Carl DeLine

Question: Who are the people in your life, from your religious experience, that have left positive lasting impressions?

There is no shortage of social issues or church mandates to grab our attention. Simply turn on the television and you will see umpteen groups wanting to serve and save Haiti, feed children in all parts of the world, do hospital work, educate, create a way for people to have clean water, send shoe boxes of presents… the list goes on. How will you and your church respond?

Open the newspaper, go online or pick up a magazine and churches—thousands of them—are there to tell you that they are the true church, the true followers of Jesus Christ. Somewhere along the line, for any one person to come to grips with this massive identity crisis of the church in society, each person needs to create a filter that will be helpful. I suggest to you that the filter is right in front of you.

Question: Who are the people in your life, from your religious experience, that have left positive lasting impressions? What have they done that causes you to say “I want to serve Christ”? I want to make a difference in showing God’s love to those around me. I will make a difference. These are the people who by their actions will have lain the groundwork for you. They are the ones who have helped you to understand the direction for you to go while you develop an outreach perspective in your life and church.

List seven such people, then tell a story of how they communicated this perspective to you, then list the value this story represents to you.