You accept an invite to come along to church with a friend.
You find the people friendly.
You come back a second week.
You end up having dinner with the friendly people after.
You miss a week.
You come back for a third time.
You actually found the sermon interesting.
You hear about [insert evangelistic course name here] that the church is running.
You sign up and attend the [insert evangelistic course name here]
You begin to see how Jesus & Christianity seems to make sense of the world.
You get a bible given to you from your friend.
You understand more of the sermons preached at Church.
You miss a week at church to go to family dinner.
You read the bible most days.
You tell your friend who brought you first to church: ‘I prayed for the first time this week… I can’t believe how much sense Jesus makes, thanks so much for bringing me along to church’
You choose to join a mid week bible study group.
You love Jesus.
You get thrown a curve ball at work, its really stressful.
You love Jesus but realising the more life needs to change.
You’ve been coming to church for 4 months now.
You don’t even care now the taunts from your family that you are ‘a good church goer now’.
You don’t feel like you are chasing after something when you drink, you just drink a glass now because it’s refreshing.
You realise the way you have been living for the last 29 years has had the wrong focus all these years.
You know of the freedom that comes with being a ‘child of God’. You now the love and security that only can come from God.
You keep finding amazing things while reading the bible and have heaps of questions.
You get thrown another curve ball this time its concerns with your family.
You begin to find your non-Christian friends difficult and selfish.
You wonder whether they were ever your friends in the first place.
You feel like you don’t know the people at mid-week bible study well enough yet to share with them the trouble going on…
You know Jesus’ forgiveness well.
You are convicted you should really forgive [insert name of family member] for the hurt they have caused over the years and currently.
You struggle to cope with the stress at work.
You struggle to really surrender all things you’ve enjoyed freely for the last 29 years.
You wrestle every morning with the stress of your family.
You pull out of mid-week bible study to begin to cope with the demands of life.
You go to dinner for your twin brothers birthday instead of church one week.
You haven’t been to church in 6 months.
You are still friends with the friend that took you to church, but you find it hard to talk about what’s going on with your faith.
*Based on a the story of a friend of mine. Join with me in asking God to hold on tight to them and the many other wandering & lost sheep.
“Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me”
-Robert Robertson