I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
Maybe don’t be in such a hurry to flee the church building after service.
Maybe your interactions with people in the hallway are as important as the service itself.
I call it Hallway Discipleship.
You can also call it “loving people.”
It’s interacting with people in the hallway, your brothers and sisters in Christ, your family members in the family of God.
It’s informal. It’s casual. It’s not structured. But it’s just as valuable as formal discipleship.
It’s Hallway Discipleship.
It’s taking time to look people in the eye, say hello, ask how they’re doing, and being in no hurry. It’s listening to them, hearing about their day, their life, their family, their work.
It’s not looking past them to rush off to the next thing.
When we do this, when we actually listen and care, here’s what it does. It earns us the opportunity to plant a seed.
This is where Hallway Discipleship happens.
Discipleship is helping someone follow Jesus more closely.
In Hallway Discipleship, we help someone follow Jesus more closely one seed at a time.
And God’s Holy Spirit is deeply involved in Hallway Discipleship. Don’t take these hallway encounters for granted. Take them as God moments, divine appointments, meetings arranged by God Himself. God is in it! And God cares about how we handle these opportunities. Do we take advantage of them, like the first two guys in the parable of the talents? Or do we bury them like the last guy, the one Jesus referred to as “wicked and lazy”? Eek. I don’t want to be that guy!
Galatians 6:10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
The household of faith…that’s the people in the hallway!
More than once the Bible says, “especially the household of faith.”
It’s hard to love and care for the household of faith when we are in such a hurry to get away from them.
So slow down. Take it easy. Take some time. Talk to some people. Have some casual conversations. Let God lead, and you’ll be amazed!
It’s not a waste of time.
It’s Hallway Discipleship.
And you’ll find God Himself right in the middle of it.
I’m Doug Apple.
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