The 1300

Yesterday at the ChurchMedia.Net conference, I heard an amazing message which, even now, chokes me up. A guy named Paul Clifford, a techie who says he speaks in public probably three times a year, talked about developing a passion for evangelism. Paul is a skinny guy with long gray hair and sincere eyes. I sat in an earlier seminar in which he spoke for a bit, and I glimpsed a man with a real heart for God. As Paul began this keynote, I shot up a quick prayer, asking God to inspire me through Paul. My goodness, did God deliver on this one.

Paul mentioned that he spends Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at the church or doing church-related things, and then comes to church on Sunday at 6 am and doesn't leave until 2 pm. He's working behind the scenes. That's where you find the techies. The "Men in Back."

Paul said, "People ask why I follow this kind of schedule, why I give so much time to my church." He said he produced a little video which explained why.

The video was entirely text, no pictures. It began with a brief message saying that Quest church, during its seven years, had seen 1300 people come to Christ. Then the screen changed, and all you saw was the month. I think it started at "June 1999." Then it switched to "July 1999." Then "August 1999." At some point--I don't remember the month--a name flashed horizontally across the screen. That was a person who had found Christ. This continued, month by month, and while there were still months with no names, they became infrequent, and the number of names in a single month might be 20, 30, or more. The names would quickly cross the screen, both left-to-right and right-to-left. Month by month, year by year, we watched—spellbound, in my case—as we saw the names of people who had come to Christ. Sometimes it was just a first name, usually a whole name.

By the time we came to 2006, scores of names were flashing across the screen every month—just a big blur of names. In March, during two Sundays, over 100 people found Christ. We finally came to "June 2006," and the video ended. We all looked at Paul. He was choked up, but after a few seconds he got control of his voice and told us, "That's why I do what I do. It's such an honor to be part of something like that." Paul told us that 89% of their converts are adults. Wow.

Even as I write this, my eyes are watering up, and I could probably just start bawling without much effort. Who wouldn't want to give everything they had to be part of something like that?

FYI, this is Quest Community Church, in Lexington, Kent. They describe their passion as "transforming unconvinced people into wholehearted followers of Jesus." The website says, "Today at Quest you'll find people at all points along their spiritual journeys: cynics, skeptics, seekers, and followers of Jesus. Most are attracted by several things: authentic relationships, people who live beyond themselves, creative communication, and a 'come as you are' spirit. Do these things appeal to you as well? Welcome to Quest."

Posted on June 23, 2006 10:50 AM|

Comments

Thanks for the kind words. I still can't believe _I_ get to be a part of it.

Paul

Posted by: Paul Clifford | July 1, 2006 11:44 PM

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