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Within a few days, I personally received two very different and very interesting evaluations of our efforts in the community in which I was working at the time. Both were from women who were not members of the church. I want to share them with you.
The first was from a woman who came into my study very upset with me in particular, and with the whole church in general, because I had taken a position on a community issue with which she disagreed. She was judging the whole church by how awful she thought I was, of course. (I never did get around to telling her that some of our people are even worse than I! At that point, I am sure she would not have believed me anyway.) She very angrily stated, “The church of Christ runs this town. I never heard of the church of Christ before I moved here, but it runs this town.”
I said that I thought she was mistaken, since at the time we didn’t have any of our people on the school board, on the city council, or serving as a county commissioner. However, I also commented that if I thought it were true, I would thank God for it. I’ll have to admit we’re doing our best to find some way to influence every resident in the county.
About a week after the above-described occurrence, I received a phone call. The lady who called said she had planned to write me a letter but would just tell me by phone. She said, “I am not a member of the church of Christ, I am a _______. But I want you to know that the church of Christ is the only church in this town that really cares about people and that is really trying to serve our town.” This lady didn’t know about the statement made by the lady who visited me earlier.
Isn’t it interesting how different people respond to the same stimuli? The Pentecostians were “pricked in their heart” by the Gospel, resulting in their obedience to Christ (Acts 2:37–41). Stephen’s audience was “cut to the heart” by the Gospel and they stoned him to death (7:54–60). Both viewpoints by these respective ladies indicate one thing: we are making an impact on the people around us. Some see it as a blessing; others see it as a curse.
[Note: I wrote this article for, and it was published in the Granbury Gospel, weekly bulletin of the Granbury Church of Christ, Granbury, TX, April 29, 1976, of which I was editor.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
