Friendship of faith

We were reading the book of Ruth and I thought, “Is there any better story of friendship evangelism in the Bible?”  For it is often that someone will come to church or a Bible study or special ministry with a committed friend, braving their own struggles with faith, hang around out of friendship and eventually become friends with God.  It made me think of the story Jim Peterson told.

            Jim Peterson was a tremendous evangelist, often credited with the spiritual rebirth in South America.  I knew him in a sparing way through the Navigators because he joined our Bible Study one night.  He wouldn’t take any credit for his own work in spreading the gospel.   Instead he credited much of his ministry to a guy who name I can’t recall.  Let’s call him Carlos, just to have a name.  Carlos came along with his brother to a small home Bible study Jim was holding.  He was in a wheelchair.  When asked about his faith, he said he was an atheist and was only there because of his brother. Jim tried every way he could think of to reach the guy  but said he was “cold as a fish,” never talked and didn’t participate.  But he came like an attachment to his brother and so the group tolerated his presence.  Two years went by and one day Carlos came to Jim in private.  He had prayed to God to heal his anger.  “You see, all my life I have been crippled.  All the other kids could play futball and have fun.  I was dependent on someone else for even the ordinary things in life.”  But he had confessed his anger to God and asked God to forgive him and do something with his life.  So, Jim wanted to know, what did he think he would do with his New Life of faith?  And Carlos said without a second’s hesitation, “I’m going to be an honest lawyer.”  He was about to finish his law degree and head home to practice.  Jim said he sorta scoffed at this in his head.  It was so small a goal.  Like deciding to buy a Buick. So Jim said he shrugged and Carlos went off to practice his trade.    

            What Carlos knew that Jim didn’t is that there was hardly an honest lawyer in Brazil.  Crime syndicates and corruption by authorities generated a legal culture of bribery and graft.  Lawyers were especially dishonest in Carlos’s own province.  Within a few years he had made a name for himself.  People sought him out to plead their cases. And people were asking why he was so scrupulously honest and all the other guys were such asses.  Carlos told about how Jesus Christ made a difference in his life. And next thing they knew they were going to church with him.

            In a world in which big name churches in urban areas expect growth of 15% a year and concentrate on marketing to draw people like flies, we seem to have gotten bored with bringing along our brother (or some other friend who seems to struggle with everything faith-wise).  Andrew brought his bro.  And that’s about all we hear about Andrew in the Bible.  Just brought his dumb brother, whose name was Simon “Peter” Bar-jonah.