I want to do something a tad bit risky.  And I’m wondering if a few of you will join me. But, first let me give you the back story.  

This morning I was reading in Acts 8. The story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. I’ve read it many times.  (I remember, as a youth, cringing the first time I learned what a Eunuch was.) This time, however, I saw something that had not previously occurred to me.  Philip was a successful preacher/evangelist.  In Acts 8: 8 we are told there was joy in the city because of his ministry.  Many in the city became followers of Jesus because of Philip’s ministry. What I saw that was new is that God plucked him out of a “successful” city-wide evangelism campaign and sent him on a risky adventure for just one person. 

Verse 26 says: “…rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place.” (ESV)

Isn’t that so very interesting?  I know if it were up to me, that would not be my strategy. As I read the rest of this story it occurred to me: Am I willing to leave the crowd and go down the road for that one person? And I took this to be literal.  Am I willing to leave the comfy church building and head out in the neighbourhood?

Now you may see where this is going. Uh oh, Ken wants to start knocking on doors in the neighbourhood! And it’s true…this is exactly what I want to do.   I have to admit, I feel quite a bit ashamed that this is my 5th year at ECC and I barely know our ECC neighbours. I know, I know, things are not like they used to be.  I can hear someone say: ‘It’s not safe to just knock on the doors of strangers, even if they are your neighbours.”  And, for sure, it’s a bit risky.  But it seems to me, as I read the pages of the Bible, God is quite comfortable with his people being risky.  God even initiates risky behaviour amongst his servants (Philip is a case in point). 

Here's my plan…here’s where I want to invite a few of you to join me.   I am going to make about 50 flyers for our Christmas service. I want to spend one hour on a Saturday morning and visit the neighbours around our building. I don’t plan to ask any of them if they’ve been saved today. I don’t have any tricky slogans or arguments to offer about Jesus.  I am simply going to say hello, that I’m their neighbour and I want to invite them to our Christmas service. I’ll leave it up to God if He wants the conversation to go any further. 

If you’d like to join me, shoot me an email and we’ll arrange to go together.