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!

Mike Olsen (of “Mike O” blogging fame) posted this story over on the eBay atheist blog this morning (he’s one of the guys who run that site).  I got to meet Mike and the lovely Mrs. O at the CEC in Minneapolis this past weekend.  Apparently Mike attended my Doable Evangelism workshop there and decided to give the OA concepts a whirl.  Way to go, Mike O, way to go.  

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42

One of the underlying principles of Off The Map is the idea that in todays world, nobody pays attention to anyone else. There are people out there that just need someone to notice them. They crave attention, and when you actually pay attention, it’s the same thing as giving a cup of cold water in Jesus’ day.

Yesterday I was in downtown Minneapolis on a job interview, and walking from my car to the interview I saw a man sitting on a bench dressed in fatigues and holding a sign that said something to this effect:

Homeless veteran needs money to get home. No drugs. No alcohol. Can you spare some change? God bless you.

I’m not from the city so I’m not accustomed to seeing that sort of thing. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was about twenty-five, I volunteered with a theatre group and performed as the femme fatale in a murder mystery troupe. There were no scripts for this job, and so I fashioned myself as a throwback torch singer from the 30’s who was both a temptress and a money-digger. It was fun, funny, and always changing, and I learned a lot about connecting with people.

Part of the fun of doing the murder mystery was that it was a non-threatening way to be social. I didn’t really have to worry about rejection because ultimately they were rejecting my made up character and not me.

Doing the murder mysteries taught me a lot about people, though. For one thing, people tend to say the same things when fed the same lines. This works well for someone doing improv because you can draw them in with a particular question, get the answer you want, and snag them with a zinger afterward. It’s all done in good fun, of course, with me always being the winner. The fun came in when someone did something unusual.

Read the rest of this entry »