Smart Move

It is nothing to look at from the outside, just a shop front, in a poor neighbourhood, with faded looking curtains framing a window, and a door. A very welcoming door. I had not been in that part of town for many years, even though it is the town of my birth. It had, and may still have, a reputation of being a tough place, housing some tough characters.

I was asked to meet someone there to discuss the launch of a town wide, one stop website for some twelve places of worship. It was a vision explained with some passion, and it was not difficult to see the worth of the venture. There are towns up and down our country where churches seem to always be on the back foot, frantically trying to keep up with falling interest, and matching income. It becomes a spiral of survival. Fewer worshippers means smaller offerings, which in turn means doing less with the little you have.

The vision is spearheaded by an enthusiastic lady who, by her own confession, knows little of the website business, but that has not stopped her from charging ahead with a dream she believes in, and it is contagious. Unwittingly, it also goes by another name, ‘leadership’. My meeting lasted an hour, some 30 minutes longer than planned, and I was only one of twelve volunteers who had to be met and fed the vision. I left with a belief that this vision could be realised, and maybe even used by people outwith our own local church group, to let us know we are not alone in the town. There are others who share this same gospel of Jesus Christ and also want to spread the good news.

On my way from the office meeting, I met two others who didn’t seem to be very busy. I asked what they did there, and with smiles they said they were there to all hours, just being available to the youth in the area if and when they were needed. No pressure, no hard sell, just a faith looking for an outlet and maybe, just maybe, making a difference in some young person’s choices. Who knows, but that one encounter might make an eternal difference. They were not ministers or professional social workers, only volunteers saved by grace, and making themselves available if they should be needed. And they make a good cup of coffee.

I left the little shop feeling a lot different than when I got there an hour before. I felt stirred that there are others ‘out there’ in the community, willing and able to help share their faith, not in a nice cosy church setting, but where the need was. It was, and is, a Smart Move and we should be grateful it is there, tucked away in that part of town where no one except the residents want to enter. I left with a fresh idea of evangelism at work. It wasn’t fancy, just real and sometimes effective between making cups of coffee and tea, and providing a listening ear with Godly advice. Smart Move indeed, and may God Bless the work in this little part of God’s Kingdom!