Time with my neighbor

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 LOVE for people."  Didn't Paul say something along those lines in his letter to the Galatians?   "The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command:  'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  Gal. 5:14

It turns out that my neighbor and I actually have a lot in common.  Could this have been providential that we were born in the same year just one month apart; we both enlisted in the Marines the same year, and after basic training, we both trained at the same Motor Transport School near Camp Lejeune, NC?  We were both kind of surprised that we shared so many of the same experiences.  I asked Greg to tell me about the tattoo he has on his arm, a picture of dove with an olive branch.   He told me that years ago he went with 3 other Marines to a tattoo parlor where they each got a tattoo.  I asked Greg why he didn't get the eagle, globe and anchor like his three fellow Marines.  For him, the Marine Corps represented a new beginning in life, so this tattoo had a deeper meaning for him.

I am learning to be a better listener, to give people time to share, to hear themselves think and reflect on things rather than hear me talk, not so easy for one who's been trained in a "speaking profession."  So armed with a few simple questions, I sought to discover what my friend thinks about some important matters.  Here are a few of the things that we talked about over lunch at the Chatt Smokehouse:  How do you think the world began?  Greg told me that he believes in God.  "The human body is enough to believe there is a God.  The universe is so complex that scientists cannot know  that much about it, can only speculate about a lot of things."   What do you believe about God?  "As long as you try, you'll be alright with God."  What do you believe about Jesus?  "Jesus is someone physical who God sent so we can see and believe in him."  What do you believe about life after this one?  "Your spirit goes back to God, if you ask him into your life."  If you could ask God one question, what would it be?  "What can I do to make life better for me and for others?"

From our conversation, I knew that Greg had been exposed to church in his life.  He told me that he had grown up in a church just down the street from where he currently lives.  He doesn't attend regularly now though. But he believes it's important.  "A lot of people will go to the clubs on Saturday night and have a lot of fun, but sort of turn their backs on God and the church on Sunday mornings," he offered.  "But God wouldn't turn his back on you."  I asked Greg if he ever prays to God.  He said, yes, he often prays for guidance and forgiveness.  We talked about the new beginning for a person when he receives Christ into his life and is born all over again as a different person than he was before.  Greg believes this and says that he has experienced this in his own life.  We'd like to continue our conversation again to talk some more about how we grow as Christian men.  I'm thankful that Greg is my friend, and hope to have many more lunch conversations with him.