Preaching Without Words

Now that my Means of Grace group has focused on how to live each day with the purpose of experiencing God, we are shifting our focus on living each day with the purpose of sharing our faith by living with the purpose of experiencing God.

Confusing? Yes it can be.

The goal is simple though:

1) Share your faith
2) Share by doing not by words

Sounds simple but is harder to do in reality. First, we must really live a life that Jesus talked about which again sounds simple 1) Love God 2) Love Others but when “the others” make us want to scream, it is hard to remember the “love” part of the equation. When people see that we are really reflecting a life of love, they will notice and will often ask about it. That is when the words can come into the picture. At that point, we can use our words to share our faith – but not before.

Second, we must pay attention to the people we come into contact with each day. I know that when I start to listen and really see what people are going through, I’m better able to show them love and help them out along the way. Most people don’t care what I know until they know how much I care. Compassion is a great means to spread the Gospel without ever talking about God.

Its going to be difficult be we are all going to try to reach as many people as possible without initiating a conversation about God, Jesus or our church. If we are lucky, those topics will come up into a conversation, but if not, we will still spread the message – just in a different way.

A friend once told me that if she didn’t know that I was a pastor, she would still know that I was a Christian even though I don’t talk about God in every sentence. She said that she feels that I really live my faith because it is what I believe and that I don’t do things because its in the Bible or the Church says to. It was one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten.

So I’m going to live so that others see God. I hope its authentic. I hope its not forced. And I hope to see transformations in myself as well as others.

Until Everyone Hears,