Introductions

When you are out and about (finding opportunities to invite someone to church no doubt) you have to master the art of introduction. Introduction is that first and often awkward moment when you connect either yourself or someone with you to another human being.   This connection is often accomplished with some sort of context that allows for both the reason and circumstances of the introduction.   For instance I often meet new people at church and introduce myself as Pastor Chris Henderson. They usually have figured that out if I am meeting them after church, but sometimes it is before church and they don’t know me from the cable repair guy. By including my position, title, calling, or whatever other descriptor you want to use to understand what it means to be Pastor, they have an indication of who I am.

Often I am with my wife so I will say this is my wife Susan. By introducing her in this way, we hope that the guests meeting us for the first time will understand the unity we have in perusing the call of Christ on our lives, and the commitment we have made to the church and ministry. Of course there are other things that I could use to introduce her that would be completely ineffective. 

For instance I could say, “This is Susan she has really cool dance moves.” I will confess I have not yet tried this one (which explains my continuing to breath normally). One could imagine an instance where it would work out really well. The person might say “Really, me too” and then right there in the lobby of the church they have a dance off. It could be epic! More probably they (and Susan) would just look at me with a very confused look while their eyes are rapidly simultaneously locating their children and the exits. While this might be a somewhat odd example, I wonder if sometimes we don’t introduce God in equally bizarre ways.   We probably don’t mean to, but still we do it.

Having already considered bizarre trivia as an ineffective introduction method, consider the person who introduces God by telling someone about all the things that God is against. Even if it is true, I can’t imagine anyone really wanting that to be the first impression that someone has of them. We don’t often get to introduce God to someone who knows nothing about Him. Most probably have some sort of first impressions of Him from the experience of their life and living in this country. It may be positive or negative, but your introduction of Him might actually say more about you than Him.

Have you considered how you introduce God? Maybe we should. This week we will take a look at how God introduces Himself and there find some encouragement in the way we introduce Him to others.

See you at the dance off,

 Pastor Chris