Driving Lee Strobel

 

But watch thou in all things,

endure afflictions,

do the work of an evangelist,

make full proof of thy ministry.

-- 2 Timothy 4:5

 

           

We had the honor of driving New York Times best-selling author Lee Strobel to the airport this afternoon, after he had given three dazzling talks and a captivating Q&A this weekend at our church.

 

 

Award-winning Christian author Lee Strobel.

 

 

My beloved carefully cleaned the slush off his car for the occasion. He was excited to meet Strobel, a former atheist who convinced himself of the truth of Christ in an investigative reporting journey that started off as his attempt to discredit Christianity. Ha! Funny how that happens!

 

Strobel is my fellow Mizzou J-School graduate; he went on to Yale Law School and was legal editor for the Chicago Tribune before his conversion.

 

Since then, Strobel has become a teaching pastor at two of the country's most famous churches and is an award-winning author and speaker. He is renowned for his skill as an apologist by uniquely combining warmth, humility and humor with a lawyer's laser-focused logic and solid research documentation. I already own three of his books and was eager to get more.

 

I volunteered at Strobel's book table between services and was amazed that he sold over 1,500 books this weekend, proof that people are eating up what he has to say about Jesus Christ and this adventure we call faith. I also got his autograph on several copies of his short but impressive booklet, The Case For Christmas, which I'm going to hand out like candy this Christmas season, as well as his two longer books, The Case for a Real Jesus Christ and The Unexpected Adventure: Taking Everyday Risks to Talk With People About Jesus.

 

But what was best was the relaxing half-hour with him in the car as we ferried him to the airport to go home to Colorado for a quiet dinner with his wife, daughter and son-in-law, and two grandkids.

 

Among the many topics we covered was one of the first stories in his new book, The Unexpected Adventure. It was a tale of workplace evangelism that we all can relate to, especially in this Christmas season when we all have opportunities to tell exactly Who it is Whose birth we're celebrating:

 

 

Here's Lee's new book for believers, available on www.amazon.com

 

 

 

One day, many years ago, Strobel was ready to leave the newspaper offices for the day. He felt the distinctive nudging of the Holy Spirit to stop off in the business office, and invite an atheist co-worker to Easter services that weekend.

 

It was a little bit of a risk, emotionally. But it was such a strong urge, he expected something spectacular to happen when he issued the invitation to come to church. Fortunately, the atheist co-worker was alone in the maze of cubicles, and they had privacy, so Strobel started his sincere invitation.

 

But the co-worker was stone cold rejecting.

 

No, he wouldn't go to church.

 

No, he emphatically had no interest in spiritual matters.

 

No, he had no questions about God.

 

No, he had no interest in learning more about the heart of the Easter story - the truth of the Resurrection.

 

Nope! Nada! Negatory!

 

Hunhhh? Strobel was getting nowhere. Yet he was sure the Holy Spirit wanted him to do everything in his power to lead that fellow to Christ. He'd practically dragged him there!

 

Finally, puzzled, he gave up and left, feeling a little foolish. He told himself that he was probably just one link on a long chain of people who, together, would pull that man over to faith.

 

Well, several years passed. Strobel left journalism to become a teaching pastor at a large church in suburban Chicago. One Sunday morning, a middle-aged man came up, shook his hand, and said, "I just want to thank you for the spiritual influence you've had in my life."

 

Hunhhh? He'd never laid eyes on the guy. So he asked him what he meant.

 

Turns out that, several years previously, the man had lost his job, had zero cash, and was afraid he was going to lose his house. He called a friend trying to find work. The friend had only one task that needed to be done: tiling a floor. Since he had once tiled his bathroom, he agreed to do it.

 

It happened to have been the business office at the newspaper where Strobel worked.

 

That man had been down on his hands and knees, out of sight, quietly placing tile, when Strobel walked in and started talking about God and Jesus and Easter . . . to the OTHER guy . . . the guy who wasn't interested.

 

"But I was crouching there listening," Strobel quoted the tile man, "and my heart was beating fast, and I started thinking, 'I need God! I need to go to church!'"

 

He and his wife and their teenage son all came to faith in Christ shortly thereafter, and have lived happily ever after.

 

So THAT'S what THAT was all about!!! Strobel thought he'd been a big loser. But unh-unhhhh. He'd helped win three souls without even knowing it!

 

From the back seat, I could see the smile pull Strobel's cheek wide at the memory.

 

In a flash, while we were driving Lee Strobel, I saw what really drives him: the opportunity to be used by God to spur somebody on to radical, joyous life change.

 

And anybody can do it! Your words don't have to be fancy. You don't have to know every detail of every doctrine. You don't have to be a fabulous, smooth writer with dozens of books to your credit, like Lee Strobel, or have worldwide renown, to make a huge difference in somebody else's eternal fate.

 

This Christmas, let's all be driven by what Strobel says:

 

When you see an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus, whether it's at work, or anyplace you go, all you have to do is try. Just be ready and willing . . . because God is a UNIVERSALLY best-selling Author . . . and He is always able. †