The reason I'm in the musical!

I shared in an earlier post how the opportunity to be in this musical was either a timely answer to prayer or an amazing coincidence.
For the two months I've been practicing, I've spent hours praying that God would use me in this situation.
Everyone in the cast knows I'm a pastor. I've been intentional about finding ways to talk about my "day job" as a spiritual leader while at the same time breaking down possible stereotypes of conservative, up-tight pastors.
But I still had yet to have the opportunity to have a serious spiritual conversation with anyone. But the 'breakthrough' I've been waiting for happened on Monday night, as we were nearing the end of our 5th (yes, 5th) hour of practice.
I'm not going to go into details, out of respect for the people with whom I was talking, but I'll let you know I came away from the conversation with tears in my eyes. I came home and told Erin, "I finally know why I'm supposed to be in this musical."

Now I want to challenge you in the way I was challenged last spring, which prompted me to get involved in this musical. What are you doing to build relationships with unchurched people? How are you breaking out of your comfort zone? What are you intentionally doing to give yourself the opportunity to build relationships with future Christ-followers?

My conversation last night was a perfect example of how God works through us. I didn't spark the conversation, but finding ways to build relationships and spending hours in prayer, put me in the right place to be used by God.

And let me challenge you in this way, too. Are you willing to love people simply for who they are and where they are, whether or not you have a spiritual conversation with them or they ever accept your invitation to church? Sure, there's nothing better than helping a person put their faith in Christ, but can you continue to love even if that decision never happens? Are you loving people with no strings attached, no agendas? You can't do it if you're stuck in your christian subculture or comfortzone all the time.