Wherever I have gone I have told the story of Paul Hale, a man I met early in my life as a pastor.
Our kids played on the same basketball team. Paul was a bright systems analyst with a computer company and in his adult life had found Christianity irrelevant. Some circumstances brought us together and before I knew it Paul was seriously checking out whether or not there was any reality to what I was preaching every Sunday about Jesus.
Watching God work in Paul’s life was like living in a Bible story where something incredible happens. Because something did.
Just having Paul around changed our church. His questions and challenges were one thing, but his willingness to love others like Jesus even before he was sure about Jesus was life-changing for us. Before he was a Christian he was the best Christian we had -like taking the homeless guy in the church into his home or welcoming the elderly man who was living alone into his family.
He wound up like the Apostle Paul in our area, connecting with so many people who had rejected God and any kind of church experience.
This Sunday at the Gathering Church, I have the privilege of introducing Paul to you. He will be speaking and I will be interviewing him as an example of someone Living in God’s Story.
God used Paul to show me that the book of Acts was not merely a long-ago history, but rather a description of what God still does in the lives of people.
It will be a special Sunday.