When people share their reading habits with you, what they are really granting is privileged access to their deepest interests, and predilections, even their dreams, needs, and anxieties. Nicholas Basbanes How the Irish Saved Civilization — I bought this book on a whim. It was recommended by a friend and the title sounded intriguing. Then the unexpected happened. The author Thomas Cahill introduced me to someone who would become one my faith heroes — Patrick of Ireland. St. Patrick is more than a day dedicated…
When they removed him from his bed at his death, they found a book under his pillow. Up the very last, Teddy Roosevelt was still striving to learn and improve himself. Want to be quickly overwhelmed? Go to a bookstore to buy a book. When you walk through the doors you find yourself in a tsunami of rows and rows of books begging for your attention. How do I choose a book to read? Sometimes I check out what friends are reading. A lot of…
Also bring my books. . . The Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:13 NLT) When my parents were living, I had a goal to call them weekly. When I called, they would pass the phone between them to share what was going on in their worlds. Mom brought me up to date on the family while dad described a new project in his workshop. Then the tenor of the calls began to change. Here’s how a couple of phone calls went with my dad. “I discovered an…
May 15 is the starting gun for gardeners in Columbus, Ohio. An imaginary shot is fired from a starting pistol on this date. What makes May 15 so special? This date represents the last possible time for a frost. The planting season can now begin. Amateur gardeners like Peggy and myself begin packing nurseries. Flooded with spring-fevered gardeners, our local nursery hires police to direct the traffic! While standing in line with a cart filled with annuals and perennials, I realized that this nursery was…
If you’ve every tried ballroom dancing, you’ve learned a simple rule — someone always needs to lead. In our evangelism strategies, we generally make ourselves the leader in the gospel dance. We ask people to follow us in our reasoning, our words, and our illustrations. What happens if we reversed the roles and allowed the hearer to lead? What if evangelism started from the listener’s point of view? I love the insight of Proverbs 27:14, “If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the…
I’m planning this Christmas around a new calendar . . . and it all started with some conversations that majored on one letter in the alphabet. Members in my age group seem to be pre-occupied with one particular letter in the alphabet. No matter the friend, the conversation, or the time — one letter keeps surfacing. What’s the letter? It’s the letter P and it’s found in three words that quickly dominate the conversations I have with friends who share my age. It’s easy to…
A recent study of five-hundred adult converts in Great Britain revealed an interesting finding. Sixty-nine percent of these adults described their Christian conversion as a gradual event. Only twenty percent described their experience as dramatic or radical. What does this tell us about evangelism? The researchers concluded that this gradual process is the way most adults discover God. The average time taken was about four years. In that time, the gospel message was repeatedly shared and affirmed by others. Someone was constantly present, talking, and…
Evangelism is like reading a good novel. Good novels absorb us in their plots, characters, and action. Major and minor themes unravel as we turn each page. Scenes build on top of each other. We resist the temptation to skip to the end because we don’t want to miss the thrill of the adventure. Our lives read like a novel. Each day, a portion of the plot slowly unfolds. Major characters mark us in special ways while minor figures disappear. Multiple story lines compete for our…
Once upon a time I worked in construction. The years between college and my current career was spent outside on a ladder, walking a scaffold, holding a hammer. This wasn’t a glamorous job. I endured the summer heat and the winter’s cold installing aluminum siding (before vinyl became the standard), shingling roofs, and hanging gutters. There was one advantage to this job, I was an insider to Jerry and Mike. Jerry was my crew leader. He was a young Air Force vet struggling to support…
The answer to this question may surprise you. What was one of Jesus’ strategies for evangelism? He did it over dinner. “The primary venue for evangelism in Jesus’ life was the meal,” writes Eugene Peterson. Why meals? Meals are natural and relational places for insiders to begin faith conversations. Jesu set the example by regularly eating with “sinners.” In fact, he had a reputation as a heavy-eater: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard,…