Counting Conversations

Counting the Conversations

The last few days, I've had an opportunity I seldom get - a chance to slow down. One of the things you realize pretty quickly as a pastor is that there is more to do than you can lay your hands on, and more beyond that you'd like to do. One of the skills necessary then is to be able to decide what absolutely has to happen each week, and how you can best accomplish that. Then you let everything else fall into place after.

One of the convictions I orient everything I do around is the idea that we are to be intentional about helping people find Jesus, and equally as serious about teaching them how to follow Him. So when I read this quote from the movie "Big Kahuna" it made me take a minute to think.

Phil Cooper (In the "Big Kahuna") : It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or 'How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.' That doesn't make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore; it's a pitch. And you're not a human being; you're a marketing rep.

One of my goals for this year is to really accelerate the process of our folks working within their existing networks rather than forcing things. It's become apparent as I've counted off the various ways of evangelism that the most effective evangelist is the person who is asked to tell about Jesus. It happens more than we think, but almost never happens the first time we meet someone.

And as "Phil Cooper" points out above, unless you have an invitation, it's a sales call.

Having made thousands of those, even from the perspective of a salesman who wanted his clients to prosper so that my company would too, it's still about selling something. We don't "sell" Jesus, we share what He has done for us with the hope that the person we care about might decide to love Him too.

So how do we measure success in the effort?

After thinking about it for the last week or so, I think we have to help people discover their networks, equip them to always be prepared to give an answer, and count conversations. Not like a salesperson counts sales leads, but like a human being counts their friends. If I inquire about a person's kids, or their mother whose ill, and gain the opportunity to say "can we do anything? Would it be okay if my family prays for them?", then we've had a countable conversation. If a person says "I wonder why we are here on earth," and we can help them with a discussion of purpose and God's plan, again, we've had success. We have to remember that salvation is God's work, and we are just His instruments.

Each of us working within the networks of family, coworkers, friends and neighbors should have multiple opportunities weekly to be ambassadors for Jesus. Sharing when we come together of how God is opening doors for us will be contagious. Contagious Christians. Sounds like a plan.