I keep finding ways to have coffee with some of the greatest leaders around. First it was coffee with Craig Groeschel. (You did know he’s blogging now, right?)
Today it was coffee with Andy Stanley. (I don’t know if he’s blogging or not, but I do know he responds to blogs sometimes.)
Anyway, you’d think that since I’d gone to the trouble and spent my hard-earned money to buy Andy’s book, just so I could have coffee with him this morning, that he’d nice enough to not haul off and punch me right in the gut!
But he didn’t think twice about doing it!
Here’s where he did it…(long book excerpt warning)…
What if you had a sixteen-year-old son who said he was coming to church one last time and then he was packing up and hitting the road for good. And what if in the middle of the night and angel appeared and said, “You can reach the heart of your son if you do exactly what I tell you. Go into your attic and find his old box of Legos. On Sunday, preach a message around this one point: Christ came to build a bridge to the disconnected. The entire time you are preaching you are to construct a bridge using his Legos.” I know it’s far-fetched. However, I also know that somebody reading this book is going to find some Legos and build a bridge next Sunday.
If that really happened to you, I feel confident that you would not respond by saying, “I can’t do that in my church, it would require moving the pulpit.” If you really believed that getting way outside your comfort zone on a Sunday morning would reach your teenage son, you would do it. If you wouldn’t, there are probably other books you should be reading.
Now please don’t miss this. Next Sunday, somebody’s prodigal son or daughter may slip into the back of your auditorium to give the God thing one last try. And it could very well be that somewhere in your town there is a mom or dad praying like crazy that something significant would happen in the heart of their child. I know you would be willing to do some new and possibly unusual things to reach your own son or daughter. What would you be willing to do to reach someone else’s? (Communicating for a Change, p. 176-177)
WOW! And OUCH! Thanks for the coffee, Andy. And thanks for the punch in the gut.
Now if we can only remember what the punch in gut felt like this morning – and do whatever it takes – whatever it takes! – to communicate the powerful, life-changing message in powerful, life-changing ways!