What Disciples Do: Share Their Faith

When I was in elementary school, one day my grandmother took me into a store. The store had a check-out area in the front, a main center aisle, and rows of tall shelving flanking that center aisle. While we were in the store, my grandmother got lost. So, I went to the front of the store and told the clerk I needed them to page my grandmother because she was lost. I never felt lost. I knew right where I was – I just needed to find my grandmother.

I don’t imagine the one sheep was all that worried about the fact that the shepherds and the rest of the sheep weren’t anywhere in site. After all, when sheep graze they just keep their heads down and follow the tufts of grass wherever they may lead them. A sheep never knows that it’s lost.

Which one of you, though, asks Jesus, if you had 100 sheep and you lost one of them, wouldn’t go and look for the one that was lost? 100 sheep was a lot of sheep. The tax collectors and sinners and Pharisees and scribes Jesus was talking to would have immediately realized that this was a communal flock. Two or three shepherds were in charge of the village’s flock. So, when they realized that one of the sheep was missing, one shepherd stayed and looked for the sheep while the others brought the 99 home.

“Which one of you?” asks Jesus. It seems significant to me that Jesus doesn’t start the parable with “Once there was a shepherd who lost a sheep.” Which one of you, entrusted with the communal flock, doesn’t count and make sure that none of them are lost? Each of us is a shepherd…this parable is about more than how much God loves each of us; this parable is about the responsibility that each of us has for every sheep in the flock to make it home.

I was once asked in an interview, “What area of church work makes you most uncomfortable?” I was confident in my answer, “Evangelism.” I am not comfortable walking up to people and asking them if they are Christian or saved or born again or if they died tonight where would they go. I am not comfortable approaching people I don’t know to discuss whether or not they are lost.

Then, several years ago I read about a new kind of evangelism – servant evangelism. The concept is to show God’s love in a practical way. Ideas range from setting up a popcorn machine at a park and passing out free popcorn to passing out carnations on Mother’s Day at a restaurant to taking baggies of dog treats to the dog park to having a free car wash – all the while passing out cards with your church’s information on it. Servant evangelism organizes random acts of kindness on a church-wide scale. I was drawn to servant evangelism because no one is put on the spot or made to feel uncomfortable. No one is forced into a conversation they don’t want to have. Everyone gets something practical that they want and shown grace. Some ideas I’ve had for servant evangelism here at Farmington are to have mornings that we provide coffee for parents as they are leaving their children here on the way to work – it’s not the coffee that matters, but the good morning from members of the church, it can happen randomly (and might be best received if it is random), I’ve thought about giving something away at Germantown Festival at the food booth – maybe candy (a sucker?) with a sticker with the church information on it, would love for you to think about it and let me or Melanie Oest know if you have an idea. Where else could we show God’s love in a practical way?

Servant evangelism is a way to preach the Gospel without using words. Each of us, in the way we live every day, are called to be servant evangelists. We witness to our faith in our behavior, in the way we treat other people, in the way we do business. We witness to our faith when we treat people like Jesus did – when we live loving, graceful, compassionate lives of integrity and service we create an opportunity to share why we live the way we do. I think this is the link that has been lost in the church today. We have shied so far away from door-to-door or what I term stranger evangelism that we have neglected to share our faith with anyone, with the people we know, who know us.

Studies show that 90% of people visit a church because someone that they know invited them to come. All of us, in our friend circles, in our work circles, on Facebook and social media, have the opportunity to share our faith with people we know. It can be as simple as “checking in” on your Facebook when you come to church, as talking about Wednesday night dinner or Potluck or Fellowship Coffee, as sharing something that resonated with you in worship (a hymn, a prayer, something in the sermon, something that happened during children’s time) and then asking, “Do you have a church home you love?” If they don’t, share yours. Invite them to come and see. It doesn’t have to be awkward. Invite them to an event with you – to Wednesday night dinner; to help with Room in the Inn; youth, invite a friend to come to the lock-in with you. Invite them to church, “I’m going to be in church this week, I’d love for you to come and sit with me…”

The reality is that at some point in our lives, all of us have been the one sheep, alone, without the safety and comfort and the guidance of the flock. We may or may not have realized we were lost. At the story, they called for my grandmother and she came. I was so glad to have found her. There are people among your friends and acquaintances who would not term themselves lost, who would be so glad to find Farmington, to find the 99, to come home. Will you share your faith with them? “Which one of you,” asks Jesus, “wouldn’t go and look for the one?”