If you've been around town the past few months, you've probably seen the guy with the sandwich boards and ventriloquist dummy on the side of the road. I haven't yet been able to fully understand what it is he's trying to tell me and the other commuters who pass him by, but, from what I can gather, he claims to know the identity of the Beast in the Book of Revelation.

Now, I really have no way of knowing what kind of response he's received thus far. But if it's any indication of the larger picture, my experience at the intersections where he stands suggests that it has been overwhelmingly negative. People sit in their cars and fidget, doing everything they can to avoid eye contact or even a hint of visible interest. When the light changes, their cars transform into top fuel dragsters desperate for the top end.

In all fairness, I suppose there are some who have taken the time to find out what this man is saying. But the vast majority of people I know are deeply suspicious of anyone they don't know trying to give them something (in this case--"a life changing message") that can supposedly change their lives for the better. They are the same ones who don't answer the door when door-to-door salesmen (excuse me--"salespersons"--it is the twenty-first century) knock; they hang up on telemarketers; they toss junk mail; they block spam; they tune out infomercials. I'd be very surprised if they listened to or even cared about a man and a mannequin.

The last time I saw him, I thought about Jesus reaching out to other people. During his time on earth, Jesus did a lot of preaching, and his messages remain with us to this day. The Sermon on the Mount is the most famous "speech" in all the Bible, and many of his words remain part of our vocabulary to this day. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," "Judge not, lest you be judged," "A house divided cannot stand," and many other phrases are familiar to our culture, and they originated with Jesus.

But Jesus' biggest impact, I believe, was in the relationships he built with other people. He asked questions, He was patient, He was understanding, He took time to listen, He saw into the seat of human need. He spent three years with a bunch of nobodies who would later change the world in his name. He crossed the racial and gender divide in his own culture by talking to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well. He went to weddings; He went to parties thrown by public outcasts; He allowed a prostitute to touch his feet; He built a relationship with a dying criminal at His own execution. In short, Jesus was all about building bridges to people so that they could know the deep love of His Father.

Whenever I think about this, my heart is broken for everyone I've never really cared about. I've been a pastor for a decade, and I've confronted people I didn't know trying to get them to place faith in a God they couldn't see. How many homes did I visit where I saw the residents as statistics, baptisms, or potential church members, before I saw them as human beings that Jesus died for. How many more would have been receptive if I had been receptive to their lives and needs.

Therefore, several years ago I changed my path. My evangelism strategy is simply this--Invest and Invite. If I take the time to build relationships as Jesus did, if I invest my efforts in genuinely getting to know people (and "genuinely" really means "genuinely"), then sooner or later, I will have the opportunity to share Jesus with them. When they genuinely (there's that word again) know that I care about them, it's much easier to talk about the God who cares for them as well.

Well, if you'll excuse me, there's a ventriloquist with a sandwich board that could probably use a bottle of water right about now...