Revisiting Building Bridges Within the Community

Join us as we revisit this episode from 2024. We will look at how Christians can build bridges in our communities.

Transcript

Making a Difference in the Community

SPEAKER_01 0:00

On today's episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

When you find things that you're passionate about, if you're into collecting cars or you're into antique cars or what whatever or you you like, different clubs, community organizations, bowling, DARPAL, whatever it is that gets you to mix with other people. God has given you something that you enjoy, embrace it, use it. But then remember, it's also been given to you so that it can be done to His glory. And so when you look at it, the the mission field will be there.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Welcome to the Life Challenges Podcast from Christian Life Resources. People today face many opportunities and struggles when it comes to issues of life and death, marriage and family, health and science. We're here to bring a fresh biblical perspective to these issues and more. Join us now for Life Challenges.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Hi, and welcome back. I'm Christophot, and I'm here today with Pastors Bob Fleischman and Jeff Samelson. And today we want to do an episode called Making a Difference in Your Community. This is something that uh personally I've been pretty passionate about recently. Uh and it is where we kind of want to talk about um just ways to get involved in the community, importance in doing that, both with be uh being a part of a church, but also maybe uh individually too. I think sometimes maybe we do kind of focus on getting out into the community as a church, but maybe less focus on doing it as an individual or even a family unit. And so just wanted to be able to talk about different aspects with that and uh excited to see where the conversation goes today with that. I guess maybe uh a place that we could just start is why why do it? Why would somebody want to get out in the community, get involved in the community, and and what that really looks like.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Well, I just want to start by saying one of the first things that I thought of when you suggested this topic for the episode is that it this goes back or relates to one of our very first episodes, which was on activism. And I think that had a little bit more of a focus on pro-life activism. You know, this is a bit more bit more general, but of course, uh everything that we might talk about more generally can be applied particularly to uh pro-life type of work. But yeah, why is it that Christians talk about getting out into the community? It's it's really assumed as part of the church's mission. You know, what did Jesus say? He said, go, you know, go out in into all the world. And where does all the world start? It starts right outside your doors. And so that's that's why it's it's really an assumption there. And you know, just kind of looking at it negatively too, if if if we want to make a difference in the world, and and and we do because we love our neighbors, we can't just stay behind our our closed doors and and look out at the world. We need to actually be in the world uh in order to influence it.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

There is the idea of um kind of isolating yourself from the world. You know, it's it's a bad place, bad influences and so forth, which, by the way, describes the mission field, you know, and it's what Jesus had done in his own ministry, and the calling to spread the gospel is into all the world. But so is the calling to be charitable, to to be loving, to sacrifice for others, and to uh love your enemy, to turn your cheek, those kinds of things uh involves you getting out of your little s safe little cocoon that you've wrapped yourself in and venturing out. And i it was interesting this morning uh uh one of my staff members and I were we were talking about do I see myself as an extrovert or an introvert. I generally see myself as an introvert. I I tend to I like the safety of not being bothered, kind of just doing my own thing, and yet uh we've been called to go into the world and to be Christ-like in all the world. And uh I I'm very happy that he was not an introvert. Yeah, because I don't think it would have gone as well for all of us.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Well, you know, when we think about kind of going on in the community, I mean, first I kind of want to talk about it from a church perspective. I think last year at the the conference, at the Christian Life Resources conference, we had Jonathan Hein speak, Pastor Hine, and he talked about really, yeah, I mean, how just how different um we have maybe become um in churches, like how uh, you know, setting up a really awesome coffee bar in your church isn't gonna probably attract the people that uh really need to be there now. And that getting people like through the front door is really the hardest part. And so as as churches, we do see uh I mean a push maybe to try to go to where the people are at. And so, I mean, what have you guys kind of seen um just with churches trying to get out there into the community and and maybe either reasons why or just ways that people and churches get out there?

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah. It might be helpful to think of this as different levels of engagement.

Community Outreach and Individual Witnessing

SPEAKER_02 5:38

The zero level is we as a church just stay here, do our thing, and we don't really want the community in because that complicates things. And that actually worked at a bit at sometimes when you had families that were regularly having large families because you grew biologically and you didn't see the need necessarily for anything beyond that. Um, it wasn't following the mission Christ has given to the church, but it it it it people still felt fairly comfortable with it. But the the first level is what I might call just kind of a hey, we're here level. Maybe you you do parades in your community. You know, you have a float or you march in a parade or you have a booth at the county fair or something like that. And yes, it gives you an opportunity to talk to people maybe, but the main thing is you're just kind of announcing, hey, we're here if you're interested in us. It's it's a first step of a witness, but it's not usually going to do a whole lot in terms of you know getting people uh in your doors. A second level is, well, we're not quite going, but we're inviting. You have presentations and activities at your church that you invite the community to. Maybe you have a parenting expert come and to give a topic, you know, uh, uh a presentation about that. Maybe you uh host a sports league, you know, use your gym for that, or uh like a mornings with mommy program for parents of uh of young kids in the community, maybe uh addiction recovery events. You know, these are things that that you're doing, you're trying to reach the community, but mostly it's having them come to you. Third level is where the risks start coming in, in terms of I have to step out of that comfort zone a lot more because that's the congregation gets involved as a congregation in various community events and and activities. Uh they are dental identifiable as such, they are mixing with the others. I mean, we're we're careful not to cross any fellowship lines and things like that, but maybe there's some kind of uh town cleanup day. You you go out as a congregation to do that. Uh maybe it's something with housing the homeless or feeding the hungry or something like that, that you're doing that out in the community. And sometimes it's just you're all going and taking part in something that everybody's taking part of, but you're all, you know, maybe wearing your St. John's Lutheran t-shirts or something like that. Or maybe it's that you say, okay, our church is going to take care of um feeding the homeless at the shelter every Wednesday or something like that, where you're doing it as a special specific thing. And the the next level from that is is the one that I think is probably closer to your your heart, Krista, is is the members getting involved in the community individually, you know, as individuals, you know, in community organizations, on boards, on volunteering for events, coaching or something like that, uh, the your local PTA or something. And that's being done not just as a lone wolf, but with the church's support, that they know what you're doing, they're praying for you, they're helping you in various things, and you are actively witnessing to your faith in those situations so that people then say, Hey, this is a real person that I kind of like, and uh what is it that makes you different? And can I have some?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

I believe that there's an in-reach and an outreach component to church life. And I think many of us don't have them well defined. I think we we do in reach and we call it outreach, and then we don't do outreach. For example, when I what I mean by that is that uh w taking some of those levels that Jeff talked about, uh, you know, and what we would call an outreach uh effort really is we want people who like our culture. We like we want people who like the way we do things. So come in here, we have a this nice coffee bar, we have this, you know, we we we invite you, come welcome. Uh we're gonna have, you know, uh uh a contemporary service, that'll bring it in. Uh but it it ignores, I think, what it means to reach the lost and which would be genuine outreach, and we're not equipped for it because we tend to attract around us people who are just like us. So oftentimes outreach might mean uh we we accept by profession of faith people from another church that they just felt they weren't being fed, or you know, something like that, which which all of that is valuable, but it's not outreach. It's it's just simply you know moving around the believers. Genuine outreach, I don't believe I don't believe the church itself as an entity has a major role in outreach as an entity. It its role is to be a trainer for its members. So and you know, it and in my view, a congregation that's outreach minded is actually training its members to get involved with various community resources, community activities, community things, training you to talk to people about Jesus. I mean to simply have a church and say, This Sunday we're doing this and this Sunday we're gonna do that. And that's where I've always said, you know, I give I'll g let me tell you this story. My first year in the ministry, 1983, got into a conversation during a pastor's conference with a fellow who was only two years ahead of me, and he was in a church, and we were talking about the practice of close communion. The fact that, you know, we don't want everybody who just walks into the door to come up for communion, we want you to be part of our fellowship. Discussion for another day, you know, that. But the point is this he said that he favored moving communion to a separate members-only event at nighttime. He said, because we're always doing friendship Sunday and outreach Sunday and we're doing all these things. We bring these people, and if they happen to walk in on a communion Sunday, it always was kind of weird. You know, welcome to our church, but don't come up. And he said that way we could we could shift it around. That was my first exposure to what are we really trying to do and and I think you know, this idea that um you know the inreach part of our ministry the inreach part of our ministry looks to what believers are looking for, and that is to be nurtured in their uh understanding of God's word and will for their lives and to offer praise. And that's why a lot of emphasis on church service, those kinds of things. But then when we train them for outreach, the unbeliever doesn't want to step into your church any more so than the unbelieving wanted to step into the synagogue. Unbelievers are going to hear the message from your believers, uh your members, and they need to be trained in that regard.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

You know, you touched on some of the things too uh Boti did really on just this idea of is it good enough to just get out into the community as a church? Or do you know do you really want to kind of push yourself as an individual to get out? And I think, you know, kind of what you were saying, Bob, is that the church's job really is to equip the individual out there. And I think too, this idea of you and just getting out in the community. For some people, I mean, maybe that is really like just their job too. I mean, they can get out uh with their their job and meet unbelieving people and have conversations um with those people. For other people, though, it might really look more at uh taking on different roles in the community where you live and work to be able to connect with with outsiders, or I mean, maybe not outsiders, but to be able to connect with individuals in the community.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah, I think that one of the things that causes Christians the most apprehension or even fear is oh, I just I I'm I'm not sure how to start a conversation. I I I'm I'm not quite comfortable putting myself out there. And and some people who are extremely extroverted, yeah, that's like, what are you talking about? That's the easiest thing in the world. Those people are pretty rare. I always found it helpful to make a distinction that's I'll say kind of found in scripture because they're there's some but I'm gonna simplify it. Um and that's the difference between evangelist and witness. The New Testament uses the word evangelist, that's a person who is specifically gifted by God and called to serve as somebody whose main job is to go out with the gospel, to be that pr kind of a professional extrovert, you know, in terms of sharing God's word. Uh it uses also uh a um a verb that we would call evangelize, which is sharing the good news, or uh you might even say it's good newsizing, you know, it's it's getting the gospel to people. There is no evangelism word, and yet that's the thing that we talk about so often is we need to do more evangelism. And I think part of the problem with with the emphasis on evangelism is we start telling everybody in the church, every Christian, that they need to be an evangelist, which is, you know, as scripture talks about it, a very specific thing, which specific gifts and calling. What instead scripture does call every Christian is a witness. And you can either be a good witness or a bad witness or somewhere in the middle there or whatever, but every Christian is a witness because they see you and they see a Christian and that sends a message. If you are super introverted, could never open your mouth at all, you can still be an effective witness for Christ by living a Christian life, by standing out for that, and being the kind of person that sets up the first Peter 3 situation where somebody asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, and you haven't even had to start that conversation. But you're ready, you're ready to give some answers to that because you know, every Sunday you you recite the creed, you know the gospel message, you know sin and grace, you can talk about these things, you've done it every Sunday. You don't have to have this super special training to do it, which means that you can go into your community and you can serve on that board, you can volunteer in that organization. And if you maintain your solid Christian witness through that, you you don't have to be, you know, turning every conversation into, hey, can I tell you about Jesus? You're still being a witness to that. Now, obviously, if you are able to start a conversation and say, Hey, can I tell you about Jesus? That's great. And I know I've been going on for a minute or two here, but yeah, I'll just pick up on one thing that Bob mentioned before that um so much of our emphasis also over reach for generations has been, well, once you get fine to prospect, get them to church. And as Bob's you know, illustration was kind of talking about that. Well why are we making that the first step? And especially today when so many people in our society have no church background, that's that's asking them to go to a really strange place. You you need to start with the can I tell you what the Bible says? There's this class uh that my my pastor teaches. Would you be interested in in attending that with me to go through? You know, you you don't have to go to church on Sunday. There's no commitment involved here or anything. You're not exposing yourself to anything. And and start with that level of reaching heart to heart, mind to mind, before you're getting somebody's like, oh, oh, if you're gonna do this, you gotta go all the way. First step.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

I think too, you know, and uh Bob, I think, or maybe both of you kind of touched on this too, is that sometimes people just don't really want to put themselves in any uncomfortable situation. Um, because sometimes, I mean, when you surround yourself with people that um are not in the Christian community, you can get in situations that make you feel uncomfortable too. And um, and I I remember doing this um yoga workout video one time, uh like from Julian Michaels. And one of the things that she would say was, um, you know, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And, you know, just this idea that you know, once you're uncomfortable, you're probably getting a pretty good workout in, you know, and I think that kind of goes to some of the things with being in the community too, because as I have been out there in the community, there are times where um, yeah, like I am uncomfortable with some of the things that are be that come up or are being discussed. Um, and you know, you try to navigate those things as best as you can. But uh, but being in those situations can open doors to uh share your faith and just have other people um see that, okay, maybe not everybody thinks like this way or not everybody does something this way.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

When Jeff was talking about you know the distinction between an evangelist and a witness, I thought that that was valuable. You know, the Apostle Paul talks about how we all have different gifts, and that is suggesting different tools that we use in ministry. And some people have a uh a gift for explaining difficult things uh in ways that are easy to understand. Other people have the ability to understand extremely difficult things, and but you never want them to try to explain that to the general audience because they're gonna be six miles above your head. I mean, there there are just different abilities that can be utilized in different ways. The church as an entity, the leadership of the church should look at the the gifts that are given. It's kind of like uh assigning Stephen and others uh to make sure the allocation of the food is done correctly in the early church. You look at different abilities, we're not looking at anyone being less spiritual. We want them all to be spiritual, but uh you you tie them to where their gifts lie and use them that way. At the risk of sounding formalaic, oftentimes we do so many things, both in the church and as individuals, that we don't really have a clear understanding of what we're trying to accomplish and then why we are trying to accomplish it. Like for example, when when my church says we're having friendship Sunday next week, uh you know, of course, being a little bit of a combatant the way that I can be, but there's a part of me that says, So what do you mean by that? What do you mean friendship Sunday? Does can I can I bring it in my enemies? Can I I you know what you so we're trying to make friends of everybody and then uh why are we doing it this way? In other words, there's nothing's done about it that's right. That's not thought through. No one is asked what they're trying to accomplish and why they are trying to accomplish it. And is it realistic? For example, if I have an introverted personality where I'm I'm not comfortable, you know, talking to people and and I'm not that introverted, by the way, but I mean where I'm not comfortable talking to people, to simply say that therefore I must never share the gospel with anybody, that's not correct. To say that I must share it like the great preacher shared it, that also is equally wrong. It's not being realistic. Well, I look

Connecting With Community Through Common Interests

SPEAKER_00 20:56

at it this way. You know, right now the big deal in churches today are teaching what are called what's called an apologetic approach to reaching out. And I very much like that approach and we use it in life and family issues too. I just got done sharing uh with somebody this morning um this idea that when society says that slavery's wrong and and prostitution's wrong and and child abuse is wrong, and you know whatever they want to declare to be wrong, I may not disagree with them, but I want to know why they think it's wrong. Because there are people who thought it was right. For example, slavery. There was a time in history where people thought it was right and defended it. And not only defended it, but defended it successfully. They made their point, they owned slaves and so forth. Personally, I thought that was very wrong. But why? Okay, in apologetics, you know, you've got to give me more than your opinion because there are people who will differ with you. So I think as a church trains its members to be witnesses today. We have the nuns, you know, N-O-N-E, the nuns, and these are the people who are going to church, don't profess any church affiliation, but they may be believers. They just, for reasons, and most of them are wrong reasons, have severed a relationship with the church. You approach them differently than you do the ones who are unbelievers. And but the one thing that I like to point out to people is never presume that uh people do not that people know Jesus, they just don't care about church things. It's amazing how many people I've encountered in my life who don't even know who Jesus is. They may know him as a television character or somebody they saw in a movie or they heard about or s or somebody that only surfaced in their life at a funeral but otherwise they don't know. So I think a realistic expectation is maybe people need to be taught to understand their audience who you're talking to, and then understand the best way to approach them. Now if if you've got the ability to be a handyman, to fix garage doors, to put in electrical and that kind of stuff, God has given you a forum to establish a relationship into the community with people who need to know Jesus, and you use that forum. If you've got the the ability to book club, talk about things, you you're constantly looking for the forum. But the other thing too, and I know we've talked about this in other episodes, um, take people with where they're at, not with where you think they should be. Because it sometimes took many years to get you there, and it may take that long to get them there. So you gotta start, you know, at a low level. You don't come out swinging.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah, you know, one of the things too I was gonna ask about is kind of what it looks like to get involved in the community. Bob, I think you really touched on one of the things too, is that sometimes it looks like just finding what you're interested in and doing that. And I I mean, you know, it doesn't have to really be really m much more complicated than that. I mean, I think for myself recently, I mean, I was on the library board uh just because I kind of got into the library more with my kids and caring about that and was involved in uh in a mom's club too in the community and just because my kids were young and you know, and that was just something that really was a a thing that I was doing at that time in my life too. And so uh if you're good at at coaching or something, or you like sports, um join a local softball team or or just that type of thing can help build relationships too in the community.

Building Relationships for Witnessing

SPEAKER_00 24:43

But sometimes be careful that what you decide to join isn't just solely ideological. Now, here I'm head of a pro-life group, but I think joining a pro-life group is not quite what we're talking about for outreach. When you want to do outreach, being part of a mom's club, coaching, something like that, that provides a forum in which people's guard is not up right away. I think you're you're always trying to look for neutral ground to be involved, neutral ground in which a lot of people think, well, I'll get involved, I'll get on the planning commission, I'll show up at the town board meeting, I'll get onto the the county board, those kinds of things. I believe in those things. I think some people are designed for that. But it's hard to give a witness. Maybe at best you can maybe protect your your environment a little bit from things. But uh by far you may I think you make a bigger impact by being an active member of the JCs or something like that, a community organization where you you meet new people, you kit around, you do things together, and it provides low tension opportunities to talk. If you're gonna meet people where they're at, you gotta first find out where they're at.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

And and along with with your point, Krista, about doing things you're already interested in, maybe it's something that you should be doing anyway or that's gonna be benefit you anyway. I mean, like uh doctor's been really telling me I should exercise for the last ten ten years. Well, maybe I join a gym or start going to that Zumba class or something like that. It's good for you, but even more than that, it gives you the opportunity to meet people and to be a witness in in that environment. And maybe it's that extra step, maybe maybe that extra thing of saying was like, well, I won't do this for myself, but if I'm gonna be helping love my neighbor by doing this, okay, now I'll do it. Maybe that's that's the extra little oomph push that you need.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Yeah, and you know, when you get close to people too and um develop friendships and different things too, you are just there naturally when people then go through hard times. And that is really when sometimes I I mean when I've noticed where I'm able to share a little bit more too. Just that natural conversation that comes when, oh, you know, my you know, my parent is sick or something where you can really talk to that person a little bit uh maybe on a deeper level because you've known them now a couple years through Zumba or through whatever it is that you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

You know, picking up on how to do this, a lot of times we use relationships as opportunities to grumble, to grumble about things that we don't like. Uh and and just remember that if if you're grumbling about the the headache you feel you have with your spouse, the the challenges you have with your church and so forth, don't be surprised if nobody wants to ask you the reason for the hope that you have. You're not looking all that hopeful. But when you find things that you're passionate about, if you're into collecting cars or you're into antique cars or wh whatever, or you you like different clubs, community organizations, bowling, dart ball, whatever it is that gets you to mix with other people, God has given you something that you enjoy, embrace it, to use it. But then r remember it's also been uh given to you so that it became it can be done to his glory. And so when you when you look at it, the the the mission field will be there. I think the most impacting messages, conversations I've ever had, encounters I've had has never been with large audiences, and I've had plenty of large audiences, but it's usually been one-on-one. Usually, very often, if not always, starts off kind of benign, kind of like you know, we'll talk about the weather, we'll talk about the Packers, we'll talk about you know, baseball, we'll talk about gardening, we'll talk about things that I'm I'm interested in. I've I have a very broad base of interests because I want to be able to approach people on different levels and talk to them about different things. And that's what you want to do because and then they start to start telling you and talking and unloading, and um you know, hopefully you you're there to serve.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yeah, and and I I mean I think also too, just I mean, so people kind of know too. I mean I mean, I've never had anybody, and I mean maybe I'm doing it wrong and stuff, but I've never really had anyone come and say, Krista, you know, what is the reason for the hope that you have? And but uh I mean, and and I I guess I just say that too, like as a disclaimer to people, that you know, you might not get like those words coming at you and stuff too. But don't ever discount your position as a Christian and your ability to give a witness and stuff too. Um, I mean, I'm just reminded. When I first joined mom's club too, I would go to these gift exchanges um for Christmas time. And you'd bring like a gift and then, you know, kind of those white elephant gift exchanges. Well, there was a girl who every year brought something designed for a woman's pleasure. Yeah, okay. And I always made sure that I would never get one. And and this the the reason I share this story is that it does like go to like that idea of like being in an uncomfortable situation, right? So you interact with the community, you're in an uncomfortable situation, okay. Um, and I mean I always, you know, was able to get out of getting that gift and everything. But this individual uh about four or five years into mom's club uh was diagnosed with cancer. And she um and she she had been raised Catholic, like she had a Catholic background and everything too. And uh she had it for a couple of years, and it was probably about uh maybe a good year and a half into it that I just was realizing that this was pretty severe and that this was something that really she was probably not gonna recover from. And I started just messaging her every week because Wednesdays were the days where she would have chemo. And um, and it just I just started making that like my day to to send her messages. And in my mind, I had thought, I'm gonna send her messages so that, you know, that you know, if it ever gets really bad, she'll she'll like ask me questions like about the faith I have, or you know, something like that. Or she'll ask me, you know, like how could God let this happen to me, or you know, anything like that. And um, it never it never became that. It it wasn't that. But I mean, she saw that every week I sent her a message, I would share scripture with her, I would tell her, you know, just different things. And um, and I did it up until um when she passed away eight months after that. I mean, I just I share that story just with people because I never would have met her. I mean, she was not anyone I ever would have met like outside of that group. And, you know, and and even too, I I had Christian friends like that would join the mom's club group and yeah, you get to that Christmas party. Okay, maybe they wouldn't be a part of that group anymore and stuff too. But I mean, I I really felt like God was having me in that situation to be a witness to somebody. That's just my encouragement to people too, is that sometimes you might kind of be in uncomfortable situations and have been in other uncomfortable types of things too. But um, you know, sometimes you are really the the Christian that people will see, and that if if you retreat from all of those uncomfortable situations, I mean who who are those people gonna gonna know, gonna see?

SPEAKER_00 32:45

If somebody writes and says, how inappropriate, da-da-da-da. We don't have any problem talking about some people are loveless, they don't care. You know, and we talk about some people are slanderous and you know, you get away with and see we we can talk about all that as if as if that's like a different kind of sin. The reality is that sometimes the world seems uh w I always use the phrase, always looks to spin my collar, you know. In other words, they're they're trying to get a rise out of me. And and I it goes back to when I was uh at the seminary and and in the job that I had, you know, people knew that I was going to the seminary to be a pastor, and some of them would just go out of their way to try to offend me. They would either start a joke that sounded innocent enough, and then the punchline was a real doozy, you know, and and stuff like that. And but that's where they're at. And so sometimes you have to deal with the people who don't make right choices. And and I will tell you, because we we have an organization here that deals with all sorts of people who make wrong choices, and uh when they make those wrong choices, sometimes they become the most incredible witnesses later on. I always thought it was interesting that uh Jesus picked the audience that the religious leaders automatically rejected. And uh I don't think there's a a real subtle message there. I think it's a pretty obvious message. And and it takes a lot and you sometimes have to to swallow hard and and so forth, and you know, maybe they see that it bothers you and that might even g you know give them cause to be even more indignant. But I'll tell you what leaves an impression is when the chips are down, you're there for him. And why would that be? Because you and I do this to Jesus all the time in different ways. And yet when the chips are down, he's there for us. And that's all you're doing is you're just basically reflecting Christ's love.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Responding to something that you're talking about with your story, uh, Kristen. I I'm not saying you felt this way, but I could easily imagine somebody saying, Oh man, I did all that good work there, you know, being friendly and and everything like that, and and I never got a chance to witness. I guess guess it was a failure. And you know, that can be an attitude that uh a lot of Christians can inadvertently get. It's like, well, well, if I do something, like getting out into the community, it only matters if I get to that point of a witness, or maybe even it only matters if then I get that person into church or or something like that. And it's like just remember that when you do a good thing for someone, that is a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yeah, no, it's true.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

You know, we are called to love our neighbor. You know, like like Bob was just saying, you know, um Jesus loved a lot of people that never responded with faith. But we also love, we serve our neighbor, and it's not because we're expecting something in return, it's because that's what we're that's who we are, even more than it's what we do. It's who we are. And so we we don't have to, you know, keep some running tally of, okay, well, I did this many nice things for somebody, but I only got this many people asking me about Jesus. We we don't do that. It's it's just it's not a calculation that we make. And so you love your friend, you you reach out to your friend, you help your friend because that's a loving, Christ-like thing to do. That's reward enough in itself. If you get that chance to witness to that person, if you get a chance to tell them about Jesus, that's icing on the cake. It's worth doing because it's worth doing.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Right. And you don't ever have those opportunities if you don't go out and do them. Exactly. And I think, you know, that's just I mean, maybe the point to really drive home that, you know, if if there is something that you think you can be doing in your community or something, give it a shot because just getting out and meeting more people, God will bless that.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah, and making making a difference in your community means that you have to go to the part of the community that needs a difference to be made. There there's there always does seem to be that kind of isolationist that we do as as Christians. And if there's a temptation for you that you could be drawn into sin, you you flee. You run away from that. But if there is not a temptation there, step into the lion's den. I mean, you that that becomes the mission field, and uh yeah, I I commend you for it.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Hope this episode uh did inspire you to think maybe about some of these different things. And uh if you have any questions on this topic or any others, please reach out to us at lifechallenges.us, and we look forward to having you back next time. Bye.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Life Challenges Podcast from Christian Life Resources. Please consider subscribing to this podcast, giving us a review wherever you access it, and sharing it with friends. We're sure you have questions on today's topic or other life issues. Our goal is to help you through these tough topics, and we want you to know we're here to help. You can submit your questions as well as comments or suggestions for future episodes at lifechallenges.us or email us at podcast at Christian Life Resources.com. In addition to the podcast, we include other valuable information at lifechallenges.us, so be sure to check it out. For more about our parent organization, please visit Christianlife Resources.com. May God give you wisdom, love, strength, and peace in Christ for every life challenge.