It is interesting how God can sometimes use us when we are least aware of being used by him.

Of course, the flip side of that is that it reminds me in a sobering way how I must make sure that I am always speaking in a God-honoring way because I never know who might overhear.

Glad to see you here.

First of all, I’ll let the “Austin” reference slide this time.

Second, thank you for sharing this story. “You give me hope”… wow… How I would love to hear those words from the mouth of an unbeliever. What are we supposed to bring to the world but hope?

Third, I will have to disagree with you at one point. You said that the church crowd had already gone. I disagree completely. It sounds to me like the church was finally present.

-Alan

On a side note, we have had fun in the past reminding ourselves that we are now “the target audience” of a lot of churches. You know…”the unchurched”?

Yes, I saw that. So, I conveniently left out the word “regular” when I quoted you.

I’m wondering when a church will finally start a “ministry” to “the unchurched”…

-Alan

You give me hope.

Great post. Brandon has an awesome testimony about this same sort of thing - perhaps he’ll share it later (*hint*hint* Brandon!).

Hearing you guys talk gave this man hope because you were being salt and light … getting outside of the 4 walls and into the world. You made that man thirsty and drew him to Jesus just by being who you are. And I thank you for your testimony!

Blessings!

~Heather

Your post made me happy because it wasn’t about a debatable topic. I know that your site is a place to hash out various theologies and many times I want to chime in, but anymore, I feel checked not to do so. I feel like I have no right to voice my opinions about God if I am not acting them out daily.

I wonder what you said that made him take hope? Was it your discussion in a Hardee’s booth or was it your actions back in Austin? If that same person heard you talking about ‘church stuff’ (i.e. the service, worship music, the sermon), would his reation have been the same?

PS: I like/appreciate your heart and openness.

Mike, I’m sorry the controversial stuff keeps you from commenting. You’re welcome here anytime.

I assume your questions at the end of your comment are rhetorical. I don’t know specifically what it was, but I am glad that he felt hope.

Larry, thank you, sir.

Heather, I hope Brandon does share his story here or on his own blog. I would like to hear it.

marty, thanks for your comments, too. Gift certificates can be a great idea, too. Thanks for sharing that thought.

Maybe I should keep it all so I could spend it on myself — lots of dinners out, a faster/newer car, mortgage payments on my (big) house, newer clothes, golf, tix to the Suns, HDTV, artwork, cigars, and some really good scotch. Then I could use this for fellowshipping with my family and friends from church, so that would be good, right?

I will clarify and say that I was not intending with this post to tell everyone how they should handle giving to the poor and needy. I merely wanted to share my experience and help others think through from other perspectives.

The issue isn’t “Do as I do”, but rather, “Ask God what you should do.”

Having said that, I seriously doubt that God will ever direct one to do all the things you wrote tongue-in-cheek and so cleverly in that paragraph! Or at least not on a regular basis.

Thanks for contributing.

At least half of the personal expenditures I mentioned are things I do, or contemplate doing. I may attempt to justify them, but I too seriously doubt that God has directed me to do these things.

But maybe my calling is to serve as a bad example, so others can look at what I do and say: Don’t do as he does!

The idea of having a calling to be a bad example made me chuckle. I like your style of humor!

“Churchianity” can be a dangerous substitute for the real thing. In so many ways, I think it falls into the category of “having a form of godliness, but denying its power”.

And that can happen in any “model” of church, lest some of my readers think that’s a backhanded swipe at the institutional church.

Thanks again for commenting.