Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Investing in Relationships

Everyone at Encounter must be committed to investing in relationships with people who are far from God. It is only in this way that we can Engage Culture resulting in transformed lives.

As Jesus invested His life into those around Him, we must invest our lives into those around us. We must serve them, befriend them, accept them, and when we speak of our faith, we'll speak from the overflow of our heart.

And one thing to remember about investments is that there is rarely an immediate pay-off. Investing takes time. It took Jesus three years to convince the twelve.

After such an investment, it is much easier and effective to invite people to connect with Encounter. Then it is more natural to resurface the subject later providing opportunities to share your journey with Jesus. Being with other believers at the right kind of event has a way of opening people up or pricking their interest in spiritual things. We all know people whose picture of Christianity is so distorted that they need to see the real thing before they can hear you.

Investing in others' lives is a both a community culture and a personal strategy. It means genuinely caring for people outside the church and then being bold enough to risk the relationship by inviting them to go deeper. It takes energy and effort to build and invest in a relationship. It takes equal compassion and courage to leverage that relationship for the sake of eternity.