Conversations Not Conversions
By Ed Waken
My doorbell rang. As I rose from my home office to answer it I wondered to myself, "Who is bothering me?" It was Reese. Reese had trimmed some trees for me earlier in the month and wanted to know if I had more work that he might be able to do. He wore a very sweaty ball cap, dirty clothes and a sunken face.
At that moment, I really didn't care how he was doing. I was busy doing something else and I really didn't need any trees trimmed - Reese was bothering me. But a voice in my heart told me to encourage him. My lips parted; air from my lungs raced across my vocal chords; I managed to ask, "Hey Reese, how are you doing?"
That simple question, prompted by God, began a conversation about Reese's drug addiction and desperate state of life. As we moved to my back yard and enjoyed some sandwiches and iced tea, Reese shared his life story with me. I shared the story of Life with him. Later, Reese invited the Life Giver to be His Lord and Savior. He has since been sober for over two months and has already begun a house church with some friends who are new to Jesus. Whatever I was working on really wasn't that important.
This is a grand story of success in evangelism, but not because Reese became a follower of Christ. It is successful because I was obedient to have a conversation with him instead of blowing him off for my 'stuff'. How many times have I blown off conversations with people because I was so tuned into my world, my agenda and priorities? My experience with Reese reflects the Biblical principles of evangelism that are given to every believer.
