So my lone reader, I love telling stories. I think that stories are a vital part of understanding people in todays world. My theory is that everyone has a story and everyone wants to share it with someone. In the next couple of days I’m going be sharing some of the stories that I’ve been learning – here’s one of them now, enjoy!

I’ve got a former college roommate who is a missionary in a foreign country. He and his family, live, work, and play in this foreign country. My friend spends his days building relationships with individuals. He does this through a wide variety of innovative and relationship building activities specifically sought out to build relationships. Some examples of these activities are playing soccer with the men of the town where he lives. Drinking coffee and talking with the men about a variety of topics and ideas at the local coffeehouse and sometimes teaching the men employment and business skills.

My friend does these things not because he’s looking to convert the people. It’s not because he’s trying to build a church or start a new ministry. It’s not because he’s “Cool” and trying to be friends with everyone. It’s not because he’s on a “paid vacation” as a missionary. He does these things and many more because he values relationships and because he believes that authentic relationships are vital in order to fully demonstrate the love of Christ.

Sounds pretty good right? My friend and his wife send out support and update letters to their friends in the United States. Once a year, he comes back to the States and takes a tour of various churches that support him and his family. When he’s at these churches he tries to share with people about the work that he’s doing. He shares with them how their support and prayers help him in his ministry.

The problem is that often times the people in the churches, when they hear that he’s playing soccer and drinking coffee most days, all to often ask him the question, “Why should I support you to drink coffee and play soccer all day?” My friend struggles for a response to this because the question presumes that my friends’ work is not valuable.

So what do you think my friend should say when people ask him questions like this?

I think this is an interesting story because I believe it illustrates the problem that we have within the American church. I believe that if our churches are going to be real churches then we in the church need to meet real people with real problems in there lives. In America that means we have have step outside of our normal Wednesday night and Sunday morning activities and start letting others see who we are and how we act in real life settings. That’s my thoughts.