negative buoyancy

-by Christy Fitzwater

In Hawaii I floated on the surface with my little snorkel and watched divers swim deeper than I could see. 

According to Wikepedia, “Divers wear weighting systems…generally made of lead, to counteract the buoyancy of other diving equipment, such as diving suits and aluminum diving cylinders.”  Without lead weights a diver never gets below the surface. 

I watched Jesus put on a conversational weight belt. 

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ 

“The Samaritan woman asked him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?’  (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’”  (John 4:7-10) 

From a request for a drink to talking about God.  Surface talk to deep waters in 60 seconds.  Wow. 

What if…. 

What if I could do that in every conversation with someone new?  Snorkel talk and then with one weighty sentence going spiritually deep. 

How do you dive a conversation from banter to talking about God with one sentence?

stone cold

-by Christy Fitzwater
I came home after the Easter morning brunch and drove past four homes on my street before I got to mine.   

All of a sudden it struck me that most of my neighbors were outside.  One mowing.  A few kids playing basketball.  Did they go to an Easter service somewhere?  I doubted it.  But I didn’t know. 

For 10 years I’ve driven by my neighbor’s homes, and I don’t even know all of their names, let alone their spiritual condition.  How could I live by them for so long and not care?  What is wrong with my heart?

Peter says the Lord “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentence.”  (2 Peter 3:9  NIV) 

Everyone.   

God cares about the spiritual condition of every single neighbor I drive past, every Town Pump cashier, every Little Caesar’s cook, every hairdresser, every bank teller. 

Can I be really, really honest?  My heart feels indifferent toward these people most of the time.  I go right by them without giving them a thought.   

I’m on a personal mission to change that by doing two things.  First, I’m learning names.  Diane and Jackie work at the bank.  Kristi and Vickie work at Town Pump.  Christina sells me pizza.  Butch is the elderly man who lives two doors down.  I’ve purposefully learned all of these names in the last few weeks. 

Second, I’m praying.  Praying God will put the same feeling in my heart that he has for these peoples.   

Will you do those two things this week?  Learn some names and pray for a heart change? 

Get me outta here.

-by Christy Fitzwater

Everyone I know is a disciple of Jesus.

Which could explain why I’ve been struggling with sharing my faith.  I work from home, and my husband is a pastor.  My life is home-church-home-church.  All my friends have a relationship with Jesus already.

The church is such a noble place to invest one’s time, but I need to get out more.  I was trying to think of who I could tell about Jesus, and the only two names I could come up with were of the lady I buy milk from at the gas station in the early morning hours and of the girl I buy Little Caesar’s pizza from every Thursday night.  (Perhaps a sad commentary on my homemaking skills.) 

This morning I’m asking God, where can I go to get my life involved with people who need to know you? 

In T4T:  A discipleship ReRevolution, Steve Smith says, “Before, when I pastored the church, we said to people, ‘Welcome, our door is open.’  We prayed for people to come.  But Jesus said, ‘Go!’  It is very difficult to invite people to come.  People don’t know what your church is; they don’t know you.  They don’t know anything.  It’s very difficult to get people to come.  But Jesus said, ‘Go!’  I was wrong.  Instead of inviting people to come, I needed to go out and find them, to touch them, to talk to them.”  (Pg. 48) 

Our church has commissioning services for groups who go out to share the good news.  I regularly walk up to pray for these groups as they sit on the stairs at the front of the sanctuary.  I pray God will use them to share the good news of the Kingdom of God.  Groups going to Czech Republic, Haiti, Heart Butte, China, Mexico, Brazil, Washington… 

I think it’s time for me to sit on the stairs.  It’s time for me to say I’m going somewhere to tell people about Jesus.  Time for someone to pray that God will use me to spread his Kingdom news.  Except I don’t want to go far.  Just next door maybe.  Or to my hairdresser.  I need to find me a bunch of people here in my own town who desperately need Jesus.

Can you list 10 people you have a relationship with who need to know Jesus?  If not, where will you go to find some?

are we good hosts?

-by Kayla Nostrum 

Recently I had the opportunity to take a short road trip to Missoula with a few friends. While there we decided we would like to visit a church, so I jumped on my laptop to find just the right one. The first one to pop up caught my attention -River City Church. We decided to try it out.   

I have to admit, as Sunday morning approached I was excited but a little nervous. I don’t care how seasoned of a churchgoer you are, stepping into an unfamiliar environment can be very intimidating. As we entered the building, thoughts flooded my mind.  What did we get ourselves into?! 

I was pleasantly surprised as we were greeted by a very friendly gentleman who pointed us in the right direction. As we crossed the threshold to their meeting place, we were greeted immediately by another man and were directed to a table of cookies and coffee. When we finally took our seats we were greeted by at least two more people who were quick to tell us what they believed and how excited they were that we were joining them for worship.  

Let me tell you…being greeted like that made me feel 100 times more comfortable to express myself in worship. I felt comfortable and wanted. If that weren’t enough, as we were leaving we were chased down by a lady who said, “Wait, I didn’t get to meet you guys yet!” I came home wanting to tell everyone and their brother about that church!   

In my own church, I often have caught myself making sure someone new is at least welcomed by someone, and then I mark that person off my list as taken care of, making no effort to meet the person myself.   

We all want people who are far from God to come to our church, but do we take good care of them when they do take a risk and walk through the door?

we're not working on commission

-by Christy Fitzwater

My daughter and I sat on an airplane a while ago, and I worked up the courage to start a conversation with the woman next to me.  It went poorly because, well, I had an agenda.  I was determined to tell her about Jesus.  The conversation practically ended in an argument with her about some of the things she believed. 

Later I admitted to my daughter that I knew my conversation with the woman went horribly.  I asked her what she thought I could have said differently. 

“You could have asked her name” she said. 

This observation forced all the air out of my lungs. 

Her name. 

I had been acting the salesman trying to earn commission for convincing this lady to follow Jesus, which put me in the position of trying to gain something for myself instead of caring only about the welfare of the woman. 

I’m ashamed that I have to call her “the woman” because I never learned her name. 

Do you approach a person with an agenda or because you really care about him or her?