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How to witness to your waitress

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J. D. Greer has some good thoughts on day to day evangelism – taking advantage of all those little ‘divine appointments’ God brings our way where we can be salt and light.

How do you witness to your waitress? The check out clerk? Your barber? Barista? Mechanic? Co-worker? In our culture, cultivating these relationships is probably far more effective than a Monday night door-to-door visitation program or handing out tracts to strangers. Here are Greer’s thoughts.

  • Frequent the same places
  • Ask people how you can pray for them
  • Invite people to church, over and over
  • Use an acrostic like F.I.R.E. to help spur conversation. (I personally like to use R.O.C.I. – Residence, Occupation, Children/family, Interests)
  • Read a good book on evangelism by someone like Bill Hybels (I also recommend Mark Dever and Becky Pippert)

Greer closes with this:

Gospel people are to be people of extraordinary generosity, extraordinary answers to prayer, and extraordinary joy. Look for ways to really put the generosity of Christ on display, because laying down your life can really get someone’s attention; look for places to ask God for miracles; and thank God for chances to suffer before your friends, because only in suffering can you put on display that you have a joy that is better than anything life can give and that death cannot take away.

You can read the whole thing here.

HT: Justin Taylor

SBC

The time has come

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Today, tomorrow, and Thursday may be three of the most important days in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention. Our Great Commission Resurgence Task force is finalizing their proposals for the Executive Committee. The results of this meeting will without a doubt shape the future of our convention and its support for global evangelism.

Here’s an update from chairman Ronnie Floyd in how we can be praying…

Your Great Commission Task Force has listened to Southern Baptists, gathered as much information as possible, asked the tough questions, gone through volumes of information, and has really sought to hear what Southern Baptists desire to do to advance the Great Commission in our generation. Equally, we have been before God to seek His will. Now we enter the season and the crucible of decision-making. The pressure is on and the test is real. For the past three months, these decisions have been in process, and in our next meeting we will finalize and make many difficult decisions. This is why we need you.

On Tuesday through Thursday, January 26-28, our Great Commission Resurgence Task Force will be meeting for our our most significant moment in this journey. As our process goes forward, we will be presenting our report to the upcoming meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee on February 22-23. While additions or revisions to this report are probable before the final report is made in June at the Orlando Southern Baptist Convention, the release of it in February will give Southern Baptists four months to gain clarity and have their questions addressed.

Therefore, I am asking you to give some concentrated prayer time for this upcoming meeting. Please ask your prayer ministries to pray for us. Our need for prayer has never been greater. Please consider even praying for us during the various segments of our meeting. Our meeting begins on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. and concludes on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. We will meet in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings of each day. We would appreciate various groups within your church having continual prayer for our GCR Team during these hours.

How can you pray? We need God’s leadership and will to be manifested. We need the wisdom of God regarding every situation. We need complete clarity on presenting our convention of churches a compelling vision for the future. We need to abound in spiritual unity as we move through this significant meeting. We need courage to make the decisions that will truly advance the Great Commission through the ministries of Southern Baptists. We need God’s protection upon our own lives, our families, and the ministries we are a part of, because dealing with major Great Commission issues brings strong spiritual warfare.

Please continue to enlist people to be a part of our http://www.pray4gcr.com prayer team. We have just under 6,000 people who are prayer partners with us daily. We would love to see hundreds more join us in this daily commitment to pray for a Great Commission Resurgence to occur in and through the Southern Baptist Convention.

Additionally, please share with your congregation that Dr. Johnny Hunt, the President of our Convention, has issued a “Call to Prayer” for Sunday, January 31. He is appealing to every Southern Baptist Christ-follower and church to pray for the future of our convention of churches on this day.

May God bless you wonderfully for being our partners in prayer.

Dr. Ronnie Floyd
Chairman, Great Commission Resurgence Task Force

Culture, SBC

Religion on trial

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Andy Pugno has been giving regular updates on the Perry vs. Schwarzenneger trial in San Francisco. I found his summary from last Wednesday to be quite interesting and to have some important implications for the future of religious freedom in our country. Note the mention of Southern Baptists within the plaintiff’s evidence…

Today, the legal challenge to Prop 8 took an ugly turn as religion itself was put on trial. Plaintiffs’ witness Gary Segura, a Stanford University political science professor with expertise in the area of the political power of minorities including homosexuals, summed it up when he said “religion is the chief obstacle for gays’ and lesbians’ political progress.”

In trying to make the case that homosexuals are a vulnerable minority with no ability to achieve and secure success in the political system for their interests, Professor Segura blamed hostility, political opposition and even violence towards gays and lesbians on the teachings of major religious denominations. He further testified that there is no more powerful organization in the United States – save the government – than the church. Particular scrutiny was given to the official religious doctrines of the Catholic Church and Southern Baptists about marriage, family and sexual relationships. Therefore, according to his logic, gays and lesbians must be given special legal protection by the U.S. Constitution against religion itself.

If it weren’t such a serious and troubling matter, their line of attack against people of faith would be laughable. To suggest that the people of California cannot consider their own political, moral and religious views when casting their vote on Prop 8 is preposterous. Every election, many issues are presented to voters that involve moral issues, including stem-cell research, the treatment of animals, assisted suicide, the death penalty, health care reform and so on.

In any event, religion has taken the stage, front and center, in the battle over the constitutionality of Prop 8, and is being portrayed as an illegitimate basis for supporting traditional marriage. Religious bigotry surely found expression in today’s presentation by the plaintiffs.

The trial testimony also swerved way into “irrelevant” territory today when plaintiffs called to the stand a young man who was, as a child, forced by his Christian parents to undergo conversion therapy by a therapist because of his sexual attraction to men. No matter that this witness has never resided in California, was wholly unfamiliar with the Prop 8 campaign, was not a willing participant in his conversion therapy, and emancipated himself from his parents as a minor. What the personal experience of a person from Colorado who experienced a deeply troubled family life has to do with the constitutionality of Prop 8 is beyond me. What is clear is that today, however, the plaintiffs put the role of religion clearly in their sights and are likely to fire away at the legitimacy of religious and moral views, as well as the votes and voices of those who hold them.

It is true that Southern Baptists firmly believe in the traditional, biblical definition of marriage between one man and one woman. We took a stand (despite great criticism) in 2000 by declaring in our Baptist Faith & Message,

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.

This may be construed as discrimination, but it is in fact a statement of loving obedience to Christ and to our neighbors, both homosexual and heterosexual (Matt. 19:4-6). It would be deeply wrong for us to ever show hostility or violence toward a homosexual (cf. Luke 6:27-36), but it certainly would not be wrong for us to speak the truth to them in love, vote our conscience before God, and exercise our first amendment rights. It will be interesting to see if Judge Vaughn Walker comes to the same conclusion.

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How you can help Haiti

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The International Missions Board has put together several tools to help you pray, give, and even volunteer in Haiti. Here’s the information copied from their site:

You can give
  • Haiti Response Fund: 100 percent of your gift will be used for meeting needs of earthquake victims in Haiti.
You can pray
You can volunteer
  • E-mail: E-mail haitiresponse@imb.org. Indicate your name and contact information, what skills you have and when you are available. Southern Baptists interested in donating supplies or offering other assistance also can send an e-mail to this address.
You can mobilize others
  • Videos: Download and show these videos to your church or others who may be able to help:

    • Mark Rutledge, long-time missionary to Haitians, speaks out from Port-au-Prince asking you to pray and give to help earthquake victims.
    • Gordon Fort, IMB vice president for global strategy, asks Southern Baptists to pray and help victims in Haiti in other ways.

Southern Baptist disaster relief assessment teams have arrived in Haiti to plan volunteer deployment.

Disaster relief volunteer efforts will be coordinated among Southern Baptist entities, including Baptist Global Response, North American Mission Board and Baptist state convention disaster relief teams.

Source: http://imbresources.org/index.cfm/fa/store.prod/ProdID/2825.cfm

Christian Living

Fifty ways to give more to God’s work

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Whether you’re trying to give more money to Haiti relief, to global missions, or to your local church ministry, it’s good to review your budget and see where you can cut unnecessary expenses to support God’s work around the world. This is part of being a good steward and laying up treasures in heaven.

The Church at Brook Hills (where David Platt pastors) has recently come up with 50 Financial Tips to help families give more for the glory of God. This is part of their “Radical Experiment” discipleship and stewardship campaign for 2010. They’ve got some great ideas that could make a real difference in your short-term and long-term ability to give.

Here’s their list…

1. Remember that all of your possessions belong to God. Psalm 24:1, Psalm 8:4-6
2. Establish giving if you haven’t already. 2 Corinthians 9:6
3. Stop buying on credit right now. Proverbs 22:7
4. Be on guard against materialism. Luke 12:15, Matthew 13:18-23, Ecclesiastes 5:10
5. Borrow money cautiously and modestly or. Proverbs 22:7
6. Practice saving, even if it is a small amount. Save your spare change every day. Proverbs 13:11
7. Remember that you are accountable to God for the stewardship of the resources that He’s entrusted to you.
8. Learn to live on what God provides and not fall prey to what the world tells you that you need.
9. Evaluate where you prioritize your work (Jesus first, family second, work third). Proverbs 23:4-5, Matthew 6:33
10. Think before you purchase everything. Proverbs 24:3, Ephesians 5:15-17
11. Look at your monthly expenses and evaluate which items are needs and which items are wants.
12. Create and follow a written financial plan (budget). Start by praying about it. Proverbs 16:9 (See budget worksheet).
13. Document your cash flow in and out for 3 months in order to see where you’re spending (try using a tracking software such as Quicken).
14. Monitor progress toward your goals by setting weekly/monthly checkpoints and evaluating the changes you’ve made. Set a monthly meeting with your spouse to review your finances.
15. Take advantage of free retirement matching from your employer.
16. Evaluate your outstanding debt and form a plan of attack to pay it off.17. Clip coupons. Try www.couponmom.com, www.couponsuzy.com, or www.hotcouponworld.com.
18. Recycle and reuse.
19. Re-evaluate your entertainment choices. Visit the library for free entertainment. Use Red Box movies at Walmart or visit the Dollar Theater. Consider reducing or eliminating attendance at sporting events (Friday night football, college football).
20. Visit garage sales.
21. Shop off brands or discount retailers.
22. Do your own yardwork.
23. Stop going out to eat. Bring your lunch to work/school.
24. Pay bills online to avoid postage expense and the cost of checks.
25. Drink only water at restaurants.
26. Bunch your travel or errands in order to save gas.
27. Form a supper club instead of going out to eat. Share money saving ideas with the group.
28. Buy kids’ clothes on clearance in the off season for the next year.
29. Use best price finder sites for items (www.shopzilla.com, www.froogle.google.com, www.bizrate.com).
30. Buy generic food brands, buy what’s on sale, buy a less expensive version (i.e. hamburger instead of steak), buy store brand items.
31. Consider changing your home phone or cell phone plan. Do you need a land line? Do you need a long distance plan? Are you paying for more minutes than you use?
32. Save on energy bills – programmable thermostat, higher during summer, lower in winter, use ceiling fans, wash clothes in cold water
33. Drive your current vehicle instead of buying a new one. A new vehicle always costs more than repairing your existing vehicle.
34. Consider carpooling.
35. Stop buying bottled water.
36. Only run the dishwasher when it’s full. Only run the washing machine with a full load.
37. Limit your extracurricular activities to a level comfortably within your budget (i.e. children’s sports activities)
38. Review every utility/household expense you currently have to ensure you are paying only for what you need (internet, cable, phone, insurance). Get help from a professional that you trust if needed.
39. Plant a garden.
40. Eliminating or reduce dry cleaning expense. Iron your own clothes.
41. Reduce your Christmas/birthday/gift spending. Do not buy gifts on credit. Proverbs 22:7
42.    Use guidelines for what percentage of your income you should be spending on certain categories (housing, food, automobiles)
43.    Auto deposit your paychecks to a separate account and only move the amount necessary to pay bills to a separate bill-paying account.  This is especially useful for the self-employed or other with variable income.  Proverbs 27:12; Proverbs 6:6-8
44.    Have your savings automatically withdrawn from your paycheck and directed to a separate savings account so you are not tempted to spend it.
45.    Have your paycheck direct deposited to avoid the temptation of cashing it and spending it.
46.    Evaluate the cost of your hobbies and consider reducing or eliminating.
47.    Never overdraft your account.  Keep a cushion in your account in order to avoid overdrafts or service charges.
48. Consider selling assets (big and small…houses, cars, investments, and so on…) that you do not use or do not need. Store your treasures in Heaven! Matthew 6:19-20
49. Give your savings to Christ’s church during the Radical Experiment.
50. Consider not borrowing any additional money during the Radical Experiment.

Thoughts on Life and Leadership