Meet a Stranger a Day Campaign in Nairobi
After an in-depth exposition of the scriptures on the subject of evangelism two Sundays ago, the disciples from Nairobi Christian Church overwhelmingly took on the challenge put forth by the leadership, of meeting one stranger every day in the month of July. The church service was characterized by an ecstatic spirit in the hall and lively participation by the congregation as the church recommitted itself to its primary mission of actively seeking and saving the lost.
In response to the message, the disciples immediately embraced the challenge and started sharing their faith with strangers on their way home. Scores of studies were started that week and the attendance the following Sunday went up significantly. In the East regions of the church, the 560 disciples had a remarkable attendance of 932 people. The hall where the regions hold their services was jammed to full capacity as visitors and disciples reverently worshipped God together.
Evidently in the scriptures, Jesus frequently reached out to strangers and called his disciples to do likewise. In Mark 6:6-13, Jesus send out the disciples 2 by 2 to go meet strangers and preach the gospel to them; in Matt 28: 18-20 we are commanded to go to all nations, obviously not familiarized with the people there, and preach the gospel to them; substantially, the book of Acts brings home the biblical emphasis of sharing our faith beyond our circle of acquaintances. In fact, Paul accentuates this emphasis by asserting how he strived to preach Christ where he had not been preached, signifying a personal focus of exploring other places and people in his evangelism. After this message was preached that Sunday, many disciples responsively confessed their struggles with fear whenever they attempt to talk to strangers about Jesus and the church; some disclosed how ashamed of Jesus they had been which had paralyzed their quest to seek and save the lost; while on the other hand most of the older Christians expressed their joy for being challenged to do what they signed up to do from the onset as disciples of Jesus.
The main objective of the campaign is to henceforth refocus disciples from mainly talking to the same old friends they have been sharing their faith with over the years. We endeavor to inspire the church in exploring different means of maximizing on the numerous opportunities we come across in the cause of the day as we interact with strangers, hence broadening our scope of evangelism.
We believe God will glorify Himself in an amazing way as we pull out all the stops to stamp out selective evangelism and embrace the culture of sharing our faith with anyone and everyone we come across.
George Irungu