Taco Bell Evangelsim

Lessons from St. Louis

Sometimes it's true that actions speak louder than words. Yes, I believe that "they cannot believe in the one whom they have not heard" (Rom 10), and yet an act of service can prepare the soil of the heart for the planting of the gospel. I saw this clearly at a late night run to Taco Bell.

The guy behind the counter was not happy to see our group of 15 walk through the door so close to closing. He already had a mop bucket in the corner and was probably look forward to getting cleaned up early. When I first read his face I was tempted to find another restaurant but then I reminded myself that he was being paid to serve us, plus I really wanted Taco Bell. The lobby was still supposed to be open for another thirty minutes so we proceeded to order and grab a seat.

Maybe we were capping off the end to an already bad day for the guy - troubles at work, problems at home -I don't know, but something was wrong and he was letting us know about it. Maybe I was being a little paranoid but the fact that our whole group was wearing Christian T-shirts worried me. Would we provide opportunity for him to harbor a bad attitude against Christians, the church, or worse, Christ? Like I said, I was probably just being paranoid but it led to an idea.

As it neared the closing time we approached the counter again. I could see it in his eyes, "not another order", but instead we asked for a couple of rags to wipe off our tables. I suspected that our request would be denied but he grabbed a couple of rags that he likely had been ready to use thirty minutes earlier and we went to work. While one group of students wiped off tables and chairs another team proceeded to sweep and mop the lobby. Between drive-in orders I watched his countenance change. As we were nearing the end he thanked us and said that we didn't need to clean the whole lobby. We told him we wanted to be a help to him and he asked us where we were from - suddenly he opened up the door to share our purpose. When we left he was smiling and thanking us.

Why don't we serve others more often? Selfishness I suppose. We're so caught up in our own daily grind that we fail to remember that life is not about us. We forget that everyone we encounter is someone that God loves and that we're called to love our neighbors as ourselves. We need a lot less Christian T-shirts and gospel tracts and a lot more followers of Christ that will lovingly serve a needy world. I suppose we could have given Taco Bell guy a gospel tract but what would that have done - not much I suspect. When we met his needs however his heart was softened and suddenly he was open to the gospel message.

Isn't that how Jesus did evangelism? Jesus met needs. When He encountered people in need of healing He didn't just give them a gospel tract or preach a sermon. He met both their perceived immediate need and also revealed their deeper spiritual need. That's the kind of evangelism we need more of and that's the kind of evangelism that is most effective.

A few days later we were able to see servant evangelism work again in East St. Louis. Across from 15th Street Baptist is a neighborhood bar and local hub for the pervasive crack trade. Behind the bar a small group of people gathered daily, sitting in lawn chairs and attempting to wash their problems way in the bottle. On Friday we had leftover lunches and decided to take them across the street to our "neighbors". Again, an act of service provided opportunity to share a gospel witness.

My prayer is that as I leave St. Louis God would help me to share the gospel less and be the gospel more. Wasn't that Jesus' method?