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Introduction
PPT Slide 1/Just Walk campaign graphic, Week One
I’m glad that you are all here today! Because today, we are beginning an
experience that is going to radically change the way you and I
view that great category of Christianity called evangelism.
Evangelism is one of our 5 purposes as Christians and as a church.
Our reason for functioning as a church is to worship God, become
disciples of the bible, fellowship or build each other up, be a part of
the ministry of the church, and evangelize, which is helping others come
to Jesus Christ.
But the word Evangelism, for some of you, just hearing that word
sends a tremor of terror up your spine. Maybe you’re sitting there
wondering if I’m going to make you come up here at some point and give a
personal demonstration of how to share your faith with a nonbeliever.
If I’ve just described you … please relax.
I’d venture to guess that what we will be talking about in the next few
weeks will be unlike anything you’ve ever read, seen, heard, or walked
through as it pertains to the topic of evangelism. Here’s why I say
that. The type of evangelism we’ll be exploring involves:
• No formulas
• No scripts
• No quizzes, tests, or on-the-spot demands for huge chunks of memorized
information
Intrigued yet?
The paradigm we’ll discover together is this: evangelism can be as
simple as taking a walk across a room. And taking a walk across a room
is something we can all do, wouldn’t you agree?
Well … wouldn’t you?!
Okay, I’ll explain the walk-across-the-room imagery in just a moment,
but for now, I want to introduce you via video to the author of this
month’s series, Bill Hybels. He’ll set the stage for our time together
this morning and then we’ll dive into the content for Week One.
Show excerpt from Just Walk Across the Room Four-Week Experience
DVD
CLIP: Message Video Excerpt, Week One
(run-time 1:10)
Did you catch the gist of his closing statement? “If we would all
do just the small thing that we can do, we would touch a lot more
lives!”
If you’re a Christ-follower, isn’t this essentially what you want most …
to touch the lives of the people you know—the people you love—who are
living their lives far from God?
How? With a walk across a room.
Bill Hybels had been invited to a luncheon in the Deep South. As he and
the other guests entered the hotel ballroom where the event was to take
place and found their seats, they were asked to introduce themselves to
the other folks around the table. Bill didn’t know the other members of
his table group but immediately noticed how diverse they all were … just
in terms of ethnicity, age, and so on.
Seated directly across from him, there was a tall, African-American
gentleman ... kind of looked like a linebacker. When he said his name,
it was distinctly Muslim. Then the next person went, and the next
person, and they started their meal. At one point in the meal, the
African-American Muslim made eye contact with Bill and mouthed the
words, “I love your books!”
Here’s how Hybels writes it:
I looked over my shoulder to see if there was some famous author
standing behind me. There wasn’t, so I said, “Me?”
He said, “Yeah, you! We’ll talk later …” He had this huge grin on his
face, but I still thought that he had me confused with someone else. So
after lunch he pulls me off to the side and says, “I now understand this
is probably a little confusing because you assume I am a Muslim … let me
tell you a quick story.
“I have been a Muslim my whole adult life. Being an African-American
Muslim in a southern city—and being in the profession that I am in—it’s
not always been easy. As you might imagine, I have some struggles in
social settings.”
He said, “In the profession I’m in, we have a lot of cocktail
parties, and a lot of evening events; and the natural course for me at
these parties is that I’m served a drink, I get some hors d’oeuvres, and
I try to make business contacts in the room. Inevitably, I wind up
standing alone at most parties until enough time has elapsed and I feel
like I can gracefully make an exit … and then I [sútt’l]subtly leave.
This whole dynamic is just something I’ve learned to live with.”
The Muslim man went on to tell Bill that one night, when he was at such
a party, he found himself with a drink in one hand, a plate of food in
the other, standing all by himself as usual. Sure, there were groups of
people gathered throughout the entire room—talking, laughing, engaging
in conversation about this or that—but he was there with no one to talk
to and nothing to do. Except just stand there looking out of place.
At some point during the party, the Muslim man noticed a guy standing on
the other side of the room who was in the middle of a conversation with
people of his own color and his own “kind.” The guy looked away from his
group and saw our Muslim friend standing all alone just ten feet away.
He was perplexed that this guy would even care to notice him, but what
happened next would utterly shock him.
The guy actually excused himself from his conversation, turned away from
the group, walked all the way across the room, stuck out his hand to the
Muslim man, introduced himself and then asked for the Muslim gentleman’s
name.
From there, the conversation unfolded so smoothly … so naturally. They
talked about their mutual profession. They talked about their families.
They talked about business in general and sports and all sorts of
things. Eventually—in this same conversation—the issue of faith came up.
Our African-American friend told Bill that at that point in the
conversation, he became a little [réttiss’nt] reticent … he just assumed
that there would be an unfavorable reaction when the other guy learned
he was Muslim. But he took the risk, and to his surprise, the guy said,
“Well, I’m a Christ-follower, but, truth be told, I know almost nothing
about Islam. Hey, I wonder if you would do me the courtesy
sometime—maybe over breakfast one day—of giving me the Cliff’s Notes
version of your faith system … you know, why you committed yourself to
Islam. Hearing your story would be pretty interesting to me.”
The Muslim man almost fainted! Can you imagine his surprise when he saw
a Christ-follower in a social setting like that operating with such
openness and grace?
Well, the two men agreed to meet for breakfast the following week, and
the conversation that ensued was incredible. The Christian man felt free
to ask questions about Islam, and the Muslim man felt free to answer
them.
That meeting led to another meeting the following week. And another one
after that. And another. For weeks on end, these two men got together
over cups of coffee so that one Christ-follower could take an interest
in a man living far from God.
At some point in this series of breakfasts, an interesting thing
happened. The Muslim man realized that this Christian guy had been a
good listener all this time … week after week after week. He hadn’t
judged the Muslim man’s life choices. He hadn’t wedged his own agenda
into their conversations. He just kept showing up with a listening ear
and a genuine interest in the Muslim man’s life.
I’ll let the Muslim man give you the rest of the story, as he told it to
Bill at the luncheon that day:
I really didn’t remember that much about the Christian faith. I’d
been a Christian at some point in my childhood, but the racism in our
community had infiltrated my family’s church. Eventually, we just left
the faith altogether. Doesn’t take a genius to know when you’re not
wanted. But for some reason I was prompted during one of our breakfast
meetings to say, “You’ve been such a good listener all this time … would
you be willing to refresh my memory on the Christian faith?”
From there, it all happened so easily and respectfully and
sensitively. And to make a long story short, many months later, after
determining that Christianity was the superior faith system, I
committed myself to Jesus Christ! And it has made an unbelievable
change in my life, Bill. I am part of a local church now, and that is
where I came across some of the books that you’ve written. I can’t tell
you the difference this whole thing has made in my life … and in the
lives of all of my family members.
PPT Slide 2/Week One premise, “The single greatest gift …”
Friends, the single greatest gift Christ-followers can give to the
people around them is an introduction to the God who created them, who
loves them, and who has a purpose for their life. Nothing beats it—not
monetary gains, not job opportunities, not recognition or accolades.
And when you boil it all down, this is what evangelism amounts to:
constantly watching for ways to give this single greatest gift to
someone living far from God.
Ultimately, what the Christ-follower in this story did is something that
we all can do … he had a deep-seated hope that God would use him
as the gift-bearer in someone else’s life. And because he was open to
being used by God, guess what happened?
God used him.
Today we begin the process of understanding how to get “usable” to God.
I hope that’s something you desire … being utterly used up by
God. And the first step in getting usable to God is being willing to
extricate ourselves from our Circles of Comfort and stretch out a hand
to a person who needs the hope we alone can offer.
Now, back to the walk-across-a-room idea. Let’s take a closer look at
how this whole thing unfolded. What will it take in order for us to give
this “single greatest gift” to someone we know?
Point 1: Enter the Zone of the Unknown
PPT Slide 3/Point 1: Be willing to enter the Zone of the Unknown
[FC Image 1]
Think about this with me for a moment. One Christ-follower in a social
setting was standing in what we’re calling a conversational “Circle of
Comfort.” [Draw FC Image 1.] He was in a circle where it was easy to
relate, where it was easy to converse, where there was no threat … in
other words, nothing “unsafe” could happen. He had every reason in the
world to continue talking in that little circle he was in. It was a
Circle of Comfort, a place we’ve all frequented, right?
[FC Image 2]
Yet he looked across the room and he saw someone—really saw
someone—who was standing alone and perhaps needed a little encouragement
or an ounce of friendship.
Not only did he look and see, but he felt something and then
heard something from the Holy Spirit—something like, “Why don’t you
go over and extend a hand of friendship to the guy on the other side of
the room.”
So he saw the situation. He felt something. He heard a prompting—os ten
sib ly from the Holy Spirit of God. And then he actually said to the
people who were standing with him in the Circle of Comfort, “Excuse me
for a minute.”
Now remember, he has no idea what is going to happen once he crosses the
room and sticks out his hand to this stranger. He doesn’t know what the
conversation is going to be like. He doesn’t know what the reaction of
the individual will be. But he has already left the Circle of Comfort.
There’s no turning back now.
[FC Image 3]
And so he walks … probably praying every step of the way.
He walks all the way across the room and enters the “Zone of the
Unknown.”
Have you ever been there—in the Zone of the Unknown?
It’s in the Zone of the Unknown where God often does his best work! It’s
in the Zone of the Unknown where the guy in our story said, “Hi, I’m so
and so … what’s your name?” And he struck up a conversation that quite
literally changed the African-American gentleman’s eternity, as well as
the eternities of his wife and eventually his children.
Can you believe how simple and straightforward this image is? Just a few
steps to cross the room. But you tell me, how much
kingdom-building impact did that one faithful Christ-follower
have just because he was willing to take them?
I believe it was a staggering sum of impact. I believe the gates
of hell shuddered when he took the first step. In that moment, the
angels in heaven probably began preparing banners to unfurl with the
names of the businessman and his family written on them the moment they
crossed the line of faith!
Here’s the question I want us all to ponder: what would happen if we
were to take a few steps across a room? Is it possible that we could
actually impact someone’s eternal destiny—perhaps even that of their
family? That we could change the course of an entire family
history by simply taking a few steps toward someone who may be heading
for a Christless eternity?
Do you think that would be worth the risk of ten steps across the
room?
In the book Just Walk Across the Room here’s a quote that should
stop all of us in our tracks: “The day Christ-followers like you and me
stop taking walks across rooms in this manner, the day we stay glued to
our Circles of Comfort, refuse to make the walk, refuse to enter the
Zone of the Unknown … the day Christ-followers like you and me stop
doing that sort of stuff, it is lights out for the kingdom of God
here on earth. It is the beginning of the end of redemptive history.
It’s the slow defeat of the church—the bride of Christ. It’s the end of
the dream of Christ that people on earth would come to know him.”
Please hear me on this: throughout this four-week experience, I want you
to remember that one of the top priorities of the Holy Spirit in each of
our lives is to turn every single person here—every single
Christ-follower—into a walk-across-the-room kind of person.
Everyone.
Regardless of your age, regardless of your gender. Regardless of your
color, your personality type, your respective spiritual gift mix, your
experience in kingdom-building initiatives to this point.
If you’re a living, breathing Christ-follower, then the Spirit is asking
you to walk. He’s asking me to walk. Friends, he’s asking us to
make a difference in the lives of the people we see each and every day!
At work. At school. In social settings. At the gym. At our kid’s
basketball game. In the midst of our insane schedules. Wherever.
Whenever.
If you’ve submitted your life to Christ but wonder why you’re not just
rocketing ahead in your spiritual development or your spiritual
maturity, could it be that, for too long now, you have clung to your
Circles of Comfort, refusing even to glance toward that Zone of the
Unknown, let alone take a walk into it?
It seems almost impossible to imagine, but there are people who have
experienced the merciful forgiveness and soul-level cleansing of God in
their lives and then somehow contract a bad case of “spiritual
amnesia”—at that point, they simply forget how personal the cross
of Christ is to them.
They get wrapped up in their Circles of Comfort—warming themselves day
after day from the glow of Christian community, focusing all of their
energies and attention on the people standing inside the circle … never
once turning around to acknowledge the isolated people standing across
the room who desperately need a little injection of hope.
*****
If you have made the choice to follow Christ—if you have found him to be
truth, if you have found what the Bible says to be truth—then why would
you—why would any of us—think that other people wouldn’t be
interested in knowing about what we have discovered to be the most
life-changing, heart-stimulating, eternity-altering relationship in our
lives?
Friends, if you have been “wrecked by grace”—if you have been bowled
over by God’s gift of new life, as I thankfully have—and if you want to
live your life as an expression of love for the great God you know, then
let’s crank up our boldness-meters and introduce as many people as
possible to the God who wants desperately to enfold them with his grace!
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