Which side of the table are you on?

A few years back, our church paid for a booth at the local village days. You've all seen this type of thing before: tee-shirt sales, little crafty things for the kids, junk jewelry, we had it all at this fair. The church booth had some pamphlets about our children's program, community stuff, and some church logo apparel for sale. The Sunday events started at 11AM, so it was up to a few early service folks to man the booth for the first few hours.

So, there I was. A long time church attender, a life-long resident of this town, a very new believer, now in the position of proclaiming this thing called church to the masses. Wow. To say I was intimidated would just be the beginning. Fortunately (for my fragile self, but not for the Kingdom) business was slow, and besides I had my faithful friend Kelly with me to answer all the hard questions. So we sat and waited and talked.

The conversation went various ways, but eventually I had to confess that only a few years before, I could not have possibly imagined myself sitting at a booth advertising a church. I could (and still can) vividly remember the old me, walking down the street, not even making eye contact with the church folks. "What could they have said to me?" I wondered to Kelly. "What could anyone have said to get me over to the table?" I didn't know then, and I'll admit I don't have any better answers now. Yet, here I am, behind the table. The guy with all the answers.

We have to convince people of is this: we have something you want. We have something you need. We have something you can't live without. I don't think you communicate this with words or pamphlets. You communicate this by living. We all know it, and most of us say it, but how many really do it? You probably know of this quote by Ghandi: "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." That really says it all. It sounds kind of strange, but will you help me prove Ghandi wrong? How do we go about this? It's either a long list, or a very short one. I'll take the Nike way: "Just do it." Yes it is trite and overly simple. But that's the way I have to think about things.

Shalom.