Today, I went and visited the national conference of Church Resource Ministries (CRM). A good friend of mine (Hey.. Andy Silk...luv ya man) works for CRM as a missionary photographer/videographer. I went to check out CRM and see if I could partner with its efforts to develop the next generation of leaders. I have to keep on praying. But there may be a fit there for me to help develop resources and materials to equip emerging leaders.
Anyway, one of the guys that I met from CRM (Charlie Johnson) talked with me about being connected to the world and not living in a Christian bubble. He called it being mission minded. He said that one of the questions that he asks Christians is, "How many people who are programmed into your cell phone are non-Christians? And how frequently do they call you?" That question really hit me right in the gut. Most of the people on my cell phone are Christians. I have known for a while that I am no where near as connected with the "outside" world as I ought to be. When I was in college, I hung out with a lot of non-Christians. The same thing was true when I lived in KC and worked in the corporate world. But ever since returning to VA, I have spent most of my time with professed Christians. Much of that has been with youth or emerging young adult leaders. But still, am I really modeling a godly lifestyle when I am not actively engaging non-Christians as friends? I don't want to seek out non-Christians to fulfill some kind of quota or make me feel good about myself. But then again, I don't want to live in a bubble either.
I am going to pray about how to connect with some people who don't know Jesus. Hopefully, I can soon start adding some numbers to my cell phone.
