3 Steps to Penetrate the Community

“With Jesus in my heart and a Bible in my hand, I have more than I need to do whatever Jesus expects me to do.”    And with that phrase ringing in his ears, a rookie missionary was sent to reach the lost among people he had never met, in a language that he didn't know, and in a land that he had never seen.   Eventually that missionary – me – learned that Ken Sorrell was on to something very true.  So the question is: How can a follower of Christ penetrate a community with the life-changing message of Jesus?   

  

1. Get into the community.   I didn't have to learn this, because I knew it already.   I knew that I had to turn the TV off and leave my comfy couch to go into the community.   Few strangers were jumping at the chance to sit on my couch and watch a TV show with me that they couldn't understand.   The cold hard fact is that it is terribly hard to reach someone with a life changing message while you are sipping an iced tea watching the Amazing Race.   (My current favorite TV show, by the way.)   Common sense says, that for the Gospel to be shared one must be in a position to share it.   Paul said it this way in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (ESV)    How can they hear without being with them where they are to share it?   Some will say by internet, TV, print media, and radio.   Well, OK I’ll give you that, but are you absolutely certain that they heard it and understood it?   The message is just too important to leave to a chance encounter with a website.

2.  Connect with the community.  Quite often I would go into communities and hand out tract after tract – thousands and thousands of them over the years literally.   Sometimes as I was heading off to another destination in order to pass out even more tracts I would pass by people reading those tracts.   Good!  The Bible says in Isaiah 55:11, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  (ESV)  Here is the thing though, after leaving the community I never knew what happened with the truth I shared.   It wasn’t long at all until I realized that I needed to stay awhile in order to see the fruit of my tract distribution.   Also after staying awhile I discovered that I was blessed deep inside somehow when I learned the names of those with whom I had shared a tract.   It might interest you to know what I did while “staying in the community.”  Well, honestly I did what I do best – hang out.   I have to admit, I am always a little bit envious of those missionaries who can bring really cool things to the game.   Some of them play football (soccer) really well, and they will play for hours with people in the park.   Well, I am certainly not an athlete. Others were farmers who know enough to hang around helping in a field.   Others were crafty type people, and can do all sorts of manner of interesting things using nothing more than bits of discarded boxes, palm branches, lip stick and Elmer’s glue.   I am definitely not crafty.   Some would teach English – always a good job hunting skill for those in a foreign land, but if you are reading this then you already understand that English is not particularly my strong suit.   I even know of a doctor or two that will give medical or dental help.   I have a lawyer friend who gave legal advice.   There were some rich missionaries who could give out lots and lots of rice and beans.   And then there was me – about the best thing I can do is drink coffee and make small talk, but people really seem to like it when they heard me mention their child’s name as I prayed for them before heading back to my comfy couch for the night.

  

3. Share the message.   Isn't it amazing what God can do?   The Bible says in, Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”   (ESV)   I am astounded that God even blesses my love of coffee and small talk.     By sticking around a community for a bit I will meet someone and we will drink coffee and chat, and after a while we will know all sorts of interesting things about each other.   Eventually I might even be invited home with them, and before long they want to know why I am their friend drinking their coffee.    And my answer is always this, “Jesus sent me here to be your friend so that you will listen to the message He wants you to hear when I decide it’s a good time to share it with you.”  They inevitably ask, “What’s the message?”  Then the Gospel message that can change their lives they will hear, and many many times they will believe.    And once they do I will tell them, “Now it is your task to share this with everyone you know.”   It is wonderful when they will, and then I can move on to somewhere else in order to meet more friends, drink more coffee and make even more small talk.   The truth of the matter is this: few people will believe a message from a communicator that they don’t trust – some might for sure, but very few.   Trust takes time to develop.   Usually trust comes through a good relationship.   Few of us are in a position where real people with real needs believe that we have the message that can change their lives – perhaps Billy Graham has that kind of reputation, but normal people don’t.   I certainly don’t.   And here is the kicker – when we remain sitting on our couches watching our TVs then they are absolutely sure that we don’t have the answer for their need.   When we drop by their community for a minute or two and just leave something with them, then more often than not they are confused about what just transpired.   When we stay though – then relationships happen.   By staying for a time it may mean that you discover some real needs that you can address rather than what you guess might be their greatest stumbling block to the message of Jesus.   When we stay we are blessed with new friends and usually with new believers who also want to follow Jesus.    

So what Ken taught that naive missionary a long time ago was very true.   It’s not expensive to penetrate a community.   I didn't and don’t need new and better equipment.   I didn't and don’t need buildings or a big budget.   I didn't and don’t even need boxes of Bibles to give away.    All those things were and are very nice and when they come along I will never turn them down, but I don’t need them.    On the missionary field I learned that all I need is the love of Jesus to motivate my going to a community, a cup of coffee to make a new friend while I am there, and a Bible to show others the way to him.    So I suppose after all that I did change a little of what Ken taught, although the essence is exactly the same, so I don’t think he will mind too much: “With Jesus in my heart and a Bible in one hand and a cup of coffee nearby, I have more than I need to do whatever Jesus expects me to do.”   In that sense I have more than the Apostle Paul and the original 12 when they went along their way, which is real good because I ain't in their league.   You see for them the Bible wasn't quite completed yet, and coffee wasn't discovered until the fourteenth century.    

Until He comes… GO and DO!