One of my most interesting experiences on the race has been our month in the Philippines. We were the first ever World Race team to work with this church, and our instructions were to help the church get off the ground with some ministries.
I took that to mean that we would lead the church in creating new ways to minister to people so that when we left the church could continue along the path we helped them create. That sounds amazing.
Hard question though… how exactly do we do it?
In some ways it was easy. Run out and start talking to people (which is a lot easier to type than do, actually). Invite them to church. And uh… yeah… that’s it… right?
One day Matt, Nathan, and I went to an internet café on an off day to play one of the most popular games in the world: League of Legends. We plopped down, created an account on one of the Asian servers, logged in, and started our games. We didn’t expect much of it… until kids started gathering around us and watching us play. It is generally accepted that Asian players and some of the best players in the world, so to some extent they were watching us and laughing at the bad skill (in my case) and wowing at the good skill (in Nathan’s case), but more than anything they were watching these strange white people do what they did every day for fun.
The game started conversations for us. The cool thing is, we were Christian. Some of them were not. Actually, that’s not the cool thing. The cool thing was that we started inviting them to church. We starting talking to the youth at the church currently and told them that they could do the same thing, and then we invited the kids at the café to a big gospel presentation we had at the end of the week. We were different, and we attracted attention. Then we shared the gospel.
It’s a pretty simple formula, honestly. Mark and many other racers started playing basketball with locals and started developing relationships with them. Many of us found a Zumba class and started building relationships there. We weren’t doing anything extra-ordinary, but we were Christians in normal situations.
I’m starting to think that the Great Commission is simultaneously one of the hardest and easiest things for a person to do. The decision to share the gospel can be awkward and difficult and offensive and unwelcomed and a host of other terrifying things, but we’re not asked to go around thumping people with a bible, telling them about the gospel, and leaving.
We’re told to love them. We’re also told to enjoy creation. Our passions are going to be mostly the same as the passions of people who are not saved, but those things will bring us together so that we can show the love of Christ. I’m in a really interesting position. I play video games and listen to metal music and don’t conform to a lot of “traditional” church culture. Sometimes it makes it very difficult for me to make friends in the church. But hot dang if it doesn’t help me witness to a host of other people that don’t normally get exposure to the gospel. Send me to the metal concerts! Organize me a good game of Dungeons and Dragons! Send me to trading card game tournaments! Send me to a 9 to 5 job that you don’t want to do. I can bring the gospel to all of those situations because of two things. The Holy Spirit lives in me, and God has given me desires unique to my heart so that I can be friends with other people and love them and share the gospel with them.
What does that mean for you then?
Love you some football? Host football viewing parties, but don’t beat them over the head with a bible. Love them. Make friends with them. Watch some football, talk about that interception, eat some hot wings, and if the Holy Spirit lives in you, they’ll see that you’re different. They’ll see how you love them, and how you love your friends and family, and they’ll wonder why you’re different.
Are you an amazing businessman or businesswoman? Conduct all of your deals with integrity, sincerity, honesty, and love. They’ll wonder what’s different.
I can go on, but it comes down to this: sharing the gospel isn’t a strange ritual that should be separate from your daily life. IT IS your daily life. It’s the love that you show in everything you do. Everything you do, even if it seems mundane, can be the stepping stones to show the world who Jesus is. So figure out what that looks like for you.
