Conversations: Introduction
By the grace of God, an ordinary day for me includes at least one significant spiritual conversation. The conversations are spontaneous, and the people I talk to are those I come across in the mundane activities of life: construction workers I see while walking my dog, neighbors out mowing their lawn, CrossFit coaches and athletes, my husband’s coworkers, the pest control man, the UPS man, the woman at the grocery store, and the customer service representative who took my call.
Most of these conversations may be described as pre-evangelistic. I’m not sharing the gospel, and I’m not asking people to commit their lives to Christ on the spot. I am giving them something to think about. As apologist Greg Koukl describes it, I am putting a stone in their shoe. People can’t keep walking with a stone in their shoe and not think about it. It nags at them, bothers them, and usually leads them to take some sort of action, like stopping, untying the shoe, and removing the stone.
Because spiritual conversations are so fun for me, I enjoy sharing them with others. People ask me often, “How did you get into that conversation?” and “How does this happen to you nearly every single day?”
In one sense these conversations do “happen to me” in that I don’t plan them, but it would be far more accurate to say that I create these conversations by living my life in a way that causes me to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks me for a reason for the hope that is in me, and then paying attention for opportunities to get a foot in the door. Hence, many people have suggested that I publicly share what I’m doing with others so that they may benefit from practical, real life examples of conversations that they may seek to emulate in their own lives.
As a result, I’ve decided to incorporate this new series into my blog. It is called “Conversations”, and I hope that it will provide ideas for how you may enter into significant, meaningful conversations in your everyday life. Wherever you work, and whatever your sphere of influence, you have an opportunity to reach people I cannot reach. It is my prayer that together we can reach the world for Christ and see each day, not as another boring day of mind-numbing monotony, but as a mission on which we have been sent by the Boss to influence the world for His glory and their good.
I should warn you that this mission is not easy. This mission, should you choose to accept it, will cause people to frown upon you, to trash talk you, to reject you, and possibly to harm you. For a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. If they crucified Christ, consider what they may do to you. You must count the cost. This mission isn’t for the faint-hearted or the people-pleasers or the worldly ones who just want to earn a paycheck, stay out of trouble, and be praised. But for those who do accept it, the reward is a life of purpose now, and of unspeakable pleasures forevermore throughout eternity.
All the best to you! Let’s roll.
