by Dale Reeves
Story Pastor
Last Saturday evening a Mexican Navy training ship, the Cuauhtémoc, never intended to sail under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. It was supposed to head south and sail out of New York Harbor, with a stop on the Brooklyn waterfront to refuel before heading to Iceland. But it lost power and all three masts of the 300-foot ship snapped off when the ship collided with the bridge, killing two crew members, and injuring nineteen others. Some of the 277 crew members aboard were seen dangling from harnesses and holding onto wires. There are some questions still to be answered, but the ship, without its power working properly, ran into an immovable barrier, creating a tragic accident that cost the lives of two members of Mexican families.
Billions of lives are at stake for eternity. We have the opportunity to choose either to build bridges that create life or cause barriers that get in the way of people accepting God’s invitation to an abundant life on this earth and an eternal life spent with him in Heaven.
This past Sunday at Christ’s Church, our lead pastor Brad Wilson concluded our “One More” teaching series by talking about how to move from “Good conversations with others . . . to God conversations . . . that lead to Gospel conversations.” This is very easy to remember as we seek to have redemptive conversations with others whom God has placed in our lives. Good . . . God . . . Gospel. We build bridges by moving from Good to God to Gospel. Based on Jesus’ story about leaving ninety-nine sheep to seek and find one lost sheep (see Luke 15:3-7), we believe that there is always room for ONE MORE in the kingdom of God. We are called to reach one more in our circles of influence by building great relationships with others, planting seeds of faith by spending time with them, loving them, and having good conversations as God opens up doors of opportunity. In case you missed Brad’s teaching last Sunday, you can check it out here.
Meeting Them Where They Are
Everyone is at a different stage in the journey of life. Some are very close to being disciples of Jesus; others have a long way to go. Part of our marching orders from our commander-in-chief, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies (see Psalm 46:7), is to move people along in their spiritual receptivity level, trusting in God’s Holy Spirit to work in them. We are to plant seeds of faith in them, then ask the Lord of the harvest to do the watering and the harvesting of the fruit.
Dr. James Engel, former director of the Billy Graham graduate program in communications at the Wheaton College Graduate School, developed a model of the spiritual decision-making process. This scale depicts the spiritual state of a non-Christian or Christian in their journey:
The Engel’s Scale
-10 Awareness of the supernatural
-9 No effective knowledge of Christianity
-8 Initial awareness of Christianity
-7 Interest in Christianity
-6 Awareness of basic facts of the gospel
-5 Grasp implications of the gospel
-4 Positive attitude to the gospel
-3 Awareness of personal need
-2 Challenge and decision to act
-1 Repentance and faith
0 A disciple is born
+1 Evaluation of decision
+2 Initiation into the church
+3 Become part of the process of making other disciples
+4 Growth in understanding of the faith
+5 Growth in Christian character
+6 Discovery and use of gifts
+7 Christian lifestyle
+8 Stewardship of resources
+9 Prayer
+10 Openness to others/effective sharing of faith and life
Each person is on a different spiritual level in the Engel’s scale. Our directive is to move people further along toward maturity in Christ as God opens doors and prompts us to engage with others through meaningful Good . . . God . . . Gospel conversations. The goal is not to simply get a person to “accept Jesus.” Jesus wants people to move to the +10 level and become difference makers—fully devoted followers of him.
F-A-T Bridge Builders
As Brad reminded us last Sunday, “We are not the closers!” The Holy Spirit is. As I often tell others, “Our job is not to be successful, our job is simply to be F.A.T. . . . faithful, available, and teachable!” Are you being faithful and available conduits for God’s use in building bridges to others who are in desperate need of his rescue? Do you ask him where (and to whom) he would have you introduce his good news into the lives of others? If you ask him each morning, he will be faithful to show you!
Having good conversations (about our individual hobbies, sports, trips, our kids and grandkids, etc.) can break down barriers and help establish a good rapport. In his 365 daily devotional book, Truth for Life: Volume One, Scottish pastor and author Alistair Begg shares,
“You and I are called to be bridges that span the gap between the experience of isolation and a life of divine acceptance. . . . Do we do this for unbelievers, new believers, or visitors at our churches? . . . We find the bravery required to be a bridge and not a barrier when we look to our own acceptance by God in Christ.”
I love how The Message paraphrases the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22: “Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.”
May we be able to say the same thing. Your commitment to be a bridge, not a barrier, can have eternal consequences in the lives of those you rub shoulders with every week. It’s a life-or-death proposition. Commit to being a bridge builder today!