Me and Rev. Wade (aka Rev. W.)

This is a picture of me with one of my favorite people.  This is Rev. Reginald Wade, our Emeritus of Pastoral Care and Visitation.  He is the gentleman that I made reference to in my A Lifetime of Ministry  post back in January.  He told me last night that he was a Pastor in Kyle, Texas for over 27 years before serving as the Minister of Pastoral Care for our church.  He he truly a great friend and mentor to me and to others.  I just wanted the world to know who he is.

Peace and Love,


Back to Homepage

Closing Ratio

In the business world, salespeople are usually evaluated by their closing ratio.  What is a closing ratio?   A closing ratio is defined as the number of completed sales that a person makes in relation to the number of sales presentations that he or she makes in a given timeperiod.  As an example, let's say that you speak to 10 people about a product and 8 of them buy the product from you.  Divide 8  by 10 and you get .8 (or an 80% closing ratio).  What if you only sell 1 of them?  Then your closing ratio is 10%.  Guess which closing ratio  would be looked upon more favorably at a sales job; and which one would get you reprimanded?  The 80% closing ratio would be considered a huge success. 

Now, I have recently left the car sales business (thank you Lord!), and an average closing ratio for a car salesperson was about 25 to 30%.  If you were really good, then your closing ratio would be around the 40 to 50% range.  That still means that you had a lot of people tell you no.  Every car sales manager that I know would tell you that your closing ratio is always going to land somewhere around that 25 to 30% range.  That's not a bad thing.  But what that means is you need to talk to a lot of people if you expect to sell a lot of cars.  The sales manager does not expect the salesperson to close every person.  They just expect them to try to sell to as many people as possible.  So if you speak to 100 people and have a closing ratio of 25 to 30%, then you will complete the sell 25 to 30 times.  If you only speak to 20 people, then you will only complete the sale 5 to 6 times.  The key in sales is not always in how many you close; but how many you talk to.

So what does this have to do with God?  Some of us believe that evangelism is like a sales job.  We think that we are only successful if we convert the person that we witness to.  If they don't accept Jesus Christ as Lord right at that moment, then we think that we have failed.  But that's not true.  God does not look at us by our success rate (closing ratio).  He only wants us to tell people about Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is the one that works on the person's heart to change them.  Our job is simply to give the presentation. 

Here is a biblical example.  Jonah was told by God to go to the city of Nineveh and preach against it.  God told Jonah that the city's wickedness had come up against Him.  He never told Jonah to convert the city.  He (God) simply told him (Johah) to tell the people that they would be destroyed because of their wickedness.  After Jonah's disobedience, punishment, and repentence, he did go to the city and preach against it.  When the people heard the word of God from him, they repented.  And God forgave them.  Never once did Jonah try to coerce them into repentence.  In fact, Jonah did not want the people to be saved.  It was because of the Holy Spirit that the people of Nineveh were converted. 

Here's another example.  Matthew 28:19-20 states,  "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  The responsibility is for us as Christians is to go and make disciples.  A disciple, by definition is a follower.  We are to go and make followers of Christ.  If you try to make a follower and the person doesn't want to follow, don't take it as a personal failure.  The person is not rejecting you.  They are rejecting God.  But because you witnessed to them, they have been exposed to God.  And once they are exposed to God, the Holy Spirit has the opportunity to work on them.  And it is the Holy Spirit that closes the deal; not us as witnesses.

So how should you witness to an unbeliever?  One great way to witness to people is by using by using The Roman Road to Salvation.  Another method is to ask five simple questions.  But I've also found that one of the best methods to use in witnessing to people is to simply let them see the love of Christ in you.  The way that you interact with people on a daily basis will have a greater impact on them than anything that you can say.  Simply live the life that God would have you to live.  That will be your most powerful testimony.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike






Back to Homepage

Energy Source

Imagine that you have a brand new home entertainment system.  It includes a fifty inch high definition  television with surround sound and blue ray movie player attached.  It has every possible feature you can imagine a system having along with every cable station you want at a super low price.  It also comes with a unlimited supply of blue ray movies, a super remote control with voice command, and an expresso maker on the side.  Ok, maybe not the expresso maker.  But it has everything else that you could possibly think you need in a home enertainment device.  Last but not least, it has the ability to play Itunes, CD's, HD radio, and satillite radio.  I think it would look a little something like this:

Now imagine that you have all of that available to you for your enjoyment; but with one small problem...

You don't have any electricity in the house.

That would make everything that I just listed pretty useless, wouldn't it?  Yet that is exactly how our lives are if we don't have a close and personal relationship with God.  The one thing that is missing turns out to be the most important thing missing.  

In my line of work, I run into a lot of people who are fairly well off financially. You can tell by the cars, the houses, and the titles.  But more often than not you can see the loneliness, the strained relationships, and the emptiness in their lives as well.  I can remember talking to a gentleman that must have had every materialistic thing that a person could possibly want; yet he still seemed like the most unhappy person in the world.  He had something missing in his life.  I don't know for sure, but I am guessing that he probably sacrificed some relationships (with God and family) to achieve that financial success. 

All I'm saying is check your power source.  Pray.  Study your Bible.  Let the Holy Spirit guide you.  You may not get the super dooper entertainment system.  But what you do receive just might be much more valuble.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike

Back to Homepage

A Bike Ride With God

I heard this on the radio this morning and had to share..

Author unknown
Written sometime between 1910 and 1985.

At first I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there, sort of like the president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I really didn't know him.

But later on when I met Christ, it seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal. I don't know just when it was that He suggested that we change places, but life has not been the same since. When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring but predictable ... It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds, and it was all I could do to hang on!

Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal." I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are You taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand. He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me gifts to take on my journey, my Lord's and mine. And we're off again. He said, "Give the gifts away, they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him at first, to be in control of my life, I thought He would wreck it; But He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to shorten scary passages. I'm learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ. And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He smiles and says ... "Pedal."


Better to ride with Jesus than with the mother of Lucy, Linus, and Rerun!




Peace and Love,




Back to Homepage