This past week, I didn't have anything going on, so I decided to go to our decon's meeting... okay, I always go - but nothing usually happens. But this time, we were finished talking about our assigned families and their needs, when our chairman, a much beloved man of 80 years, asked if we were through.
Now in churches past, I'd have shivered in anticipation of some bombshell being dropped, like "pastor, a lot of people have told me..."
But what he said was, "Men, we need to wear our name badges each Sunday, so visitors will feel more comfortable in a place where they don't know anyone. We need to make every effort to know them, and have them know us as their newest friends."
I was blown away.
Yes, I wear my badge on a lanyard every single time we gather. Yes, I had suggested/asked the staff to do the same, but not a one has done it consistently. Yet here was this deacon - a man who wears a suit to church when his pastor wears hawaiian shirts and khakis, who sings praise songs (sort of), but reserves his loudest voice for the hymns that only occasionally come - catching what I had been trying to say for a year.
He connected, and used his influence to bring others along.
One the hardest things for me is to wait for others to come along. Everything I do is bathed in prayer and out of a genuine belief that it is exactly what God wants us to do. Doesn't mean I'm infallible - LOL - but it means I'm trying desparately to follow God and be an example of a man sold out to Him. And when I don't see others follow, I get tired of waiting. But I'm learning. Learning that sometimes the ones you want to follow simply need to see your heart in their context.
And when it happens - WOW!
Grace!
David
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