Sometime into our new job, for me it
tended to be the third month, I realized that things weren’t
as great as I had hoped. Either the boss has no idea what
they are doing, or there’s a coworker that you can’t stand,
or the task is too hard, or not becoming of your abilities.
It is at this point that you realize things aren’t as great
as you expected and your love of work dies a little.
You notice that all the other
employees take 20 minutes on their 15 minute break and you
do likewise. When everyone else stops working 15 minutes
before quitting time, you do the same. You rationalize that
if no one else puts in an 8 hour day, it’s not fair to
expect you to do so either.
The same things happen in the church.
As a young Christian you may be fired up and ready to turn
the church and the community upside down and fill the
sanctuary every Sunday. Then discouragement settles in. It
can come from the inside or the outside. Your friends may
not understand the dramatic change that has occurred in our
life. They just know that all of a sudden, you aren’t any
fun to hang out with. If church is the cause of this, they
don’t want to have anything to do with it.
Or often it comes from the inside. You
don’t dress the way a “proper” Christian should dress for
church. Or the great idea you had to get new people in the
church doesn’t get the warm reception you expected from the
pastor. There are a thousand other things that could occur.
Christians tend to be very un-Christian-like at the worst
times.
Maybe you’re fortunate enough that you
haven’t gone through this. Maybe you were just never that
fired up about sharing your faith before because it seemed
so intimidating. Or maybe things have happened exactly as
I’ve described and you’re scared to death that the same
thing will happen again.
Whatever the case may be, odds are
that if you are reading this, you have at least some
interest in evangelism and sharing the gospel with others.
You realize that there are many people out there who don’t
know God or have any idea about what Jesus has done for
them.
It is time to stop just realizing and knowing what needs to
be done and be the first one to get out and do something
about it. It is time to stop waiting for someone to start a
program or a special church service. Our friends and
neighbors and family are dying and going to hell and we need
to stand up and say that this needs to stop right now.
This is your call to action. You are
going to go forward and give your best for God. You will not
fit in with the rest of the church that is happy with things
just as they are. You will be criticized for not doing
things “the way they’ve always been done.” But you will be
doing God’s work and listening to His calling.
Continue to Chapter 2 -
Laying a Foundation
