More teens at the Mall, Mt. St. Helen's and "A Case for Christ"

Tonight I paired with Sarah - one of our more "aggressive" witnessers (it that is even a word..). Since I tend to be a little timid in transitioning from the light-hearted questions on the "Intelligence Test" into a spiritual conversation, Sarah was coaching me.

We talked to two young men (Casey and Jacob) who, if left to me, would have walked away when they sounded sort of 'ho-hum' towards the intelligence test. Sarah, however, would not be so easily put off by their lack of interest. The result was a 20+ minute conversation where, at the very least, some seeds were planted.

Sarah asked the guys some fairly direct spiritual question (neither one of us could remember what it was when we talked later). Whatever she said got us going, and she dived in and talked about how all roads do NOT lead to God, using the analogy that 'all planes do not fly to Phoenix.' We talked about Revelation. We talked about creation, evolution and the 'Big Bang.' We talked about how there is no explosion known that resulted in more order. I jumped in and talked about Mt. St. Helen's (my wife and I had just visited there in May).

Then we got onto people trying to disprove the Bible. By this time, Jacob decided that he had enough of the conversation, so we were talking only to Casey. I told him about Lee Strobel and his book, "A Case for Christ." I asked him if he would write down his address and I could send him the book. Sarah pointed out that a teen might not be comfortable giving a middle aged man his address (duh!!), so I apologized and wrote down the titles to Strobel's book and to Josh McDowell's "Evidence that Demands a Verdict." I wish I had thought to offer to give Casey some money to buy the books.

The funny thing was, during the course of our conversation with Casey, he didn't seem to be bothered by our questions. He seemed genuinely interested in what we were saying (even if he didn't agree with all of it). And his cell phone rang twice during our conversations, and he answered it and said, "Can I call you back?" I thought that spoke volumes.

Pray for Casey - I left him with the challenge to investigate the claims of Christianity. I asked him to consider what is at stake if he is wrong in his belief that being a good person gets you to heaven. He asked me what happens if I'm wrong. I said - if there is no God, or if Jesus wasn't the Savior - when I die, I just cease to exist. If he is wrong, however, the consequences are much more dire.

-t