"I don't think we have a Bible in our house..."

My new friend, I'll call him Ed, shared this with me at lunch. We had an great conversation (over some wonderful food at the Columbus Fish Market...I never thought I would like Walleye...) where he taught me some tips on marketing and developing a customer base (from a business perspective) and I shared with him our vision for starting a church from scratch by loving people who don't go to church or know Jesus.

Ed shared with me that he has a life-coach. The coach works with him from a holistic perspective- health, spirituality, vocation, relationships, etc. This opened the door for me to ask what sort of guidance or encouragement the coach offers in the spiritual realm of life. Praise God, for a first conversation (Ed did our mortgage...so this was our first contact outside of business), I was able to lay a foundation for my beliefs in the authority of the Bible and what it says about Jesus and His purposes of forgiveness and eternal life.

Before we met, I had no idea where Ed would be coming from. As it turns out, he is friendly, successful, kind, and giving. He loves his family and works hard to help other people. It hit me as we were meeting- this is the type of person God sent us to Columbus to reach. Ed is a good man, but, even though he doesn't realize it, he's apart from Christ. This breaks my heart and I'm determined to pray and try to find a way to further our relationship and conversations.

I learned some interesting (to me) things from Ed:

• Unchurched people aren't as scary as I sometimes think they might be. I'm not sure why Ed was willing to have lunch with me, but he was as open and kind as any believer I know. He was even open to the spiritual elements to our conversation.
  
• If I'm going to be effective in reaching out to those who do not yet know Jesus, I'm going to have to be willing to hear others' political views and be careful how I share my own. Like it or not, in many cases, as conservative Christians, we've ruined our credibility with unchurched people because of how we posture ourselves publicly or are portrayed politically by the media. Jesus was interested in loving, healing, and teaching truth...not winning converts to a political agenda.
  
• Ed is more open to spiritual things at this stage of his life because he wants his children to have an opportunity to explore various religions. A church that impacts his kids has a good chance of impacting him.
  
• It is more and more acceptable in the professional world to recognize the role of the spiritual in achieving "success". May this trend help missional people be more effective in sharing Jesus as The Way, Truth, and source of Life.
  

Would you pray with me for Ed? Pray for God's movement in his life- maybe in some result from our time together today. Please ask God to give me wisdom and opportunity for future interactions.