actions and how they loved each other said enough for me. I wanted in. Without that invitation into a community I would not be here today.
Who invited you into Christian community? And aren’t you glad they did?
Our memory verse for this week is to “Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity.” Make the most of sharing your love and faith with others. You have the greatest gift to give someone. Don’t hold it back. Share with everyone you come into contact with and when you get chance use your words as well.
