ChosenRebel's Blog

Wednesday is for Prayer

Before I became the pastor of Trinity Church, (and before I even knew Manchester Creek Community Church existed) my intention was to plant a new church in the Vernon Hills/Mundelein area of IL. God changed those plans and I don’t need to go into that here. But part of the strategy was to be INTENSELY LOCAL and engaged in the community. Toward that end, I had this experience below.

Think of ways that you can say “yes” to more involvement with your neighbors on their turf.

[ Eleven years ago now. ]  In the middle of the day, Tuesday, I got an invitation to a Boys Night Out from one of my fellow classmates in the Citizen’s Police Academy. I have been taking the 12-week class as a way to get to know 10 residents of Vernon Hills as well as the entire police department and how the police view the needs of the community.

Part of being INTENSELY LOCAL in my ministry philosophy is to never say no to an invitation from someone whose faith commitment is unknown to me when they invite me to some social engagement. So off I drove to Mickey Finn’s Bar and Grill in Libertyville for a night with some strangers 8:30-11:00 PM. At our table sat Tom, George, Kyle, Karl, Hank and John (I’ve changed their names for this blog entry). We ordered drinks and a bottomless basket of chips and salsa (best salsa I ever had by the way) and the conversation began.

It was a great time. I like each of these guys. And now I know five more residents of Vernon Hills and a bit more about how to pray for them and their families. George is the life of the party and the social organizer. Kyle is a life coach going through a transition, Tom and Hank are George’s  neighbors (these three have kids the same age that play together and attend the same school), Karl  just got back from vacation in Disney World with his family. Almost all of them have two kids. John is Jewish and a retired stockbroker, now entrepreneur and real estate holder.

I got to get some sleep so I’ll end with this: They all knew I was a pastor at our introduction. Eventually one asked what was bringing me to Vernon Hills/Mundelein. I told them about the desire to start a new church. They started to ask some questions. Then one asked why I made the 50 mile trip up for the night. So I told them, “I always make it a point to say yes to any social invitation from an acquaintance who knows I’m a Christian and is still willing to risk what might happen when a pastor is in the midst of their friends.” They laughed and we were on to the next topic.

Eventually, I was able to work in Bill Fay’s 5 questions* with the four guys in an appropriate way and we had a great discussion. Two guys invited me to contact them for more conversation and golf, two others seemed interested in the spiritual side of the discussion. It was a fun time. Pray for these men who are trying to live honorable lives and raise families in a hostile world. Pray too that I might have more opportunity to display the love of Christ to them.

*(I will write about these great questions next week.)  See link here.