Faith Venture

In influencing others, example is not the main thing; it’s the only thing. -Albert Schweitzer

A teacher from my high school years impressed a lasting image on my mind. She taught nutrition as one piece of her curriculum. She was eating a lunch that could hardly be called nutritious. When a student pointed out the inconsistency (as high school students will), she replied, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

How can one be an obnoxious jerk preaching love fail to understand why the message falls on deaf ears?

How can one preach values and fail to live up to commitments?

How can a group market themselves as welcoming, and yet they fail to make room at the table for a newcomer?

The inverse of what that teacher said is the real truth—what you do speaks louder than what you say. 

Make it a practice to observe actions.

Think on this common question among church-going folks.

“How can I share my faith?”

I shall ease into a suggestion.

Dallas Willard has published a new book. Not easy to do when you had passed away in 2013. Actually, some friends compiled a series of lessons he had given at a church years ago on the parables of Jesus. The book is called The Scandal of the Kingdom.

He builds on the idea of the gospel of Matthew as written in somewhat chronological order. Jesus came to preach (after the time in the wilderness, he emerges with the message “Repent, for the Kingdom of the heavens is around us”), teach (the Sermon on the Mount), and heal (the following several chapters of Matthew).

The preaching and teaching didn’t seem to catch on with the people. He began teaching in parables (stories with a point).

The first parable is the parable of the sower.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Jesus’s Word was not catching on because some of it (the seed) fell on ears not ready to hear. Others fell on ears but the hearer didn’t have time to digest the Word because of cares and concerns.

Some people were ready and receptive to a message. Jesus’s Word came to them, they were ready, and they lived with the Word.

Back to the inquiring Christian person.

It’s not on you. It’s on the person you wish to talk with. (Hopefully not “to”.)

The best thing is to begin with a question. People want to have deep conversations. They usually need an invitation. So, ask a question.

Ah, but now the burden is on you to listen. Really listen. With your heart as well as ears and brain. Then you can ask follow up questions. 

Perhaps there comes a point where you can share. Not your faith exactly, but like a witness in a trial. Sharing your experience of living with God. Tell it like a story. 

People listen to stories (maybe it’s my Irish heritage, but I think it’s true). They tune out a string of Bible verses that may or may not be relevant to their lives.

If you don’t have a story, well, that’s another problem.  You will need to think about that and find and live your story. Then you can share. That could be the subject of a book.

Church people are often encouraged to “share Christ” with others. People undergo training not unlike the sales training I suffered through as an introverted engineer transitioning to a sales position. I can still remember the “furniture store close”. 

The furniture store close is a short term event. People come to the furniture store to look. Statistically they will not return to buy. Therefore, you must sell them before they leave. Salesperson has an order form. Fills it out as they talk with prospect. Then say, just sign here and we can ship next week.

Is this like “sharing Christ?”

First the question: Why are you sharing Christ?

Most likely you wish for that person to experience a changed life. A random conversation will rarely do that. However, you could view this as the farmer scattering seed in one of Jesus’ parables. You may never know which soil you planted the seed. But for the receptive soil, it will be life changing.

The best salespeople I have known (and what I tried to be the few years I was a sales engineer) were relationship sales people. They spent time and effort getting to know their clients.

In our context here, this approach answers the question, “Can we share Christ without knowing what question the other person has weighing on their soul?” Can we take the time and effort to really know someone?

There is another approach. We find this one in the book Acts of the Apostles. The sharing part was simply living a life filled with the fruit of the spirit. And people around those people said, “I want what they’ve got.”

How much of this one have you experienced lately? It is your fault?