In running the term “chicked” means that a male runner has been passed by a female runner. I’m comfortable enough in my running these days that a woman passing me during a race doesn’t bother me. It’s happened in each of the half-marathons that I’ve run. Part because sometimes I go out too fast and part because I’m just an average runner and there are women runners who are much faster than me. However this post has nothing to do with running.
On Thursday, I had a unique situation happen to me. It just so happened that Pam had a similar experience on Thursday. Thursday I was working at my bi-vocational job when a group came in. They sort of straggled in, so at first I didn’t realize that they were all together, but after a few minutes you could tell they were all together. Most of them wore t-shirts with the name of their church silk-screened on them. I really didn’t think much about it, because we have lots of church groups and Christian schools come through our restaurant – it’s the nature of the business. They ordered their food and sat down to eat. I waited on several of them at the counter and the transactions were very normal.
Now if you’ve ever been to our place of business, you know the desserts are worth saving the room for. I mean who can resist a hand-spun milkshake or a warm chocolate chunk cookie? After this group ate their food, they came back up to order desserts. They paid for the food and I handed one of them the change and that’s when I was “chick”ed. Without a word, the man handed me a tract – we hadn’t had any conversation other than to complete the transaction. I was a bit put off by what had just happened (especially as a pastor.) I took a step back and asked myself “what just happened?” I suppose I shouldn’t question another’s evangelism method, but it struck me as strange to simply conduct a business transaction and then hand me a gospel tract without even engaging me in any conversation at all. I almost felt like he thought “let me evangelize that pagan,” even though he knew nothing about me.
One of the things I love about my bi-vocational job is that we are encouraged to be relational. We are encouraged to get to know our guests and create personal connections with them. I love doing that. That’s what struck me as strange. This gentleman had no desire to engage me in conversation or to develop an emotional connection with me. For one, if he would have struck up a conversation with me, he would have known that I was a pastor and that a have a deep relationship with Jesus. It would have been a chance for mutual encouragement. We have those conversations all the time at my job. There are guests who love to talk about their faith and I have had some great conversations with them. Here is the point. We’ve have taken the time to get to know each other.
I felt as though the man who handed me the tract, simply was looking to fulfill his obligation of evangelism – I felt used. I didn’t check to see if my fellow team members experienced the same thing, but I can guess that maybe they did.
Evangelism is important. If it wasn’t, Jesus wouldn’t have commanded us to go into every nation, making disciples and teaching them to obey all of God’s commands. However, I believe Jesus wasn’t really into “hit-and-run” evangelism. We need to take the time to get to know people.
Like I said at the beginning, Pam had a similar experience on Thursday. She came out of the grocery store and found a tract on the windshield of our van. Again there was no relationship building – only a shot-in-the-dark. I suppose that they get some return for their investment. But what if we take the time to really tell people about Jesus and then mentor them into a genuine relationship with Jesus that grows into something beautiful. Just imagine what difference that would make.
