“You are Jesus Christ to me,” he said after we pulled his couch and table up over his second floor balcony with ropes (they didn’t fit up the narrow curving stairs).

We stated that we serve as a response to what Christ did for us on the cross. One way to love Christ was by loving our neighbor, and today, he was our neighbor.

We helped 3 people move last Sunday... two who don't know Christ. (You can see more photos of the moves here). Our desire is to be a witness of Christ's love within several major networks in the city. Helping these three people is part of accomplishing that goal. We will continue to help and be  intentional witnesses throughout our community.

The mental model that many church members have for doing evangelism is for them to act like telemarketers.  I mean, how popular are these people? Telemarketers interrupt you with a marketing message about a product you haven’t asked for and try to get their spiel out before you hang up on them. Then, if you do happen to buy what they’re selling, they pass you along to some customer service person who may or may not be actually connected to the company the telemarketer is pushing. Sound familiar yet? How many “evangelism programs” have you encountered in which sharing the gospel assumes no relationship with the customer and Jesus is sold like soap?

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This is what it’s going to take to gain a hearing for the gospel in the streets of the twenty-first century—the smell of cleaning solution, dirty faces, obvious acts of servanthood. This is in sharp contrast to the image of immaculate, powerful people we Christians have typically portrayed of ourselves to the world—people in photo ops with politicians whose ear we have, people who are successful, people who are blessed materially because we are favored by God, people smug with answers.We Christians in the church have been great about speaking the truth without love. The Scriptures say we are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). We do have the truth. The trouble is, peple can’t hear it from us because we haven’t earned the privilege to share it.

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At the point people ask us “why?” it’s important to be prepared to speak the truth. To reply, “Oh, we just want to help,” doesn’t cut it in terms of helping people in Jesus’ name. An insipid reply doesn’t distinguish our efforts from other civic relief organizations. I was told years ago that pastor Cho in South Korea instructs the people of his church what to say when they are asked about the intentional acts of kindness they perform (this is part of their small group evangelism strategy). When asked by those who are blessed by them why they do their kind acts, they are told to say: “I am a disciple of Jesus. I am serving Him by serving you, because that’s what He came to do.” That response is brilliant. It sends all the right messages while avoiding a reply that creates resistance. It signals to people that God is for them, not against them, but also provides content to what it means to be a follower of Jesus, who gave His life in service to others and invites His disciples to do the same.

I am afraid that many North American Christians, particularly evangelicals, have a very different idea of what the response should be. We feel we need to convict people of their sin and cause them to repent and change their lives. We want to tell people, “You’re all screwed up. You need to clean up your act or you’re going to hell.” Now I don’t disagree that God is in the life-changing business, nor do I diminish the issue of sin and its consequences. But our pickup lines need some serious work. I’m talking about actually gaining a hearing for the gospel in the streets instead of being flipped off.

-From "The Present Future" by Reggie McNeal