by Su Elliott

There was a lady whom I spent time with a year or so ago. I made a vow to myself never to bring up the topic of religion with her. She knew I was a Christian and had openly told me of her antipathy to Christianity and being preached at. She made it clear that she enjoyed my conversation but did not want to talk about religion. So why is it that it came up in every conversation? I didn’t bring it up. I mostly listened. And when I did talk, I just told stories from my life with no commentary. It was very difficult for me not to respond to the many ‘openings’ in the conversation, to all the provocative things she said that almost demanded I speak up for God, but I was determined to keep my vow. But once she knew she was going to be listened to, then she apparently felt safe and she really did want to talk about God.

In fact, she told me every time we got together that she just loved talking to me, that it opened her mind to new ideas, that I was so intelligent and thoughtful, that it was a surprising thing to her to find this in a Christian.

ROFL! Evangelism can be so easy! Just don’t talk and suddenly you’re wise and insightful. That’s a joke that will never get old.

by Linda Davis

I was eating lunch with a friend during the break at the Doable Evangelism seminar in San Jose when I noticed a young family at a nearby table. The mom looked like she was Native American. The dad was dressed in camouflage fatigues and their son was a toddler.

I kept eating as I prayed (behind their backs!) that God would bless the young family with abundant love, and protect them. After I finished eating I looked at their table again and noticed that only the mom was sitting there. I assumed that dad and son had gone to the restroom. When I walked outside I was surprised to see dad and son stretching their legs. Dad was chatting with another guy in his age group. I overheard dad say, “…to Afghanistan.” Just then I saw the son start running toward the parking lot. I was closer to him than dad was, so I stepped between him and his destination and said, “Your dad needs you,” as I pointed him back toward his dad.

A day later I heard on the news that one of our National Guard groups was going to Afghanistan. Somehow I feel a bit connected to them.

I wasn’t sure how this day would go, frankly. My old friend (and former Young Life club kid from the earliest days of my staff career) Vince Staub had asked me to bring the DE Seminar to his church in San Jose. It’s a smaller church (Cornerstone Community Church), but they thought maybe they could get a couple of other churches to join in on the expense of bringing the Seminar to their town. No such luck. I decided to fly to San Jose and do the gig for whoever showed up.

We had 27 people come today…all but two were from Cornerstone (one of the outsiders was my friend Pam Marino from Sunnyvale Presbyterian). They were a diverse group age-wise (and otherwise), but they seemed to be totally engaged with me all day. I don’t think we lost anyone during the event except a couple of moms who needed to go pick up or deliver a child to a sporting event of some kind…which is pretty much the story of life in the Silicon Valley these days. I was very happy to be with them, and I felt very welcomed.

We had just one “lost” person show up for the interview (we shoot for three, usually), but he was great. Josh was married to a woman who was a Christ follower, but he himself had a Jewish background (he quit going to synagogue after his bar-mitzvah). He attended Cornerstone almost every week with his wife and two children, which is statistically more often that most Christians attend church. He likes it. He likes the people there. He is not a Christian and is not currently interested in becoming one, but he feels like he belongs at Cornerstone Church. I thought that was really cool. He wishes people there would ask him more about his journey, but he genuinely loves being part of that community. He just doesn’t do the Jesus thing. Yet. Thanks, Josh, for being such a great help to us. You probably said more that will be remembered in that 30 minute segment than I did the entire day.

I got to spend Friday afternoon with senior pastor, Craig Selness. He took me to his favorite restaurant for lunch (Arby’s) because he meets there weekly with someone who he helped move from atheism to Jesus follower, and I got to join in their ongoing conversation. Craig gets what it means to listen people into the Kingdom of God. It was fun to watch him do his thing, and to meet his dear friend and brother in Christ, who now spends his vacation times smuggling Bibles into communist and Muslim lands.

I have a feeling I’ll be heading back to San Jose in the next year. My friend Vince thinks the rest of San Jose needs to hear this stuff, and now that there are a few more folks who have joined the DE family there, he thinks he might have a better chance of getting other churches to join in. We’ll see. But I can tell you right now that I was honored to be a part of what God is doing in San Jose through Craig, Vince and the rest of the wonderful family of Cornerstone Community Church this weekend. I really hope we get to party again sometime soon.

Thank you, Craig, Vince and Kathleen, for your love and hospitality. We’ll be in touch.