I am currently a senior at Johnson University majoring in Preaching and Church Leadership as well as Bible and Theology. I live on campus with a bunch of other people who have Ph.D’s and other degrees in this kind of stuff. So I never expected that in September (2017) two young Mormon missionaries would show up at my front door.
Before they showed up, a neighbor texted me and said, “Get ready, the Mormons are on their way.” Most people would just kind of shoo them away or listen to their spiel and go on with their life. I’m not one of those people. I got very excited. These two young guys who look 19 knock on the door and start asking me lots of questions about faith and doctrine. I stood and talked about our differences for about 45 minutes (mostly Trinitarian theology). It was a good conversation and we were argumentative, but in a really good and understanding way.
Most people might think to themselves after a conversation like that, “Well, I told them the Gospel, now I just let the Holy Spirit do the rest. It’s out of my hands.” And they will never see them, pray for them, or even think about them again outside of bragging to their Christian friends about their apologetic abilities.
But my neighbor and I decided to do something different. We hear Christians talking about “breaking bread” with non-believers all the time, but rarely see it in action. So we invited these two guys over for dinner the next week. We ate and talked about random life things. We learned their first names, their hopeful majors at BYU, and what they like to do for fun.
That's when these two random Mormon guys became “Austin and Ben.” These two Mormon guys were two college students who like to play basketball, go hiking, eat fried food, and miss their families in Utah that they haven’t seen in 6 months. These two distant Mormon guys became children of God that needed to see the true Gospel at work.
Most people would stop there and check off the box that says, “I spent time with a non-protestant Christian this year.” But I decided to keep going. So I went to grab coffee (hot chocolate for Ben and Austin) with them. We talked about theology and simply asked questions about what each other believed. I was so surprised at how similar our theological beliefs are. I wanted to hear more and I believe that they wanted to hear more from me too. So we met again, and again, and again. Then we started meeting for hikes. I have been friends with Ben and Austin, and now a third friend, Taylor, for 4 months now. While they still do not profess Jesus to be God in the flesh, they are in a discipleship relationship with me, whether they know it or not.
Discipleship starts the second you are intentional about sharing Jesus with someone. So do not simply evangelize to someone when they walk up to your front door. Disciple them.