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A new friend

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A new friendship This morning I hung out with a new friend, Jay, and had some great conversation over a good cup of coffee. Jay is a follower of Christ, but he would say that he's burned out on the Church.  He's had some disappointments with church leaders, who when he needed them the most, they were not there for him. I asked Jay, "If you had one question that you could ask God, what would it be?"  He said, "I would ask him what could I have done differently so that my life would not have turned out the way it has."  Jay has suffered a divorce and is experiencing ongoing conflict right now. He talked a little bit about plans that God has for our lives as Christians.  We explored some hard questions:  Does God have a "Plan A" that he expects us to follow, and through poor choices on our part, we end up with "Plan B"?  Or is God more concerned with being in relationship with us as his sons and daughters, growing in our love for
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Time with my neighbor

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Recently I was helping my next door neighbor, Greg, fix a little problem with his roof.  After working on the repair, we decided to go to lunch together to one of his favorite barbecue places in town.  I asked him if I could interview him about a tattoo he has and ask him some questions about his life. I am a busy executive pastor of a very active church, but I am intentionally trying to spend more time with people who are beyond the walls of the church building.  It's possible that some will never come inside the walls of our church, but I still want to love them and serve them.  Besides, doesn't everyone need a pastor?  Doesn't everyone need someone who will listen to them when they have questions, concerns, hurts, spiritual needs?  And if they're not coming to the pastor, perhaps the pastor should go to them? I have a pastors' coach who is encouraging me in this discovery.  He says he has lots of opinions, and one of them is "evangelism at its heart is
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Whoever believes...

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Why is it that ministers as a rule have few if any personal friendships with non Christians?    Why are we okay with this?    Can a pastor really encourage others in his church to build relationships with non Christians in order to win them to Christ if he has no friendships with non Christians himself?   How can he lead by example? Evangelist Al Dayhoff with Evangelize Today is encouragiung me to be more intentional in seeking out friendships with non Christians, entering their world and seeking to discover what they believe about God.  Al has done considerable research with non Christian people and has entered into many conversations with tattoos as a starting point. I recently interviewed a neighbor-friend of mine who has some tattoos on both arms.  We sometimes sit and enjoy a cup of coffee together.  Isaiah gave me permission to share his thoughts and picture here.   "Is there a story behind your tattoos?" I asked.  Isaiah told me he had these done when he was 19 o
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