Church

In these series of posts, I'm trying to move from lecture to lab.  As Christ-followers who love Jesus and care about people, how do we effectively help our disconnected friends find their way back to God? Part one was to "think like a bridge."  In other words, how can you move people one step closer to God?  Our actions either encourage people to move towards God or away from God. Part two: walk on common ground. "Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity." (Colossians 4:5) Unfortunately, some Christians are known for what they are against.  This antagonistic relationship with culture creates an "us versus them" mentality.  Rather than see people far from God as people to be engaged, they are seen as people to be avoided -- or, even worse, as people to be defeated. The antagonistic perspective isn't focused on finding common…

Every now and then, I get reminded that life must move from the theoretical to the practical.  This happened to me after my last blog post ("Helping People Find Their Way Back to God").  One of my friends on Facebook asked a simple question: How?  How do you help people find their way back to God? We know that's what Christ-followers are supposed to do.  But how?  Assuming that you want to, how do you do it? So ... what will follow will be a series of posts that offer simple, biblical ways to help people find their way back to God. Part One:  Think Like a Bridge "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13) OK, technically-speaking, bridges don't think.  At least I don't think they think.  But stay with me ... There was a…

One day while walking along Broadway in downtown San Diego I saw an older homeless man passed out next to the sidewalk.  His face was smashed sideways into the curb and his pants were down around his ankles.  And he wasn't moving. A group of other homeless guys circled around him and began debating whether or not he was still alive. "I think he's dead." "He's not dead." "He sure looks dead." Finally, one of them, a fellow I recognized as Marvin, took his walking cane and stuck it in the man's ribs.  He groaned.  "He's not dead."  With that, they all walked away and just left him there. I thought “I bet being homeless wasn’t one of his life goals when he was in his 20s or 30s.” When his parents changed his first diaper, did they look into his face and hope that he would one day be…