My Deal

Adam and I participated in a five-week small group at our church called Foundations. The point was to get us more familiar with the foundations of StoneBridge Church (what a relevant name!). Ultimately, our church believes in empowering their congregation to "do their deal". Everyone has a "deal" that they're called to, and StoneBridge wants to help everyone figure out what that is and help them grow in it to bring glory to God. For example, your deal may be racial tension and you want to help a typically separated community grow closer together by creating a small group with the historically black church down the street. Or maybe your deal is hospitality and you love hosting people in your home and making them feel the warm and fuzzies. Everyone has a deal.

On the final week, we went around the room and all had to share our deal. It didn't have to be your end-all-be-all deal that you did for the rest of your life and your deal can always change, but you had to say something. (I'm pretty sure Jeremy just wanted to make sure we all comprehended the past five weeks.) I thought about it and decided that my deal was finding a way to reach the unreached without shoving scripture down their throat. Maybe that's a harsh way of saying it, but it's what resonates best with me.

As I've mentioned before, I did not become a Christian because of a church service or because someone read a piece of scripture to me. There are many times when those things happened that I rolled my eyes because everything just sounded a little ridiculous. Scripture made no sense to me before I was a believer. It seemed like a lot of confusing words that people twisted to fit their agenda. I had to be reached another way. So God put specific people in my life at specific moments to bring me closer to him. And it was nowhere near a church that my heart really started changing for Jesus. Adam has a friend who believes that Jesus wants us to drink beer because it gives us the opportunity to saddle up next to someone at a bar and strike up a conversation that could potentially lead back to Jesus. These moments happen every day and my goal is to be "Jesus with skin on". (Creepy visualization, but I'm a visual person.) I don't need to be preaching scripture to someone to show them Jesus, I will just try to be a reflection of Jesus - of his love and grace - and maybe it will be an appropriate time for their hearts to start opening for Him.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out this whole "deal", but I do believe that God gave me my personality and this specific path to bring others to Him in unconventional ways. And I'm excited to see how it all pans out! Just trying to help save lives over here, people.