Tag Archive for: Bless Your Top 5

10 Ways to BLESS Your Top 5

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At Clear Creek Community Church we talk often about having a Top 5, which is simply a list of five people we are praying would come to faith in Jesus. We like to use the BLESS acronym as we think about how to intentionally engage our Top 5. BLESS stands for Begin with prayer, Listen, Eat, Serve, and Story.

But what are some specific and creative ways to BLESS your Top 5?

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are 10 ideas to BLESS the people on your Top 5:

  1. Throw a Spring Break BBQ or block party for neighbors, coworkers, or your kids’ teammates.
  2. Surprise someone with a thoughtful gift.
  3. Volunteer as a coach or team organizer for a kid’s sport team.
  4. Hang out in front of your house and say “hi,” to those who pass by. Pull weeds, water the grass, watch your kids play in the front yard, or just enjoy a beverage on the driveway.
  5. Invite someone to dinner. It can be simple and fun! For example, put some tables in the driveway, order some pizza, and enjoy a nice spring evening.
  6. Invite someone to serve the community with you at one of our Go Local Partners.
  7. Offer to go in on a delivery of mulch with your neighbor and work together on both flowerbeds.
  8. Organize a March Madness Bracket with prizes.
  9. Pass out baked goods (fresh bread, cookies, brownies, etc.).
  10. Host a game night (yard games outside, or board games inside).

God has put people in your life for a reason and sharing your faith with them doesn’t need to be intimidating. It can start as simple as showing someone the love of Christ and looking for opportunities to share with them the hope of the Gospel.

5 Ways to Pray for Your Top 5

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So you’ve identified the five people you most want to see come to know Jesus, but… now what?

When praying for those in your life who are far from God, where do you start?

Here are five suggestions on where to begin:

  1. God is already at work in the lives of those you love. So, consider asking God to reveal to you how he is already working in their lives and how you can simply join in that work.
  1. Pray for the needs they have mentioned to you in casual conversation. Maybe there are health issues, worries, or struggles they are dealing with. Commit to praying over those things and checking in with them on how those things are going.
  1. Ask God to give them a hunger for the things of God — to seek to know him. Pray that they might have a desire for more than this world has to offer.
  1. Pray that God would bring additional people into their lives to love them and help lead them to Jesus.
  1. Spend some time being still before God. Ask him to give you creativity on how to bless your friends and a heart of compassion towards them.

Commit to pray for the friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers you’ve put on your Top 5 and see how God grows your heart for them.

Listening Well

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Good relationships often start with a lot of listening.

It’s hard to know someone if the only thing we’re focused on is being known.

And so whether it’s a romantic relationship, a business partnership, or just a casual friendship, we build relational equity by taking the time to know the person sitting across from us.

We take the time to listen.

When it comes to relationships with people we’re praying would come to know Jesus, truly hearing and understanding what they’re saying and feeling may be the kindest and most loving gift we can give.

In order to BLESS our neighbors, friends, or coworkers, we need to listen with intention.

We need to listen to understand their hearts, their fears, their dreams, their disappointments, their hopes, and their longings.

And fundamentally, we need to listen with the simple goal of getting to know them better.

But not everyone is a confident and charismatic conversationalist. So, if you need some help knowing where to begin, here are some conversation starters…

  1. Tell me your story. Where did you grow up?
    • What’s your favorite part about living here?
    • What do you miss from home (if they moved recently)?
  1. What do you do for fun? How do you spend your free time?
    • What are you reading?
    • Are there any Netflix/Hulu/television series you’d recommend?
  1. What’s your favorite (team, Burger, BBQ or Mexican food restaurant, vacation spot, etc.)?
  1. What kinds of jobs have you had? Which did you like best? Which was the hardest?
  1. What are your dreams for the future?
  1. Have you traveled anywhere interesting lately?
    • If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?  Why?
  1. What brings you joy?

2 Mistakes to Avoid When Reaching Your Top 5

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Having a Top 5 is a simple way to identify, pray for, and be intentional with the people in our lives we hope come to know the grace of Jesus.

Thankfully, we aren’t the ones who save. Jesus is. The pressure isn’t on us to transform hearts or to have all the answers. Yet we have a responsibility to take seriously the mission Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:19-20:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Here are two simple mistakes to avoid when reaching your Top 5.

TREATING PEOPLE LIKE A PROJECT

We must be careful not to think of the people on our Top 5 as projects.

They aren’t just names on a list.

They are friends, family members, coworkers, and neighbors.

These are people we love – because they are worth loving, regardless of what they believe.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”

You have been entrusted with a message, not assigned a project.

When our loved ones celebrate, we celebrate! When they grieve, we grieve. When they need support, we serve. We do this because we love the people in our lives and because that’s the kind of people we are.

We love because he first loved us. And we pray that through our relationships, God will speak grace into hearts.

Another mistake to avoid is…

NOT BEING READY TO SHARE YOUR STORY

The passage above from 2 Corinthians says that we’ve been entrusted with a message of reconciliation. At some point you will have an opportunity to talk about Jesus with someone.

What will you say?

You don’t have to know everything about the Bible or have a comprehensive understanding of systematic theology to share the message of Jesus. Although you should be growing in your knowledge of the Bible and understanding of God, you don’t have to have it all worked out before you share the hope that you have in Christ.

1 Peter 3:15 says, “…in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…”

For starters, all you need to know is why you have hope in Christ.

What has he done in your life?

How have you experienced healing and freedom?

Why have you put your trust in Jesus?

Peter says we should always be prepared to share the hope in us. A little preparation goes a long way. Take a few minutes to write out your story. It could be as simple as looking back at the story from your baptism, or jotting down something God has done in your life recently. Knowing in advance what you want to say will serve you well when the opportunity presents itself.

When it comes to reaching our Top 5, we love the people in our lives like Jesus would, and we rest knowing that he is the one who will transform their heart.

Tag Archive for: Bless Your Top 5

113: Cigars, Grilling, and Missional Living

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When Jesus commissioned his people to “Go and make disciples,” in Matthew 28:19, he was telling us to bring the gospel, not only to the ends of the earth, but also everywhere we go in our normal, everyday lives. On this episode, Ryan Lehtinen talks with campus pastors, Chris Alston and Karl Garcia, about how they intentionally and authenticity engage in relationships with people around them.

Resources:

Table Talk Series