Reaching out to others can be challenging. You might find it incredibly easy to talk to others about your hobbies, but when it comes to your faith, you would rather stay silent. Most of the time, this is because we believe that people will judge us when we openly proclaim to follow Jesus or to go to church. In my personal experience, sharing is a lot easier when you get to know each other. Which is why Techpastors will be running a “connect to others” series. In each of the articles, we will look at how you can easily connect to others to get to know them, to enjoy their company and to open up opportunities to talk to people. Remember, this is not about covert ops and then sneaking up on them and hitting them over the head with the bible. This is about growing a community of people doing something that you and they love. It is about being in a comfortable place to not mumble when they ask you about Sunday morning, but to be able to speak up and just say you went to church. Jesus shared with people over meals, during walks and when he met people wherever they were. Apps can help you hang out with people that you might otherwise not have met. It will allow you to build a community around a subject and perhaps that will allow you to share your hearts desires at some point. In this article, we will be looking at fitness apps.
Fitness apps on mobile devices are able to do several things. The reason why they were developed is simple. They help you get fit. They might help you while you run, cycle, kayak, jog, walk, lift weight, do pushups or any other sports. They can track where you are, your speed, your route, your distance and all kinds of averages. And that is great. But there are some sports apps that will allow you to do something else. They allow you to connect to others. For instance, sports apps like Runkeeper, Endomondo or even Teemo will allow you to get fit and do that with your friends. Or with people in your neighborhood.
Lets look at Endomondo for a minute. On the Endomondo website, you can connect to your friends through social networks. But you can also look at the routes that people have plotted in your area. That way you can find people in your area that are running and you can pick the ones that fit your fitness best. You can then connect to the people that have set up these routes and see whether they want to run with you. Easy as that. Send out a message, pick a time and date and start running, cycling, kayaking etc. together.
If you feel a bit uneasy, try to gather a group from your church to back you up and just organize a local 5K run for instance. Set a great route, turn it into an event at Endomondo and invite your friends to join you. If you are trying to get in touch with your local community of runners, please keep the following things in mind:
You might not want to call the run after your church
You might not want to have the run leave from the church and lead to the church
These people come in to sport. If they come to run, talk to them about running, don’t hit them over the head with the bible
This is not a covert op, remember? You are here to do sports together. Enjoy it. Be as competitive as they are. But keep it clean and make that part of your testimony.
And most importantly, have fun. Don’t feel like halfway the run you ought to witness on how you found God. If someone asks during that first run, that is great. But it might not happen. That might take three or eight events. Nevertheless, you are building relationships with others and pray that those will allow others to be touched by God. And not necessarily by you.