Counting Conversations

I have a friend who counts conversations. She comes home from work and counts the number of people with whom she has communicated with that day- by email, phone, text and face to face. I don't think she does it every day...but maybe several times a week. It was a new idea to me at the time but it is growing on me.

Last night I was reading A New Kind of Christian by Brian D McLaren. The story revolves around the interaction between Pastor Dan and an ex-Pastor-turned-High-School-Science-teacher, Neo. On the topic of sharing faith with people who have other views, Neo states:

"I would say to stop counting conversions, because our whole approach to conversion is so, I don't know, mechanistic and consumeristic and individualistic and controlling. Instead, I'd encourage us to count conversations, because conversation implies a real relationship, and if we make our goal to establish relationships and engage in authentic conversation, I know that conversions will happen. But if we keep trying to convert people, we'll simply drive them away. They're sick of our sales pitches and our formulas.

Stop counting conversions and start counting conversations."

I realised when a mate visited from Thailand that I do have many opportunities for daily conversations. Perhaps the next step is to count them and pray that these conversations would count.