I guess by testimony just about the Lord asking me to open a Christian bookstore for Him is more like a book, but that is the way our life with Jesus Christ is like, is it not - going from glory to glory. And that is probably the reason behind the Lord asking me to write on this and keep doing so. Therefore there can be no shortage of testimonies, right? But does it not seem like there is a shortage of testimonies - and I am not just taking about on this forum but also when just talking to other Christians at church too.
I mean I go to church and if I talk to others, the conversation goes to how the latest football games went down, or how we feel about the politics of today. Maybe there is some conversations about our children, but testimonies about what the Lord is doing in our lives seems not to be what is normally talked about. Anyway, let me keep going.
The Lord told me some of the purposes that He had for having me open the store. Some were more general in context, but some were more specific. In general He wanted the bookstore to help bring His churches together. And one of the ways He wanted me to do that was to get a number of the really small churches together for an outreach at a small local park.
There were over 130 Christian churches in town with about 130,000 people, and most people in town probably did not attend a church. So there were a lot of little Christian churches between 50 and a couple of hundred people. Of course I just had a very small Christian bookstore and without hardly any sales, and not even making enough to cover my fixed expenses, I was working for free. Money doesn't last long that way, Never-the-Less, the Lord wanted me to get together some small churches for an outreach. So I started trying to check into it.
Let me just say that there wasn't much interest. There wasn't much interest. It turns out that Christian churches don't really take to doing things with other Christian churches all that well, and this outreach stuff was not my forte! I needed some help and told the Lord so. He in turn brought in a couple of interesting guys into the store one day.
One was kind of an older prison paster. I am not sure it was something official, but he at least considered that his ministry and had been at it a while. The other was a younger man who played Christian music, and had been involved in some small Christian outreaches before. The two just randomly walked into the store together one day and we got to talking. So I told them about what the Lord was telling me. I liked them, because they both understood about hearing the Lord speak to you via His small voice. And so it was organized, with their help.
It was going to be very small, because the city would allow us to use the park for a small fee, but they limited the number of people that could be there. If it exceeded too many people, and we are not taking many, I think it was no more that 50 or a 100 people, so how can we keep it small and still do it. It pretty much meant no advertising it, and hope the word of mouth didn't make it big.
Perhaps the two biggest problems was getting churches, even small one, to get involved, and the fact that we didn't have electricity at the park. So the biggest single expense turned out to be a portable generator for the younger man who played Christian music. From talking to the Lord, He was saying that generator was also going to be the most valuable thing, because it was going to let that young man perform in other places in the future. The Lord makes sense. He was not just thinking about a single event, but what He could get out of it in the future. So, a generator was purchased and the park rented, and we went about getting some help from some small churches.
Sadly, it kind of felt like we put some pleasure on some of the churches, but it we did get that little outreach going. The young man played some music, then we got a couple of churches to get some of their musicians to play a while to, and a couple of pastors agree to say a few words. We had some donuts and coffee, and not too many people came so the people listening we not too many. So did any good come out of it?
The kids that lived next to the park came out to see what was going on and bunch of them came forward at the request of one of the pastors in town and accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and some of the small churches talked to each other. I didn't do much, because I still had to open the store and run it much of the day. I did get my mom to come by for a bit so I was able to be there at the start, finish, and a little in the middle.
So was it worth it? The Lord once told me, "Karl, if souls could be bought how much would I be willing to pay for them? A planet or a star?"
Ok - maybe it was worth a planet and a few stars?
It didn't seem like much, but I guess I felt pretty good and accomplishing even that small outreach that Lord asked me to go.
I mean I go to church and if I talk to others, the conversation goes to how the latest football games went down, or how we feel about the politics of today. Maybe there is some conversations about our children, but testimonies about what the Lord is doing in our lives seems not to be what is normally talked about. Anyway, let me keep going.
The Lord told me some of the purposes that He had for having me open the store. Some were more general in context, but some were more specific. In general He wanted the bookstore to help bring His churches together. And one of the ways He wanted me to do that was to get a number of the really small churches together for an outreach at a small local park.
There were over 130 Christian churches in town with about 130,000 people, and most people in town probably did not attend a church. So there were a lot of little Christian churches between 50 and a couple of hundred people. Of course I just had a very small Christian bookstore and without hardly any sales, and not even making enough to cover my fixed expenses, I was working for free. Money doesn't last long that way, Never-the-Less, the Lord wanted me to get together some small churches for an outreach. So I started trying to check into it.
Let me just say that there wasn't much interest. There wasn't much interest. It turns out that Christian churches don't really take to doing things with other Christian churches all that well, and this outreach stuff was not my forte! I needed some help and told the Lord so. He in turn brought in a couple of interesting guys into the store one day.
One was kind of an older prison paster. I am not sure it was something official, but he at least considered that his ministry and had been at it a while. The other was a younger man who played Christian music, and had been involved in some small Christian outreaches before. The two just randomly walked into the store together one day and we got to talking. So I told them about what the Lord was telling me. I liked them, because they both understood about hearing the Lord speak to you via His small voice. And so it was organized, with their help.
It was going to be very small, because the city would allow us to use the park for a small fee, but they limited the number of people that could be there. If it exceeded too many people, and we are not taking many, I think it was no more that 50 or a 100 people, so how can we keep it small and still do it. It pretty much meant no advertising it, and hope the word of mouth didn't make it big.
Perhaps the two biggest problems was getting churches, even small one, to get involved, and the fact that we didn't have electricity at the park. So the biggest single expense turned out to be a portable generator for the younger man who played Christian music. From talking to the Lord, He was saying that generator was also going to be the most valuable thing, because it was going to let that young man perform in other places in the future. The Lord makes sense. He was not just thinking about a single event, but what He could get out of it in the future. So, a generator was purchased and the park rented, and we went about getting some help from some small churches.
Sadly, it kind of felt like we put some pleasure on some of the churches, but it we did get that little outreach going. The young man played some music, then we got a couple of churches to get some of their musicians to play a while to, and a couple of pastors agree to say a few words. We had some donuts and coffee, and not too many people came so the people listening we not too many. So did any good come out of it?
The kids that lived next to the park came out to see what was going on and bunch of them came forward at the request of one of the pastors in town and accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and some of the small churches talked to each other. I didn't do much, because I still had to open the store and run it much of the day. I did get my mom to come by for a bit so I was able to be there at the start, finish, and a little in the middle.
So was it worth it? The Lord once told me, "Karl, if souls could be bought how much would I be willing to pay for them? A planet or a star?"
Ok - maybe it was worth a planet and a few stars?
It didn't seem like much, but I guess I felt pretty good and accomplishing even that small outreach that Lord asked me to go.