Dear friend,

Luke 14:22-23 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’  And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell draws a contrast between Paul Revere’s famous ride that alerted so many that the British were coming and the other rider that night William Dawes.  Most of us didn’t know that there was another rider going from west Boston to Lexington.  Dawes’ run did not have near the effect Revere’s run had that night.  In fact the town Waltham, that Dawes warned, sent very few men against the British. 

Why was Paul Revere’s ride so monumental and William Dawes was not?  Gladwell says the answer is because Paul Revere was a Connector.  He knew lots of people, knew who needed to know and had vital information to share.  Dawes did not have those connections. 

Just recently I met with a new business owner who was so excited about his business, their expansion and the opportunities before him.   He was so enthusiastic and wanted to tell everyone to get on board with what is happening.  I remarked to him that I need to be as enthusiastic about the Lord as you are about your new business. 

These two instances make me think about relationships and my responsibility to share Christ.  You have to understand me as a person; I want to help fix people.  Why don’t people just do what I say?  Why is it so difficult?  Because I don’t like getting fixed myself.   How is that for awareness?

But we are also hesitant to talk with others because we recognize how inadequate, how weak, and how sinful we are.  God has given us connectivity with many, many people.  You may not be an extrovert in any sense of the word, but you have people you love, meet with, run into - that you care about their spiritual destiny.  And we need to be excited about the opportunities we have to share Christ with them.

                Charles Trumbull made a vow in his book Taking Men Alive, “The resolve I made was that, whenever I was in such intimacy with a soul as to be justified in choosing my subject of conversation, the theme of themes should have prominence between us, so that I might learn his need, and , if possible, meet it.”  What a challenge!  You and I know people that we desire to come to Christ.  We have relationships with individuals we want to walk more deeply with Him.   Some we cannot talk to anymore; we just pray for them on a regular basis.  There are others with whom we are beginning to build a relationship and trust we will have the opportunity to go further with them down the road.

I would ask that you would join me in prayer that we would significantly increase our intentionality to share Christ with others.  Look for opportunities; try to make contact; find common ground with the people that we pray for on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

Please pray for us this summer as we begin a new COM study downtown.   Pray also for the continued follow up from the Joe Gibbs and Ken Eldred banquets.  Thank you for your prayers for the Golf Marathon.  We are trusting God will bring into our ministry all the money pledged.  And further pray that we can attract a number of men into our ministry with the Summer Series along with our mentoring program.

                As always I am very grateful for your prayers, your support and your involvement.  Obviously I can’t do this alone.  God uses the whole body of Christ.

I am reminded of the woman at the well.  Jesus asked her for a favor - to give Him a drink of water.    Because of that request He had a conversation with her that brought her to believe in Him as the Messiah.  He returned the favor infinitely times over.  Let’s look to return favors.