I was thinking this morning about a comment that was made to me right after Sara and I moved out here that will forever change my life. My heart breaks for people in a way I didn't know it could. We were challenged to truly love those that we serve, even in our everyday working lives. This lead me on one of my strange yet interesting thought processes that ultimately led me to thinking about growing up in the Baptist Church. I love the church I grew up in, love the people, love the leadership that was over me, and love the ministry they have...but the one thing I truly hated was door to door ministry! I didn't understand it then, and maybe that is because I was scared half to death to do it...but anyone who know me well will tell you that I am extremely analytical and look for the practical and logical reasons for doing something...and I never agreed with it! I remember going on mission trips and dreading the time where I would have to go door to door and "Witness" to people. My mind thought like this...if someone like me walked up to the door of someone like my dad, this is how it would go: Knock Knock Knock.......door opens and huge 6'4" man meets me at the door...me-6'0" and 140 pounds soaking wet. I'm freaked out, say something along the lines of do you go to church or are you a Christian, my dad would look at me, say something close to you don't need to go to church and I'm not interested and the door would shut. Now, note that my dad is not a mean, hard man, but he is like me, logical and real, and what he knows is that the Christians that he has dealt in his past are not the type of people that he wants to be.
So, after thinking this morning about what I was told and what I was "trained" to do in the Baptist Church, I came to the conclusion that the only way to truly reach people is to love them and JUST BE JESUS!!! This begs me to ask the question, how do you make friends? Do you just walk up to some strangers door and ask them to be your friend or be friends with someone else they don't see with you? NO, you get to know them, let them learn to trust you, and live life together helping each other through the hard times. This to me is the way that we should do it...now, not to say that some door to door evangelism doesn't work, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that know Christ because of some bold kids, but you know as well as I do that when someone knocks on your door, your first reaction isn't...AWESOME, someones at the door! I've learned to love those around me, build relationships, and let Jesus reach them through that, I just need to be Jesus to them!!! Jesus went into the homes of those he knew or he had met through daily living, NOT just knocking on a door and asking them to be his friend and welcome him in for the night....I challenge you to search the scriptures, look at the life of Christ and see what it is that He is calling you to do and how, and JUST BE JESUS
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