It’s critical in a new era of evangelism for church lead- ers to clearly describe what it means to follow Jesus. Describing such a life for a potential convert requires plenty of time—time for the convert to understand what she is getting into even if that means running the risk that this inquirer may ultimately reject what we’ve so painstakingly described.
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welcoming adult disciples to cultivate friendships with people outside the church. Tis is not done with a hidden agenda to “convert” them (though the Spirit might indeed author such down the way), but rather to learn about a particular worldview apart from church so we might better understand those who are arriving at our doors, curious about our common life together. I’ve always found interesting an odd thought by Ger-
man theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: that it’s oſten easier to really talk about God with people outside the church than those who are in it. I’ve always had lots of skeptical friends who don’t
really understand how or why I landed in my chosen vocation (and look even more quizzical when I explain that God actually chose me for the work). I meet them at parties. I meet them in community work. Some know I’m a pastor; some don’t. But so many seem to want to talk about God. Strangely, many church people I’ve known have no
idea how to talk about God. We’ll talk about the weather, or the South Carolina Gamecocks, or Barack Obama, but God? Was Bonhoeffer generally correct? I’ll at least agree to
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this extent: sometimes our Sunday morning structure, weekday committee life and busy lives of service strangely don’t leave much time to actually talk about God with one another. Perhaps people who come to our churches looking for God sense this and look elsewhere. My good friend, Andy, lives alone on 30 acres in cen-
tral Maine near the Kennebec River with a couple dogs, a few chickens, and no electricity or indoor plumb- ing. He has hiked the Appalachian Trail in its entirety five times, not to mention the Continental Divide and Pacific Crest trails once each—about 15,000 miles of wilderness hiking all told. He has to snowshoe two miles to his truck during winter months to get to work as a nurse in a facility for older adults. He loves the land and loves the solitude. He loves the hard work required for such a solitary existence. Andy and I have written long letters back and forth
for 35 years, almost always about some aspect of belief in God. We met at a lakeside camp for mentally challenged youth and adults. I recall sitting on the floor of a cabin at 3 a.m. with Andy as I rocked a very troubled child in my arms whose fits of flailing would hurt himself and others in his cabin. Te night finally became quiet except for the noise of crickets outside.
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