Update #3 - The Louisville Slugger

Well, Alan is now beginning to complain that I get all of the interesting days to write about, which I'm not sure is a fair assessment of the situation after yesterday's conversation in Lexington, but I will confess that there is no lack of material to be had, even on a "down" day. However, after my last two massive posts, I'm going to be more selective of what stories I tell (not that I'm apologizing too much, mind you). So here are some of today's highlights:

Church

Seeing as how we're on an evangelistic sort of trip, it only seemed right to find a church to attend on Sunday, especially when we were being guided by the good advice of my former roommate and our current host. So, we woke up this morning to scrounge around for the best clothes that we had (wrinkled slacks, for me) before heading off to Crestwood Baptist Church. Truthfully slacks, wrinkled or not, were more than sufficient for the atmosphere, which was not too rigorous on the dress code. This should have been my first tip that I had stepped into a church different from my typical fare, but it wasn't until the music minister began to lead the congregation in song that I knew for certain I had left Kansas behind.

In truth, I'm typically uncomfortable with this sort of service, not because I have any sort of theological qualms with it, but just because I often leave feeling that the people leading the service are being disingenuous; there's alot of Jesus talk, but it doesn't seem to get much beyond that. Behind the big, huge smiles and sweeping gestures, there often seems to be no real substance. I sat back and waited to reach the same conclusion, but when the pastor got up to preach, I was in for something very different: sure, he spoke a little louder and there was nothing great or earth shattering in his teaching (which was that we should use the clearer parts of Scripture to help us interpret the more difficult areas of the Bible), but it was a solid sermon on every level. The theology was there, the belief in Biblical authority, the reliance on God and his mercy, the grounding of the sermon in Biblical text - this was sound Christian teaching.

Because of this, I left church this morning feeling more energized and encouraged than I've felt after church in quite awhile. Some would say that it's because the worship style gave me this feeling or because I must not go to a very good church, but both of these accusations would be very false; I attend a wonderful church and I'm looking forward to being back there as soon as I can. No, this was something much more fundamental - it was simply the joy that I found in my proximity to other believers. It struck me somewhere in the middle of the pastor's sermon how wonderful it was to be sitting in a room where everyone believed the same things I did. After even a couple of days of engaging people and constantly having to wonder where someone was coming from and even being skeptical of them when they seemed to agree with me, it was oh-so-nice to be in a place where I could listen to sound Christian teaching and not second guess the pastor's sincerity. In some sense, all of these people whom I had never met had a more fundamental understanding of me than so many of the people we might spend hours engaging. It was a unique feeling, and one that I think Christians can only understand when they have spent some time, no matter how short, seriously engaging the world. I think I began to understand Megan's excitement at finding fellow Christians from a couple of days before.

Alan Plays the Atheist

Yes, it's true, Alan was an "atheist" for a little while this afternoon. This was actually a tactic that we had designed well before we left on our trip, but it did not actually find it's way into our practice until today. Walking up to the Ohio River observation platform in downtown Louisville, Alan and I had decided it was time for a different, potentially bolder maneuver. While we were mulling over what to do, I leaned over to Alan and quietly said, "Just roll with whatever I say," and we took it from there.

I began engaging Alan on how he could call the view we had in front of us "beautiful," as if we were picking up a previous conversation. Alan caught the gist of where I was headed quickly and began trying to justify "beauty" from an atheistic perspective; I think he may have done a decent job, but truly, I wasn't listening very well, so I'm not sure. Rather, I was looking for an opening to engage with someone else without much success.

We kept the conversation going for quite awhile until I finally saw my chance and approached a family lounging in one of the deck's corners: "My friend and I have been having a bit of a disagreement, and I wanted to see if you could help us out. You see, we've been arguing over what happens to people when they die and we wanted your opinion; what do you think? What happens to you when you die?" The answers were mixed, but eventually they concluded that there was a heaven and a hell, but sometimes you had to believe this blindly and other times there appeared to be evidence for it; sometimes we just had to "agree to disagree," other times Alan's soul was valuable enough to continue the conversation; but almost all times, you simply had to be a "good person" to get to heaven, so they all concluded that Alan was probably in either way.

Intensely frustrated that they had sided (marginally) with me since I was the "heaven/hell" side, I knew that I could not now turn and engage them directly. Thankfully, Alan also knew this, so he steered the conversation in a direction where I could address the issue without making it sound like I was addressing them directly: "Now wait just a second! That's not what you were telling me earlier, Michael! They say that you just have to be a 'good person' to get to heaven, so I don't even need to believe in God! Is that true?"

"Well, yes and no, I suppose. Because, you see, if anyone were good, they could make it to heaven, but the problem is that none of us are. What is it that Jesus says? 'If you've ever even looked on a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart;' 'if you've even thought about killing you brother, you've murdered him in your heart.' No, we're all in trouble under those rules. That's why we have to throw ourselves on God's mercy, because if we don't, then we're in serious trouble."

They seemed intrigued and Alan seemed satisfied, so we said our goodbyes and walked off, still continuing our mock conversation.

The Louisville Slugger

Finally after our mixed successes on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, Alan and I decided to experiment with a new sort of tactic, one that we found it appropriate to dub the "Louisville Slugger." This is because the tactic was designed to go straight to the heart of the issue by modifying EE's methods. The result: drive-by evangelism.

We got about five of the $1 KJV's (sadly) that we had ready for action. This involved dog-earing John 3 and then circling verses 16-18 (grace and judgement side by side). Then we would find a person off by themselves (bus stops were the ideal locations), drive up, and ask them what would happen if they died tonight. From a story-tellers point of view, the results were amazing and from a Christian's point of view, the results remain to be seen but were encouraging.

Alan addressed our first victim: "If you died tonight do you know where you'd go?"

"Yeah," he said dejectedly, "Hell."

"Really? Why do you think that?"

"I've done alot of s*** in my life, man," our friend explained.

"But that's the beauty of the Gospel! You're never beyond hope! God's grace is for anyone no matter what they've done." ("That's right, brother!" an elderly gentleman said near our car who was now approaching with great interest and enthusiasm) "Here. Can you read? We marked a page for you in here. Read 3:16-18 on that page we marked," Alan said, tossing him the Bible. As we drove off we saw the older gentlemen approaching our friend on the bus stop bench, clearly planning to continue the conversation. How wonderful!

Next was my turn. We approached a group of three walkers and I rolled down the window and began my question: "Sir, if you died tonight, do you know what would happen?" Surprised, the gentleman I'd addressed looked my way. "No, I haven't got a clue. No idea," he said in a thick English accent; that made two of us surprised. "Well don't you think it would be a good idea to find out? Here. Read John 3:16-18," I said, tossing him the Bible. "We've got it marked in there for you." He took it from me and we saw him and his wife looking it over as we drove off. We passed them later and they still had it in their hands.

As we drove off, it struck us that he had had a brief look of panic on his face when I went to toss him the Bible, and it occurred to us that he might have thought I was toting something a little less benign than a Bible! I think he was more than pleasantly relieved to be tossed a book, which gave us more than one good laugh later. Note to self: don't follow questions about death up with asking people if they want to find out what happens!

The other stories from these experiences abound, but I simply cannot relate them all here. If I did, you would be here reading for the next year (or, more probably, not at all)! But trust me when I say that there is more - much, much more - to be said. But enough for one night! I went longer even than intended already!

--Michael Taunton