I was honored to present the Doable Evangelism Seminar at New Life Community Church in Burlingame, CA in April of this year.  The pastor of this church of around 100 people is one of my dearest and oldest friends, Kevin Wood (oldest in years we’ve known each other, not by age…he’s actually younger than me).  

After the seminar, Kevin decided to make Ordinary Attempts part of his church’s culture, to intentionally celebrate the ordinary.  He and his wife, Gloria, have hosted a short meeting with people after the weekly service to share their OA stories.  They have have shared OA stories from the podium.  They have included a special “Doable” segment in the church e-newsletter each week.  They applaud each and every ordinary attempt and continue to help people in their church see evangelism as the whole process by which people discover Jesus.

You get what you celebrate.  New Life Community Church is choosing to publicly celebrate the ordinary attempt, and they’re beginning to see a few people who never participated in evangelism start to get in the game.  Here are a couple of stories from recent church e-newsletters:

This week’s featured OA (Ordinary Attempt): One man in our church said he was going to try noticing people. He said his attempt wasn’t newsworthy, but thought we should know that he was trying. He regularly sees a man outside a local drugstore. The man is obviously poor, probably without a house to live in. We will call the man without a home “Russell.” He engaged Russell in some brief conversation. He listened to him and (just like Randy in the Doable Evangelism Seminar instructed) said “Wow!” a lot to Russell’s story. Russell didn’t ask for money, and thanked him for listening.

We heard another Ordinary Attempt. A couple at church went to get dinner at a local sandwich shop. They attempted a “free attention give away” by asking the sandwich maker about his life and work. Turns out he works at two different deli’s 9am - 9pm Monday through Saturday, just to make ends meet for him and his young daughter. So moved by his hard work, they gave him a VERY large tip, simply to say “Way to go! Way to work hard for your little family!”

Way to go, New Life!  Way to go, Kevin and Gloria!  I’m so very proud of you all!