I believe that everywhere Jesus went He found a way to make an impact on a man, woman, or child. Although the gospel writers make it clear that He preached and taught multitudes, it’s amazing how much of the gospels focuses on one on one encounters with Jesus that you and I can easily identify with and replicate.
Here’s some tests for whether we’re boldly broadcasting.
Inventory your interactions. How many people have been in your home in the past two months? How many of them have been part of your same church, or have been Christians compared to how many non-Christians? If you go out to restaurants, how many of those who sat at your table are not yet believers? Jesus went out to eat with non-believers a lot, so much so that He was criticized for dissing Israel. Are you like Him in this? Take a little bit of your tithe and treat a non-Christian to a lunch out. In the conversation, work on understanding the person and listening first. Take the challenge question I gave you last week in the sermon on compassion. Find out what it’s like to be them. Ask them, “So, what’s it like to be you?”. Ask them with a curious mind and an open heart. You’ll be a better image bearer of Jesus. And as Dale Carnegie said, A person who asks questions and listens to the answers is regarded by most people as an incredibly interesting conversationalist.
Social Media: If you do Facebook and Twitter, and I think many of you should do it, ought to do it, and can do it being salt and light, you should have a bias towards people who don’t share your faith. What I mean is, interact with them positively, affirmatively, and in a winsome and inviting way. Each Saturday on Facebook I try to share a preview of what our worship service is going to be. If you’re on Facebook, yes, you should “like” this, but you should also share this, which re-broadcasts it to your network of friends. If you’re on twitter, you should interact with non-Christian tweeters in a winsome way. This doesn’t mean we tweet Bible verses constantly. That’s talking at people. But twitter allows you to dialogue, to show curiosity and compassion for other people. And I would encourage you to tweet on the broad subject matters that interest you. I have some Facebook friends who are atheists and from other religions. I make sure I especially communicate interest and graciousness to them. I “unsubscribed” from a tweeter who only posted on a subject that had no interest for me. But I love how twitter can open up subjects and worlds that I otherwise knew nothing about, but can begin to understand and appreciate it.
Evaluate your intake and output. If you have been a Christian less than five years, you may want to attend more than one Bible study to “catch up” on all that you might have missed before. But if you’ve been a Christian for more than five years, generally, you should not be regularly coming to more than one Bible study unless you’re bringing someone, babysitting for someone, or leading the study itself. If you’ve been in multiple Bible studies for more than five years, stop attending more than one Bible study, drop it and attend a neighborhood book club discussion of some secular book, or join a community interest club of some kind. You’ll find it revolutionary to your faith and life. Your prayer life will probably grow. And most of all, you’ll be more like Jesus in how you live and interact.
