When I was a food service coordinator for a local church I would always stop in on Monday mornings and check to see if there were any additional upcoming ministry events where food was needed . One particular Monday stands out as the associate pastor called me to his office . Of course my first question to him was “ what have I done now ?” The associate pastor simply laughed and told me nothing but wanted to inform me a gentleman named “ John ” ( keeping the name anonymous ) had visited church that previous Sunday . John asked him to let me know since I had invited him to church but was absent because I was out of town performing a ministry event that weekend . John was the sales manager of the food company where I purchased the groceries for the food service ministry so I was able to see John every week and had invited him to church several times . I was excited that John had visited and asked how he enjoyed everything . The associate pastor told me John really enjoyed himself and felt it was a warm and loving church . Then the associate pastor told me something startling . The associate pastor began to apologize to |
me . I was quite perplexed because I was joyous John had visited and even committed to visit again . The associate pastor apologized because John has been his next door neighbor for over fifteen years . They talked over the fence just about every day . They would help each other at different times with yard work and so on . They even would occasionally have dinner together at one another ’ s homes . However the associate pastor told me that he never once invited John to church or even asked him about his walk with the Lord . We have to remember two things . First we are called to share the Gospel , second we are not responsible for people ’ s response and salvation . When we realize we are only called to share the Gospel with people and God does the work for salvation it truly makes our job easier . This means we simply go and introduce people to Jesus . This also means once we walk out of our house in the in the morning time we are on the mission field and we need to introduce as many people to Jesus as we can . We do not have to go to a foreign country to perform missions work , just go next door and ask your neighbor if |
they have met Jesus . The analogy of “ tell people about Jesus and use words if need be ” is a falsity . We are told people cannot believe if they do not hear ( Rom 10:14 ) so we need to at least tell them about the love of Christ . If we do not tell them they will not hear and if they do not hear they cannot believe . Besides if we merely act as “ good ” people there is no guarantee people will regard us as Christians . So the next time you see your neighbor remember to ask them if they have met Jesus yet , if not , introduce them to Him . |
Rev . Billy Bowyer Mobile , Alabama bmxchaplain @ yahoo . com |