Door-to-Door Seed Sowing?

Picture this: two extremely “clean cut” young men on bicycles, dressed in nearly identical blue suits, skinny ties, white shirts. They’ve each got a leather binder under one arm, and they’re pedaling from house to house, knocking on doors.

At this point, you’re probably pretty confident that I’m talking about either Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons. Both groups are noted for their determined door-to-door evangelism. Perhaps as a result, the Jehovah’s Witnesses can be described as the fastest-growing religion in America (as a percentage of their relatively small membership[1].)

Most evangelical churches don’t expect their members to knock on doors in an effort to win converts. (I’d look pretty awful in a navy blue suit, not to mention the mandatory haircut.) But I vividly remember my freshman year in college, when two upper class students from Campus Crusade came to my dorm room. An ardent atheist at the time, I’m embarrassed to confess that I wasn’t exactly cordial.

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Where Is Our Focus?

Western Bluebird @home 2008jun03 LAH 015rThere is a Western Bluebird throwing himself against the screened window in our dining room. Actually, he’s been here for over a week, from dawn to dusk. While I’ve never heard of bluebirds doing this, they are members of the Thrush family, as are American Robins. Robins are notorious for attacking their reflections in window in a futile attempt to drive off the “intruder” in their territory. I can only assume that this bluebird is doing likewise, and vigorously attacking his own reflection.

It seems like such a waste of time. Shouldn’t he be courting a mate, building a nest, raising a family? Summer is short, and for a bluebird, there is only one item on the agenda. Yet he spends his days at our window, fighting… nothing. A mirage. A figment of his imagination. How sad.

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