A Simple Method for Making New Disciples
I felt a bit of a kinship with Pastor Sam, or P. Sam as his congregation calls him. He’s a church planter like me. He’s a fourth generation pastor. So like me, he grew up as a PK, a perfect kid. No, it stands for “pastor’s kid.” His dad is also retired, and like me, much of what he knows in ministry is from first watching his dad.
Unlike me, he said his dad is quite the SOB…son of a bishop, that is. P. Sam’s grandfather was a bishop of the Methodist church in Korea. As a preacher he was incredibly powerful. As a bishop he was scary; he was very strict in his episcopal leadership. But to P. Sam, he was just his grandfather whom he loved, who would sneak ice cream with him.
His great-grandfather was the first generation pastor in this family. Somewhere around 1902 he heard the gospel message, gave his heart and life to Jesus, and spent the rest of his life spreading this good news.
Originally, his great-grandfather was a fur trader on the peninsula of Korea. After hearing the gospel message, he still continued his fur trade. His specialty was selling fur-lined clothing because of how cold it can get in the winter.
His great-grandfather had acquired a phonograph. For those who are younger, a phonograph was an early sound-reproducing machine invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. After improvements in the early years, it played vinyl “records.” That was the dominant audio format throughout most of the twentieth century until tapes, CDs, and now digital formats took over.
Somehow, twenty-five years after it was invented in America, P. Sam’s great-grandfather acquired a phonograph in Korea. It was all encased in one box. It had a lid, a horn that pushed out to the side, and a crank to turn. His great-grandfather had only one record to play.
At the end of a long day of fur trading, he’d go to the center of the market place, unpack the phonograph, put that record on, crank it up, and put the needle on the record. He’d sit down on the lid, take out a pipe and smoke, and let the music come out of this magic box that no one had ever seen before.
And a crowd would form.
He’d let the needle go until it hit the end of the record. If you’re old enough you remember that sound when the needle runs out of grooves and hits the end of the record. Then he’d take the needle off, look at the crowd, and share the love story of Jesus. Then he’d invite people to follow Jesus and, amazingly, people actually said yes to that invitation.
P. Sam said he was struck by the simplicity of method from this one story of his great-grandfather. All he did was get people’s attention, share the love story of Jesus, and invite others to follow.
We tend to make things more complex than they need to be. Simple things change the world!
The question is, Salem, how do we, how could we, how will we simply get people’s attention, share the love story of Jesus with them, and invite them to follow? That’s our mission, should you choose to accept it.
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