A few months back I was in the gym trying my best to lift heavy, or not so heavy, weights as the case may be. As I came to the bench press, I had a quick look at the program on my phone, saw that the weight was 40Kg and quickly stuck two 20Kg weights onto the bar. If you are into the gym you will of course realise that the bar itself weighs 20Kg and there I was trying to bench press 60Kg instead of 40Kg. Needless to say, I managed 1 rep before becoming trapped with the bar on my chest……no laughing now!
The gym was empty apart from one other guy, who amidst the laughing, came and rescued me. This incident has sparked the beginning of a friendship and we frequently chat in the gym, all built around this shared experience of me being trapped by my own stupidity.
The other day I was in the gym with a CVM t-shirt on when I bumped into the same guy. After a few minutes chat and another laugh at my incident he asked about my t-shirt and what it was. I explained that I was a Christian and what CVM was and my role with them.
This prompted the response “All the Christians I see on TV are weird but you seem normal!” following this up he explained that by on TV he meant in soaps!
We then proceeded to have a great conversation about how I became a Christian, how Jesus saves and transforms people and finally a discussion around his misconceptions of church. After chatting for around 30 minutes or so, he asked me to bring him some additional information that he could read and of course I have invited him to the men’s ministry stuff at church.
Upon reflection on this it has reinforced in my mind how well the CVM 4 level evangelism strategy works – make some mates, introduce Jesus into the conversation, tell them loads more and finally see them become committed.
Each of us has these opportunities each and everyday and I want to encourage you to seize the moments when they occur. People are genuinely seeking and are open to hearing more. We don’t need to be theological experts either, all of us have a story about how we met and were transformed by Jesus to share.
We are all challenged to be ready to give an answer to those who ask in 1 Peter 3:15
‘But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect’.
Image credit: Photo by Pascal / CC BY 1.0
