Sunday, August 19, 2018

The Church that Sets Up Their Own Chairs


I really like introducing my friends to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  So I'm always looking for ways to include it in conversation when appropriate.

Recently, my girls started taking Tae Kwon Do classes.  Normally, when we come to class, we find that a few rows of folding chairs have been set up for parents to sit in to observe class.

One evening, when we arrived, the class instructor seemed rushed.  He explained that his assistant hadn't shown up and was apologizing profusely for the fact that the chairs were not yet in place.  "I'm sorry," he said, "You'll have to set up your own chairs tonight. I hope you don't mind..."

For some reason, the scene I saw before me of the instructor passing out folding chairs made me think of just about every time I go to church.  

So I said with a laugh, "Master Gavoli, you don't have to apologize. We're used to setting up our own chairs...We're Mormon!"

He kind of looked at me for a moment, surprised by my comment and probably even more so by the correlation I had made, and then he said, "Thank you!  I could probably win a bet with that information some day."  Which I think is his customary way of responding politely to completely useless, unsolicited information.  Ha!

I have thought a lot after the fact of how easy it was to draw a line back to the church.  As a long-time member missionary, I felt good about that.  However, I found myself wishing since then that I had followed my comment up with something like, "You know, the church that is lead by a prophet and 12 apostles," or "You know, the church that believes families can be together forever..." etc.

I have made a goal for myself to have three or four subjects that are my go-to, follow-up items to mention about the church, so that I can start by talking about folding chairs, but open up into something they can really ponder long after our conversation ends.  Something that might actually lead to questions of their own...

If you had to make a list, which three gospel principles would make your "go-to" gospel-sharing one-liners?

Let me know in the comments!

0 COMMENTS:

Post a Comment