I mentioned in my last post that I have a favorite coffee shop here in town. When I was living in St. Louis, it was Kaldi’s. Not the Kirkwood location, but the one down on Demun Avenue between Forest Park and the Lutheran seminary. It was a great little hole in the wall shop with a labyrinth like feel and not enough seating. Although rather than being frustrating, the fact that there was never enough seating kind of added to the appeal. In part because when you did get a seat you really felt like you were somebody. “I have a seat in Kaldi’s. I must be important!” Okay, that was little window into how incredibly easy it is for me to suck significance out of the slightest little thing. Sorry if that is too much transparency for you. (How did I get off on that rabbit trail?) Anyway…
If you are like me, you probably have a few places in your neighborhood that you prefer to drop in for one thing or another. For example, my coffee beans always comes from O’Henry’s, the meat for my grill comes from Mr. P’s up in Bluff Park, and as of a couple of weeks ago, my chicken wings come from Wings Plus #5. Lest you think I am purely a creature of habit (which I actually am, but that isn’t the point of this post) I will attempt to explain why I actually believe the choice of where I get my chicken wings carries with it the potential to have eternal significance.
You see, I choose to frequent these places in part because I really like the product and or service they provide. But there is another reason. I frequent certain places because I actually desire to build relationships with the ownership and other clientele who shop there.
For example, two weeks ago I walked into our local neighborhood wings place. While placing my order I struck up a conversation with the guy behind the register. I had two goals, well actually three. First, get the wings. Second I wanted to let him know of my desire to support local neighborhood business like his. (It became clear that the guy behind the register wasn’t just some dude on a register, but his family ran the whole operation, which consisted of other wings places throughout the Birmingham area.) Third, to remember his name.
This past Saturday, I returned to the wings place, both because my family was hungry and my cholesterol was too low. When I walked in the door and saw the same guy, I called him by name and told him his wings had been calling me back. Through our conversation we got to know each other a little better and a fledgling friendship was strengthened. With each conversation I am remembering details of his life which I then ask him about in subsequent conversations. Basically, I am seeking to display to him the fact that he is important, that he and the details of his life actually matter to me. Why? Because he matters to God.
When I go to O’Henry’s for coffee, I see familiar faces. I begin to recognize the people who work there. When I go into Mr. P’s and the guy behind the counter recognizes my kids, there are relational ties to the community that are strengthened, friendships are born and a foundation solidifies in which the seeds of the gospel have a context to take root and grow.
So why is this important? First, my unabashed goal is to pursue people in my neighborhood and love them well, through building friendships, supporting their livelihood and simply allowing them to see that they are worth more to me than simply how well they can cut a pork chop. Why? Because the grace of the gospel should impact much more than simply how we view our relationship to our church community. The gospel of Jesus Christ should affect all of life, including where we buy our coffee and our pork chops and our chicken wings. If we value people enough to purposefully alter where we shop and where we spend time for reasons of pursuing relationships for the gospels sake, then when we are able to have conversations about Christ and his gospel in a relational context through which those truths are filtered.
And what if those individuals whom we are purposefully pursuing relationships with never respond to the gospel? Well, first of all lets make sure we don’t hold too tightly to our ability to discern what the power of God’s grace is doing in the recesses of someone else’s heart. But even in light of a lack of outward evidence of a heart change in those individuals then at the very least, by our gospel-based efforts, relationships are built, a community is developed and a neighborhood is strengthened. This is the power of the gospel breaking forth with light where there was formerly darkness. This too is to the glory of God as well.
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