Friends. Work associates. Family. Many have little to no interest in Christianity, let alone in becoming Seventh-day Adventists. Yet because you care about them, you want to give them at least a chance to taste and see that God is good and has good plans for their lives. How do you begin to introduce them to Jesus?

They show little or no interest in Christianity. Friends. Family. Work associates. And many of them are not even Christians. Yet because you care about them, you want to give them at least a chance to taste and see that God is good and has good plans for their lives. How do you begin to introduce them to Jesus?

Simple, right? Just invite them to church or offer a set of Bible studies. Or would that be too aggressive and scare them away? you wonder. If their first experience with Christianity was attending your church, would they feel lost or overwhelmed by the Sabbath School discussion or by your standard worship service? Or would they find it interesting and relevant to their life situation? Being missionaries in Thailand has forced Shannon and me to wrestle with questions like these as we relate to our Buddhist friends.

We have tried several approaches to building natural relationships with people here, including health programs, English teaching, and even joining local club activities, such as soccer and paramotoring. These have helped us meet and befriend some truly wonderful people. But because the worldview gap between where they are now and where we would like to help lead them—knowing and following Jesus—is so wide, we have chosen, as a next step, to invite them to some other soft evangelistic events.
One example was my recent birthday party. This year I turned 50, my golden birthday! And I believe God impressed me to use this as a golden opportunity to share a simple gospel message, customized to reach my friends, many of whom are paramotorists, and their families. It would be what some people today call a Matthew Party, an intentionally and carefully planned social event designed to connect our non-believing friends with our believing friends in a setting where faith and testimonies can be shared naturally and comfortably (see Luke 5:29-32).

A couple of weeks before my birthday, I contacted a local hotel and reserved a banquet room large enough to seat 50 people. I made invitations and personally sent them to friends, family, church members and those in my paramotor club. Several people from the church volunteered to decorate the banquet room with beautiful golden decorations and balloons. And some incredibly generous supporters from the U.S. even volunteered to sponsor the meal and room rental.

The program began with a welcome and introductions, where my church family and non-Christian friends got to know each other. After a prayer of blessing, the meal began. Early in the program, I sang some songs about friendship as dinner-time entertainment, and then others came up on stage and sang for us while I sat with my friends and enjoyed the meal and fellowship.

Finally, I got up and shared a short message from my heart about my life’s journey. I started talking about when I was about 9 years old and how I had this wonderful dream in which I was wearing a magic backpack (my brown book bag for school) that let me fly like Superman. It was such a happy dream for a child like me. I will never forget it! Later, as a teenager, I began to dream of becoming a fighter pilot like the one Tom Cruise played in the movie Top Gun. But in 1990, after experiencing the joy of mission service with some Pathfinders in the Dominican Republic, I left those dreams behind in favor of an infinitely higher mission, to help people rise above the clouds, rather than just shoot some bad guys out of them.

I then shared an experience from my student missionary days where I saw God’s protecting hand orchestrate events so that I was re-booked off of a Vietnamese plane that crashed in Cambodia on September 3, 1997, killing all but one small child. When I understood that but for the grace of God I would have been in that plane crash, I was filled with a deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness to God, and vowed to continue serving Him.

I shared how I met and married Shannon and how God called us to Thailand to serve as missionaries. Then I shared some of our mission adventures here in Thailand, bringing it down to the present, where God called us to help build up a very small but loving church family in the beautiful province of Surat Thani, where I met many wonderful friends, including my fellow pilots in the Surat Thani Paramotor Club. I explained how 40 years after my first dream of flying with a backpack on my back, I had connected with this club and those who taught me to fly using a modified backpack. I expressed my deepest appreciation for all the time and money they had invested in me as they taught me, step by step, how to fly a paramotor safely.

Then I explained that my dream, like Jesus Christ’s dream, was that together we might all fly, not just above the beautiful fog and mountains and clouds, but far higher, beyond even the moon and the stars! I told them how this was possible because Jesus voluntarily came from heaven and laid down His life for the sins of the world, so that all of us who would believe and trust in Him could be saved from our sins and given the priceless privilege of living with Him and all the redeemed. I shared how we will not only walk on the safe and sinless streets of gold, forever free from suffering and death, but also be able to upgrade our flight skills, flying with one another while coached by the angels as we travel to distant planets and galaxies! “And that is my wish, my dream for all of you, my dear friends, on this, my golden 50th birthday celebration!”

After ending my birthday address, I sat again to eat with my friends and church members.

Of course, no one was baptized that day, but all had listened very respectfully and with obvious interest. And I am happy to report that afterward, two of my non-Christian friends finally visited our church on Sabbath. Praise God! After all, that is what a Matthew Party is about: not a single-shot, one-and-done evangelistic trick, but a genuinely good and helpful way to share the gospel and enhance interest among those who have never had a chance to hear the Good News.

A Matthew Party is not just effective, it is a lot of fun too! I wonder what other life events you and I can turn into golden opportunities to share Jesus.

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