What do scrapbooking, the Chicago Chamber Choir, knitting, stamping, Lord of the Rings Battle Strategy Games, archery, blogging, and Toastmasters all have in common? Absolutely nothing, except they are all things that my wife and I respectively enjoy doing. These hobbies of ours are actually becoming opportunities for us to build relationships with those in our community. Some of these relationships are evangelistic friendships in the making, others are deepening discipleship friendships, and some are still in the acquaintance stage.

I started developing some hobbies at the suggestion of an old mentor of mine. I have found them to be enjoyable and a good outlet for stress. But more than that, as he implied, they are excellent opportunities for relational ministry and evangelism. We have found this particularly true with our people groups. Indeed, these hobbies are one of the ways that Alana and I have found to balance our desires to be missionally incarnational (bringing the gospel to where people are at) and at the same time reflect the kind of sincere authenticity that is both personally healthy and appealing to postmoderns. To be a missionary to any people group you have to engage people in their daily activities, ministering to people in their daily lives. The postmodern people group, however, is very adept at discovering people who are feigning interest in something. They find any kind of personal façade nauseating. As a result, to be missional with them you must examine their culture, find things you actually like, and connect with them in that way.

What are some activities people in your community enjoy doing? What are some of those activities that are both morally acceptable and personally enjoyable? What are some ways you could begin to develop relationships with your pre-Christian neighbors and co-workers? If relational evangelism truly is the most powerful evangelism in our changing culture, what are you doing to be intentional about building evangelistic or discipleship relationships? Hobbies can indeed be evangelistic opportunities.