Day 17: Threshold 1, Trusting a Christian

by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp wipes away the confusion of good news bearing in today’s suspicious environment.  Skepticism is the undercurrent with a hefty helping of cynicism. You know…you live here.

For the next few days, I will be summarizing the five thresholds the authors discovered that non-Christians pass through on their way to faith.

 

Threshold 1 is moving from distrust to trusting a Christian.

 

Our world has changed drastically since the posing picture-perfect church-going 50’s.

 

We live beside neighbors who look at Christianity warily through a distrustful lens.  Haven’t you seen a warm open person transform when they hear the word “Christian”?  They move from relaxed to rigid and scoot slowly left.  Words that flash in front of them are: pushy, self-righteous, judgmental, narrow-minded and fake.  Oh, and of course, hypocrite.

 

Lovely, right?  But remember when you were there yourself?  And, yes, I think that remembering and empathizing and of course love are the keys to building…anything eternal.  Empathy blocks us from defensiveness.  Unguarded compassion opens the way for trust.

 

What to do?  Become safe.  Move into the neighborhood and love.  Faithfully. Authentically.  And Pray.  Pray for Him to give you just a drop of His love for them.

 

What’s not helpful here?  Beware of dropping Christian tomes, begging them to come to church, shoving tracts their direction.  It must be simpler…and harder.  Build real honest to goodness friendships day in and day out.  Without motives.

 

 

Be faithful in small things.

 

Always remember the great privilege of just coming into contact with one of these precious made-in-His-image ones.  And the honor of hearing their story?  We get down on our knees before their Creator and take off our shoes.

 

 

And…Don and Doug, the authors, are quick to teach us to keep in mind that just because your “person” trusts you, it doesn’t mean they are curious about Jesus.

 

That’s for another threshold.

 

Summer Gross

 

Here’s the author Don Schaupp’s youtube channel exploring various questions that distrusting people might have. Oh do check out his compassionate invitational style.  Humble and compelling.  We all can learn from someone so honest and wise. Click here.

Need to catch up on the Cross-Shaped Evangelism Series? Click here.