Friday, April 17, 2009

People Are Fascinating, Talk to Them

For the past several days I’ve been inundated with suggestions that I need to go to You Tube and watch the video of Susan Boyle singing on Britain’s Got Talent reality show.  “It’s so amazing!”  “It will blow you away!”  “It will change your life!”  “You’ll be able to see into the future!”  Okay, maybe I exaggerated a bit there at the end, but nonetheless, friends, talk show host, news personalities and all in between urged me to watch this video.  Why, because we love fascinating people.  There’s a reason we, at least many of us, have become enamored with reality shows.  American Idol, Biggest Looser, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, The Real World, The Real Housewives and the list goes on and on and on and on for crying out loud.  We love to watch people because people are fascinating.  Their personalities, backgrounds, hopes, dreams, setbacks, and stories keep millions of Americans riveted to their televisions each week.  We talk about them at work.  We comment about them on Facebook.  Some actually spend time and money to vote for their favorite reality star.  People are fascinating. 

I want to submit that you don’t have to look to reality T.V. to find fascinating people.  God has put 6.7 billion people on this world and each and every one of them is fascinating.  Each and every one of them was created by God and is their own reality star.    Too often we miss out on getting to know these fascinating people because we’ve crammed our calendars full.  The gospel is for people and is to be shared by people, fascinating people.  Get to know someone this week.  Listen to their stories.  Find points of commonality.  You might just make a friend.  If we will take the time to know and love God’s fascinating people, the opportunities to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ will abound.  

Monday, April 13, 2009

Beautiful

Wow!  That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this past Saturday's prayer walk at First Baptist Kenner.  More than 100 members took time out of their weekend to assemble at the church before spreading out into south Kenner and some of Metairie.  An estimated 5,000 homes were prayed for, representing around 13,500 people.  Wow!  The sight of that many people gathered together to engage their community for Christ was more beautiful than the crisp, sunny day we enjoyed.  I'm still blown away by the response from First Kenner.  I've said it before; Availability + Opportunity = Awesome.  God is ready to do amazing things through our churches if we will be obedient to His Great Commission.  

Monday, April 06, 2009

"I Am So Happy With My Decision"

That was one of the comments from an individual that made a decision to follow Christ after seeing a commercial from Southern Baptist about having a personal relationship with Jesus and then visiting a website where they were taken step by step through what it means to be a Christian.  These commercials are running about 100 times a day as part of our efforts to share the gospel with the Greater New Orleans area through the Sharing the Peace of Jesus emphasis.  Those churches that participated are seeing numerous responses from the door hangers they are leaving at homes while prayer walking their neighborhoods.  More responses are coming in through NAMB's Evangelism Response Center as people call the Jesus2009 number seeking more information on spiritual issues.  

What an exciting time for our churches as they engage their communities and see God at work.  How even more exciting to think that this is only the first phase in the Sharing the Peace of Jesus emphasis.  Continue to lift up our New Orleans area churches as we continue with this process.  Many are using Easter as their main evangelistic event so pray for open hearts during these special worship services this Sunday.