more on the thought of the july 25 post...

when we registered to do the new york trip with EPIC Adventures back in december, they sent me a book called Conspiracy of Kindness by steve sjogren. since reading the book, i've really been thinking about this servant evangelism thing. i had heard of people passing out bottles of water at a park before, but the concept never really made sense to me. i, like most everyone else, thought evangelism was just the word used to described confronting people, usually strangers, face to face, with the message of the Bible, followed by a choice. don't get me wrong - this is effective and certainly necessary at times. a lot of people have come to Christ through this method, and some Christians are gifted at sharing Christ in this way. but i don't think this is the only way to go about it, nor do i think it's the right way in every circumstance.

the people of new york, for example. there are a lot of ministries in the city that specifically target the homeless and the inner-city population, but not many that go after young professionsals - even though they need Christ just as much as anybody. but those good people are so busy, how practical would it be to try to engage them, one at a time, any time of day, long enough to present them with the gospel and answer all of their questions? the last several times i've carried on a conversation with someone about the gospel, it's taken anywhere from 15 minutes to nearly an hour - and none of them, at that particular moment, decided to turn to Christ. but if we give them something of value, for free, along with an attractive invite to the church, we've not only sown seed, but we've also tilled the ground the seed is falling on. and guess what, anyone can do it! and it's fun, too. hey, if we're all responsible for evengelizing, why not find a method that doesn't leave some of us wishing we could have a root canal without anesthesia instead?

i like the "tilling the ground" analogy. i know Mark 4 doesn't say anything about tilling the ground, it just tells us to sow the seed. but i think the principal is there. even hardened ground, or ground with a lot of weeds (like my front lawn) can be turned into a fruitfull garden if someone puts the proper work into it. maybe people wouldn't be so hardened to Christianity if they thought we really cared. is this effective, though? well, the jouney church started from scratch about 4 years ago, and today they have about 500 members, while their sunday attendance averages around 1,000. of that 1,000 in attendance, about 40% of them (that's 400 for those of you who don't like percentages) say they got into the church because of an intentional act of kindness, ie free gum, water, granola, etc.

my wife and i recently celebrated our 4th anniversary by spending a couple of days at the beach. we were walking on tuesday morning and got free lemonade! some students from buffalo baptist church were on the beach, giving out free lemonade just so they could tell people "God loves you." i'm glad i'm a Christian, but if i weren't... maybe it's worth considering.