Timothy's Thoughts

I magine this scene: You’re talking to someone who has moved into area. In the course of the conversation they say, “We’re looking for a good church. Do you know of any?” There it is! An opportunity dropped right in your lap. You say, “You should come to our church. Our pastor preaches great sermon. Our people are super friendly. We have programs for your kids. Let me give you a card. It lists our service times and our website, so you can check us out.” The other person accepts the card and says, “I’ll be sure to do that.” That’s the kind of conversation we would love to have. But maybe we shouldn’t be so excited. The problem with this conversation is that it involves matching up an ideal church with an ideal person. What if this person doesn’t have kids? What if the church doesn’t have programs for the kids? What if the pastor doesn’t preach very well? What if the church isn’t very friendly? What if the church doesn’t have a website? When I was a teenager, I was the music director at ...

F requently, I find myself having a discussion with someone and picking my words carefully. There are things that I don’t say directly, for fear that doing so would shut down the conversation or harm the friendship. Instead of telling them what I want them to do, I try to swing them around to my way of thinking and hope that they will take the action that I would like. They rarely do. I decided to list these actions that I feel strongly that people should take. The list turned out longer than I expected, but here they are in the order I thought of them: Accept Jesus Christ Of course, I tell people that they should accept Jesus, but there are people who claim to be Christians and yet I doubt their salvation. The fruit just isn’t there. Their lifestyle isn’t that of a Christian. They aren’t involved in church other than attending once a week or so. Attend Church Regularly With some people, it’s hard to know whether they’ll be at church or not. They often have a reason they don’t show up,...