Good News Bad News

Several years ago I guided white tail hunters for a local outfitter. The weather was very warm for November so the deer were not active. I was guiding a hunter named John from Indiana. John and I had hunted several areas and tried rattling but never had a buck respond. One morning I put John in a tree stand in a sliver of timber along a lake where a buck had made some ground scrapes and told him I would be back in about three hours. I drove two miles above the lake where a creek meandered through a brushy draw that I knew contained deer. There was a power line that cut through the timber toward the creek and I stopped to check a deer trail about seventy yards from the road. As I got to the trail, some fresh tracks revealed a doe had used it recently. Then I heard a buck grunting continuously as he followed the scent of the doe. The three by three buck and I stared at each other from about fifty feet apart at the power line cut. I had raised my rifle part way to the shoulder but knew I could not shoot this deer so slowly lowered the gun to my waist. The buck immediately lowered his rack and charged. Time slipped into slow motion but it only took him two bounds and he was ten feet away and still coming. I pulled up the rifle to my waist, pointed it and fired. The buck cart wheeled backwards and lay dead. I couldn’t believe what had happened as I looked down at the buck. What was I going to tell John when he had not even seen a deer?

I went back to John later in the morning and asked him if he saw any deer. “No” was the quick reply. He asked how my morning had gone. I said, “Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is I saw a buck. The bad news is he charged me and I shot him at ten feet.” I could see that John didn’t believe my story. Unfortunately John went home without a deer and I am sure the bad news stuck with him for a long time.

We sometimes do the same thing with new Christians. We have the good news of the saving grace through Jesus as they enter a new walk with God. Satan does not own them anymore; they are free. Now we tell them the bad news. “You have to take 101, 201, 301, become a member, volunteer for greeter, Sunday school teacher, work in nursery, help with youth group and a host of other mandates. We pile enough Christian material on them to earn a degree. All many of them want is to get to know God and read the Bible. Do you see why many people leave church?

Maybe if we took them along side and helped them grow in Christ before we saddle them with jobs, they would stay excited. Along the way they will find their gifts to serve God. I believe Christ intended Christians to serve outside the church walls more than inside. How else do we evangelize the community?

What is your gift? Are you building relationships outside the church to reach people for Christ? Yes, it is okay if you want to teach Sunday school. Just go out and tell the Good News.