I’d like to share two ideas from Christians brothers I respect greatly.

First, my mate, Kel Willis. One day he asked how comfortable I’d feel walking into a TAB. That’s easy. I did it once in New Zealand (ask me later). I haven’t done it since. I don’t plan to. The TAB is not my scene. It’s foreign. I don’t know the people who hang out there and, although I’ve got a general idea, I don’t really understand what they do in there. I would feel quite uncomfortable walking into a TAB.

Kel’s point: How do you think your non-Christian friends feel about walking into a church? And yet our expectation of effective faith-sharing often depends upon our unbelieving friends walking into a church. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m all for inviting unbelieving friends to join us at church – the gathering of God’s people, around God’s Word, should be powerful testimony to the truth of the gospel. But it’s a big ask and it’s not where we should expect to start in sharing our faith.

The second idea, I picked up from singer, songwriter, and general raconteur, Colin Buchanan. He probably got this from somewhere else, but he said, and I’ve quoted this before, ‘Let your natural life be spiritual and your spiritual life be natural’. That, it seems to me, is the most obvious place to start in sharing our faith.

My prayer is that this weekend, as Belinda prods us at our Weekend Away, that we’re all spurred on to Live for the Kingdom – both naturally and spiritually.