Barry's QC Program

When somebody comes into my life that I know I'm going to be with on an ongoing basis, I want to sum up real quick whether or not they're a Christian. It's funny, I ask Christian friends to help people in the lives of the Christian and they say, I am not sure, I think they are, I'm not sure, I think they are, I'm not sure. How can he notice somebody very long-wear to tie, would not know if they're a Christian or not? I mean that's just you never talk about Christian things in Scripture or whatever, I don't know. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast where Barry's book and passion for spreading God's love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now listen in and prepare to have your life ignited. I've been sharing my faith for let's see of 50 years, almost 50 years okay so I've learned some things in the years and you know it's like anything else, you shoot baskets so you're not very good but you shoot like my grandkids, you shoot baskets as often as they do, you start putting it through the hoop pretty good and I learned all kinds of wrong ways to do it. I got to tell you, I offended people, I was pushy, wore my Christian and my arms sort of speak, all those kind of things, I was guilty of that at times and I could see it in the expression that people's faces, they were bothered by what I was saying, they wanted to get away from me and I do that just didn't work. This loving people end to have it is the best solution, you just love people you know and if you love people you'll develop a relationship and then things happen and then the conversation they start asking you questions and it works. I do have a little program that I use that I coined as my QC program about 30 years ago and it's worked really well. When somebody comes into my life that I know I'm going to be with on an ongoing basis I want to sum out real quick whether or not they're Christian. It's funny I ask Christian friends, they are they Christian and they say I am not sure, I think they are, I'm not sure. How can you know somebody very long period of time and not know if they're a Christian or not? That's just you never talk about Christian things and scripture or whatever I don't know. But anyway here's a simple way to do it. When somebody comes into my life for the first time and certainly one of the first times and I know I'm going to be with them on an ongoing basis. But almost always it's the first time. I purposely say something about my church or my pastor. I'll say I'll talk about a joke that my pastor said on Sunday morning or I'll talk about how much fun I have with my friend in church and just say something just casually. If they are a Christian they will always always always say hey you're a Christian where do you go to church? That'll always happen without fail it just always happens. There's so few of us anyway. Hey you go to church, cool man, where do you go to church? That's natural. If they say nothing you know then they are at least not a regular church attender and they're uncomfortable with that subject. And so without them having any idea I just figured out on my own whether or not they're going to church or not, whether or not they are on the Lord or not. So that being the case is for you and the fact of that is most of the time they're not okay in a space that's the way the world is today, they go on my list. And so the queue is qualifying. I just qualify with that question. Next thing is chummy. Let me tell you about chummy. Those of you who don't live near the coast. When you go deep sea fishing you drive your boat really slowly. It's called trolling. You have a live bait tank on the back of your boat and inside of course you have the live bait. And what you do is you reach and pick up one of the live bait and I hate to say it but you flip out and I ain't throw it in the water okay. Then you pick up another one and you flip out the eye and throw it in the water. Now when you flip out an eye that little anchovy, whatever it is, he can't swim straight any longer. And so he starts swimming in a circle. So you flip full the next one and he starts swimming a circle and then you throw out another one. So you end up they're called chum and now you have a chum line behind your boat. So here I am and I'm looking from Marlon. I'm at the back of the boat. I've been throwing chum out and my chum line is from you to me. All right. Got the picture. Now Marlon comes along. He's not hungry. He just swims right on by. Remember we are fishers of men and you can't force feed Christianity. You have to wait until they're hungry. You just have to do that. So you just throw out your chum. You know I throw out my chum. So here's how I do that. I don't wear my Christianity on my sleeve. I'm not overbearing. I don't make people uncomfortable. But whenever I'm with those people I throw out a chum and this is the way I do it. I'll talk about someone else. They go ahead and do beautiful day. I say, boy, thank God he gave us a good day today. Man, we really needed it. And then without a nanosecond passing I always go right into, hey, you see that shot that Kobe shot at the end. They gave us that. The one they gave me. I moved to that next subject so fast that they don't have time to say, oh, there he goes with that Jesus thing. And I hate it when he does that. And I did that to people early on. But I don't do it anymore and I haven't done it for 30 years. And you just throw out a little chum. A little quick thing about God. Move on to the next subject. You're on down. If they're not hungry, they're the Marlon. They go right through the chum line to keep on going. I got to tell you for a fisherman. There's nothing more beautiful than watching a Marlon that is hungry. Okay. And they come across that chum line and they say, oh, there's a tight tiny little morsel. That tastes good, you know. And like a little hors d'oeuvre. Well, there's another one. And they turn and they start coming up your chum line, if you will. Okay, picture the Marlon coming up the chum line. You put out your hook. They bite one time too many and you got your Marlon. There's only one thing more beautiful than watching a Marlon coming up your chum line. And that's watching somebody who's not a believer come up your chum line. And ask one extra question, just the right question. And you get to leave them to the Lord. I mean, that is fantastic. It works every time. It's just amazing. Now somebody, some people that I chum with, I've been chumming with a long time. I have several friends. I'm thinking of one right now. I've been chumming with him for 30 years. Okay. 30 years I've been chumming. He keeps coming closer. I have a lot of people in my life right now that I've been chumming with and all of them are getting closer and closer. And if they're not getting closer, then I make some arrangements and I get there, but I can't push them. You know, it's God's timing. You can't force them. You just have to let it flow. And it's not my responsibility to save them. It's just my responsibility to love them. So I love them first. And I throw out little pieces of chum. And they start coming up the chum line. And it's just a beautiful thing to watch all that take place. And know that it's just a watch that you have a variety of people around you that are all coming closer to you all the time. And I get it. It's exciting. It's just absolutely exciting. We can't control it. It's not our timing. It's God's timing. It's God's sovereignty moving. Each one of these people, they're on a journey. We just want to help their journey go in the right track. If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help us reach more listeners. Remember, sharing your faith, ignites your faith. See you next time on the Ignite with Barry Maguire Podcast. you