radical John

One way to get a church moving is to be involved in the lives of people outside your congregation.  Mission trips are great, but for those that aren’t ready to go, you can “spiritually adopt” someone who  has gone.  Like Radical John:

 

Faith on the Field

“Imagine if you didn’t have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

What do you do if the visiting high school football team comes without fans, without parents, without a cheering section?  Would you send half your parents to sit on the other side and cheer for the other team?

Rick Reilly has an article about a game in Texas where this happened.  Grapevine Faith, a Christian High School, hosted Gainesville State School, and more than just made them feel welcome.  “For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.”

Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan, knew the  14 Gainesville players were serving time in a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas.  He also knew few people showed them any kindness.  They traveled handcuffs with 12 security guards.  People avoided them.  They themselves expected no kindness.

Instead, Hogan called some of his parents and asked them to make a demonstration that would tell the kids they still mattered to tell them “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”

He put in players from the 3rd string to make sure the visitors scored some points, ending the game with a respectable loss (33-14), enough to give their coach a squirt-bottle victory shower!

And as the boys walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

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Read the full article at ESPN.com

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Now that you’ve read, what opportunities will you look for to show the love of Jesus in extraordinary ways?