A Salesman For Jesus

Have you ever thought of yourself as a salesman? No.

When Pastor Tim asked if I could fill in for him, this book I read a few years ago came to mind.

It's called Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic.

Seven Simple Keys to Growing Churches by Adam Hamilton.

And I'm not saying we need to grow our church, but with the new school year

and glow kicking off, there's new opportunities for us to participate in.

This book focuses on a successful swimsuit salesman named Bob who sells second

skin brand suits and ends up moving to Barrow, Alaska.

It isn't until he focuses on helping others rather than the challenge of selling

swimsuits to a population where the average warm temperature is 40 degrees,

that he becomes a true success.

We are in need of volunteers to help with our children's programs so we can

have the opportunity to divide them up into age categories to offer age-appropriate activities.

We need leaders in the church to offer support for each other.

You don't have to be skilled in a certain field to work with the programs in

the church the children and others are simply wanting to know that you care.

So, how does Hamilton's book help? Much of what we learn in life is sales,

and this is even true in the church.

Sales involves persuasion and motivation.

2 Corinthians 5.20 says Paul writes, We are therefore Christ's ambassadors,

as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's

behalf, be reconciled to God.

God makes his appeal through us, which involves the art of persuasion and motivation.

In other words, sales.

We have all been given the Great Commission. And Marty is going to read that for us now.

Matthew 28, 1620. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee,

to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

Thank you. Through the scriptures, we have all been given that same command,

to go and make disciples.

When Jesus was giving the Great Commission, he was asking us to do something that involves selling.

Making disciples involves the art of persuasion.

Many of the same attributes that make an excellent salesperson are needed to

be an excellent evangelist.

So, what can we learn from Bob about sales?

There's seven simple steps. The first is we must believe in our product.

How many of you remember the day that you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

You know, that was just an awesome feeling. You felt the relief of your sins being taken away.

You felt that everlasting love that Christ has for you. Bob had a passion for

second skin swimsuits, and he understood the market.

Do you understand the market you're in?

That love that God wants you to share with one another?

We're seeking to lead people to become committed followers of Christ.

If we are going to be successful at this, we have to personally believe that

following Jesus is the most important thing we can do with our lives.

We cannot convince others if we're not convinced.

If you wake up one morning and you're just not sure of where you stand,

how can you lead someone else to Christ?

Our ability to be effective is tied to our own commitment to Christ.

How committed are you? We must be able to articulate that passion.

In order to have a healthy spiritual life and to grow a healthy church,

we must rekindle the passion we first had when we accepted Christ.

We need to dig into our scriptures. We need to communicate with one another

to support each other so that we do not lose that commitment.

However, the fact that people need Christ in the church doesn't mean that they

need our particular church, our particular ministry, or a particular program.

Just as Bob began to question whether people needed what he was selling,

we must look at whether our community already has the programs we are offering.

We must believe that others need what we're selling.

Bob moved to Barrow, Alaska, believing full well that there was a whole new

market in need of what he was selling.

We as Christians are just as Bob. We believe everyone needs Christ.

Amen? Amen. We also believe that everyone needs the church, the body of Christ,

which is made up of people gathered together to worship God,

to proclaim the good news of Jesus, to grow in faith, to minister,

to strengthen and care for one another, and to serve God together in the world.

I don't see any mention about a building.

There doesn't have to be a building, just people coming together,

believing Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, and sharing that love.

Bob began to question whether people needed what he was selling,

and we must look at whether our community already has the programs we're offering.

In order to grow and thrive as a church, we must offer ministries not already

offered in the community.

In today's environment, when those looking for a church shop around,

we need to be offering a ministry that sets us apart from other congregations.

If we only offer what others are offering, what's the reason for those who are

shopping around would want to stay with us?

Now, although this is talking about church building and the church, take it internally.

Take a look at yourself. What do you have to offer someone in need?

Because just as Adam said to the kids, we are all given a gift.

What is your gift to share with your neighbor, with the person sitting next to you in church today.

Look inside of yourself.

We must fulfill the great commission of supplying the community with what is

missing in the ministry of Christ.

Sometimes this comes in the form of partnering with other churches to meet the

needs of the neighborhood.

VBS that we do in the summer is a great example of that. We have a lot of little kids.

The Nazarene church doesn't have little kids, but they got the teenagers to

help with VBS. So what did we do?

We partnered, and we took our little kids over there, and their teenagers were

mentors to our little kids.

Sometimes it's what you have to do. You take your strength and build on it with

another church's strength, with another person's strength.

To be honest, I don't feel prayer is my strength.

So when I'm with a group, I try and find somebody that I know is a good prayer warrior to pray for me.

You know, I'm standing up here and I'm admitting that. But I just said,

we all have our own strengths. What is yours?

The other thing we do as a group is the service in the park,

and all the churches participate, and different ones take the lead.

The third thing that we must understand, the needs of those we're seeking to reach.

Bob spent the next month getting to know the people of Barrow and the North Slope.

He learned the history of the area and of the natives and their lifestyles.

He began to see a broader mission.

When Bob first arrived in Barrow, he was insistent on selling swimsuits rather

than seeing what the inhabitants really needed.

Just as Bob, we at times try to sell swimsuits in the Arctic.

Our swimsuits are our sacred cows programs.

Ministries, or ways of doing church that we're comfortable with,

but that may not speak to or reach the current neighbors in our area.

If we are to develop churches and ministries that are growing and life transforming,

we need to understand the needs and people whom we seek to minister to.

In the Gospels, Jesus is continually healing the sick,

blessing the children, children feeding the hungry casting out demons and even

raising the dead he met the people at their point of need and then showed them

by his love his acts of mercy and his deeds of power the truth of the gospel.

I know there's times that people are in need, and all they need is somebody

to come and talk to them and share the love of Christ.

But I know there's been times I'm hesitant too, because it's like, what do I say to them?

How do I communicate to them?

Rely on the Lord. There's times that I've thought that, and I go and I think

afterwards that I screwed the whole thing up, and then I get a phone call.

That's just what that person needed.

God will give you the words you need to talk to someone in need.

Don't be dependent on yourself.

The central core of our mission in the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

The rest of what we do is strategy and tactics for accomplishing this mission. Again, sales.

We must offer an excellent product or service.

What are we offering? Anybody? What are we offering? Jesus.

Salvation. Bob now knew what his clients needed. He just didn't have it right yet.

If we don't meet the needs of the community through the love of Christ,

we will be unable to lead them to Christ.

We need to do our homework and know exactly what kind of worship programs and

ministries would meet the needs of Speak to the hearts of the people we hope to attract.

If we fail to get the product right, our efforts will come to naught.

Do you know your neighbor? Do you even know the person sitting next to you in church?

There's times I go home and somebody will say, oh, so-and-so in church.

I'm like, where were they? I missed them.

Isn't that terrible? They're sitting here with us in God's house and we miss them.

Don't even realize they're there. We need to open our eyes up,

open our minds up, open our hearts up to each other and our needs.

We must embody the values and ideals of our product. When Bob first moved to

Barrow, he looked at the people as a challenge.

As he got to know them, he began to care about them.

How many times does a stranger come into church and we look at them as a challenge?

Do we go up and say, hello, how are you? My name is. Do we make them welcome?

It's through that that they begin to see that we do truly care about them.

Relationship building is important in evangelism. Meaningful relationships develop

when we begin to generally care about others and give of ourselves to build them up.

Successful churches must do as Jesus did. We all must do as Jesus did.

Get involved in the community, get to know the people, build relationships,

encourage others, and find ways to embody our message.

When we care for, listen to, and encourage others, we find our hearts changed.

We no longer see others as potential church members, but as friends or people to be loved.

That's what I like, and I invite everybody to come Bible study,

because that is one place that you can be who you truly are.

We have people from the Church of Christ, we have people from St.

Barnabas Episcopal, and we have people from right here.

It doesn't matter how you worship. It just matters that you truly believe and

you want to learn and you want to have a closer relationship.

We represent Christ and the church to others.

We must embody the gospel we seek to proclaim.

Six is we must effectively market the product.

Bob began to market cold weather gear. Surprise, surprise, you're in Alaska.

You're not going to sell swimsuits. We've got to be clear with people on why

they need Christ and the church and how their lives will be positively impacted

becoming a follower of Christ and living out their faith in the church.

The most effective sharing of our faith comes when we generally care about people,

when we build relationships with people, and when we seek to live the gospel.

While many of us find it difficult to share our faith, when we are excited about

our church, it's easy to invite friends to worship.

God often brings people into our path in the hopes that we will have a spiritual

conversation with them, talking about our product, our faith,

and God's love with them.

Isn't that when it's the easiest? When we're on fire and we're feeling good

and everything's going good in our life.

What happens though when we get a snag?

Unfortunately, we often fail to see it. We fail to see the positive we can make in someone's life.

The seventh is we must not give up in the face of adversity or rejection.

This isn't an easy one for me because I'm sure, like most of you, I don't like rejection.

Even after coming up with a new, improved product, Bob was left wondering if he had lost his edge.

It took a while for him to be accepted.

It was only after people saw the change in him that it wasn't about the sales,

but that they truly cared about them.

Many give up at the first sign of adversity.

It's natural to feel like giving up or giving in, in the face of opposition.

But the people who succeed, however you define success, are those who are resilient,

who persevere, and who refuse to give up.

In my lifetime, there's been a lot of times I want to just sit down and give

up. But what would that accomplish?

You have to keep going. As ministers of Christ, we need to expect adversity,

anticipate opposition, and we can't give up.

So in order to be successful ministers for Christ, we need to live by these

keys, even though we don't think of them in sales and marketing terms.

There are two final lessons to learn from Bob.

He changed from serving himself to serving others.

Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 4 states, Do nothing out of selfish ambition

Philippians 2:3

or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others.

This is what sanctification in the Christian life looks like.

It's loving God wholly and completely and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Bob took the time to get to know the people of the Arctic, carefully considering

their needs, and then he began to brainstorm how his company could fulfill its

mission while addressing their needs.

He had a vision to be successful in carrying out the Great Commission,

we need to remember what our mission is.

Proverbs 29 verse 18 says, where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.

Proverbs 29:18

It can be found by spending time in prayer, inviting God to help us see how

we might fulfill the mission by meeting the needs of the community,

using the resources at our disposal.

Proposal, we need to look for ways to use the resources of our church to address

the needs of our community in such a way that leads them to Christ,

bearing witness to his love,

and seeing our own lives change in the process.

Not only the resources of our church, but ourselves.

My challenge to you today is that when you go out this door,

you don't think that it's the church's responsibility to bring others through the door.

It's not the church's responsibility to go out into the community and preach.

It's not the church's responsibility to come up with programs to entertain you.

It is your responsibility to go out the door, to preach to the neighbor,

to invite them in, to share the love of Jesus Christ, and to keep them involved.

That is what we are all told to do in Matthew, the Great Commission.

And we do have that power because God granted us that power.

Lord, we come to you today asking you to tell us what it is that is our gift to share with others,

to share your love, to share life ever after, that we may be that light that we are called to be,

that we may fulfill the mission you have given us to bring others to Christ,

Christ, because that is our true mission in life.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.