Building

I missed blogging last week because I was on a mission trip to Puerto Rico. I did not have access to the internet down there most of the time except on my phone and I am not sure I would enjoy typing something up from my phone.
Now I am back and we have been focusing on what we can learn from the David Kinnaman book UnChristian. This book shares some of the views that young people (between the ages of 16-29) outside of Christianity have of us as Christians. One view they have is that Christians just want to get converts. They have felt that Christians are just out to get bigger numbers for the membership roles or to get a notch in their belt.
This view has been propelled by evangelists who have very professional presentations. Young people see this as marketing tricks to get people to "buy" their product. This view also becomes real for young people when they are abandoned by Christians once they turn down an offer to attend church or a Bible study. They feel written off and as if the Christian did not really care about them. The main concern of young outsiders is that they want Christians to genuinely care about them and not just try to convert them.
I do not want to just give you more gimmicks or a to-do list on how to share your faith. I just want to encourage you to build relationships with people outside the Christian faith. Not in order to convert them, but because they are a child of God.
While in Puerto Rico I was reminded of this calling to build relationships. We had two projects to be done by our group in my mind. Half of the group was going to work with some kids; do crafts, sing songs, teach a lesson. That group was going to build relationships. My group was there for work projects. We repaired two church roofs, painted, moved a wall, replaced 31 shutter cranks and a few other things
A couple of days in Puerto Rico our hosts wanted to take us site seeing or to visit a ministry and inside I was frustrated. I wanted to get the work done. If we did not have those distractions we could get more work done. My mind was not on building relationships.
However, God kept calming me down until I finally realized that this trip was about building relationships and not work projects. Sure the work was nice, but I need to take my time to get to know these new friends. One night I had a chance to sit and chat with one of these new friends and I learned so much from that talk. God reminded me to slow down and take the time to ask questions and hear someone's story.
My prayer for you and for me is that this lesson will not just be for mission trips, but everyday. That every day I will take the time to slow down and get to know someone instead of just working on projects. People are not projects, they are loved children of God. They are our brothers and sisters and God wants us to get to know them and care about them. God also wants us to share our faith with them as we build that relationship. This is not to just convert them, but it is to let them know about something that has changed our lives and it could change theirs if they want.
So let's keep building what is important, relationships.