Front Porch

When I got to my first pastorate the tone of the congregation was already there to reach out to the community.  In fact, everyone knew that the future of the church depended on bringing in others to join us.  The problem was that previously, evangelism had been forced on people in a way that made their teeth grind whenever it was mentioned.  It was laced with guilt and people were driven to share their faith.

Having come from Baptist background where "getting saved" was the goal of life, learning how to share the gospel was expected.  But I've found something in my life.  It doesn't matter if it is the 4 spiritual laws or 6 ways to convince a heathen they need Christ or playing Bible trivia to get the best of someone who doesn't know their Bible the Holy Spirit doesn't need all that stuff to bring someone into the Kingdom of God.  In fact, those tactics and others like them detract from the atmosphere of allowing someone to hear the sweet wooing of the Father as they hear of his love in someone else's life.

I have always contended that if Jesus isn't real in your life no program of evangelism is going to work.  People want authenticity.  If Christ doesn't make a difference in your life how can you expect to convince someone else to open their heart?  It has to be real to you on a daily basis before someone else will want what you have.  They don't need a ticket to sit in a church.  They need a life giving message of hope.

I think this could get longer than normal.  Let me get to what I was thinking when I came up with the title of this blog.

While pastoring in Mountville, PA I found that I was better off if people didn't know I was a pastor when they talked to me.  It somehow moved the conversation into an artificial dialogue which was devoid of offensive words and the real life pains of that person.  I even had a guy ask me one time if I liked talking about anything other than God since I was a pastor.

I met more of my neighbors just being a regular guy and was invited into their life once they knew I walked on clay feet as well.

One day I was working out back of my house and one of my neighbors came out of her door and looked at me with surprise.  "I didn't know you were a pastor!" she exclaimed.  I wondered if that was okay.  She had read an article in a local newspaper about Pat and I and just discovered that we pastored a local church.  I was dressed in a sweat shirt and she didn't think that made me look like a pastor.  I told her I liked to travel incognito.  We loved them the whole time we lived there and it didn't have anything to do with my job description.

Another night I was sitting on my front porch around 10 pm.  One of my other neighbors came over and sat down to talk.  I asked him questions about his life and listened to him tell me of the good and bad things that had happened to him.  After about an hour and a half he finally got around to asking me what I did.  He was embarrassed when I told him I was a pastor...because he had used his regular lauguage to describe his life to me.  I had to insure him I wasn't offended and that God wasn't either.

I met other neighbors by helping them with jumper cables, loaning a garden hose and being available when one of them had frequent epileptic seizures on the streets of my town.

Every one of these encounters didn't lead to the sinners prayer but I'm sure that God was loving the people I talked to as he delights in doing.

One evening we were sitting at supper and saw one of our neighbors approaching the back door.  We invited him in.  He soon asked if I did counseling and I affirmed that I did.  He expressed an interest in sitting down with me and his wife.  She had filed for divorce and by PA law he could request 3 sessions of counseling before agreeing to the divorce.  I reached for my DayTimer to set up a schedule when he told me he was thinking of right now!

This open door came because we had accepted an invitation to his party with some friends one Sat evening.  It wasn't our comfort zone.  There was loud music because people weren't used to talking to each other and really listening.  There was alcohol because it dulls the pain.  But we connected with some people and had the opportunity to come back later and talk about deeper issues like marriage, divorce and conflict.

I've got some other stories that I'll share at another time.  Sharing your relationship with Christ and talking about the gift of life isn't supposed to be artificially induced.  People can see that coming a mile away.  We need to love as Christ has called us to, showing genuine interest in someone else's life...not to land one for the Kingdom but to cooperate with the wooing of the Holy Spirit to bring others into the family of God.

If you haven't already, I'd give up evangelism and just share what Christ has done for you lately.  That's witnessing and people are dying to hear of hope for their situations.  If you haven't experienced the presence of God lately, ask him to show you today in your every day life that he is right beside you.  Expect him to answer, because he delights to do that.