With my husband out of the country (for way too long), I have treated myself to breakfast out. By far one of my favorite places to find breakfast outside my house is Cracker Barrel. Brown sugar, pecans, cranberries…on yeah, oatmeal along with fresh orange juice and coffee…worth getting dressed and leaving the house for.  Oh, a wander through their gift shop usually results in one or two smiles if not a purchase, like the flying pig or the motion activated, laughing rolling dog. (Yeah, I go for the sophisticated stuff.)

So, I was making my way through the shop while I was also thinking about church stuff like evangelism. Well, maybe not deep, intellectual, evangelical theology that I fantasize other pastor’s are always thinking about in Cracker Barrel, but the catchy “catch their attention-make it easy for my congregation to invite others” kind of evangelism. I was also looking for a brown hen salt shaker to replace my broken one. Then, synthesis!!!! (Eureka! In other words). Short, pithy questions began coming to mind as I looked at the tempting items on sale:  Easter on sale items: “Old life getting you down? Come and get a new one on Sunday mornings at…”; magnetic bookmarks: “Keep losing your place? Us, too. Come and see if you stick to us on Sundays at …”. Hmmm, small bag, printed invite? Maybe placed in a basket at the at the church door so members can grab several to give to friends, placing them on door steps or car windows…hmmm, it might work.

So, I shared my “eureka moment” with a clerk. Then the manager got involved. Seems they had baskets and baskets of clearance salt and pepper shakers in the back. Hundreds and hundreds if tiny salt and pepper shakers in many inspiring shapes. Luggage: “got baggage? Us, too. You will feel right at home…” Bunnies: “New life? Want to know what a new life might look like for you? Come and join us as we follow the life giver…”… You get the drift. So, after counting small salt shakers for a while, I paid the clerk for two brown bags full of salt shakers (less than a hundred dollars but more than $50 at $.50 each). In an hour, I am to go to a church and bag the little condiment holders with cleverly worded invites.

I feel somewhat ashamed of the advertising tactic of all of this. Yet, I do believe that we aren’t offering anything we can’t, through God, deliver. (o.k. maybe God through us can offer– important distinction.) Most of our members have been a part of the ‘new life’ long enough to have gotten comfortable in it. Some of us are are cradle Church members life in Christ has been our normal. Yet, in our community there are maybe hundreds who haven’t been touched by God’s unconditional love, in part because some Christians have a “worthiness” clause attached to the grace they share that anyone with known baggage might fail. So outsiders haven’t felt comfortable in our midst. Plus there are many, many who have not heard the gospel and aren’t aware of the miracles it may hold. We have been loved with a Love that can, and has for many of us, indeed upacked our baggage– transforming garage sale kitch into precious hidden  treasure–allowing us to move beyond its shame, weight, fear, anger, brokenness, etc. This transformation is all we have to share with others that has a value. But that value is the beginning of the new life in Christ that we celebrate each Sunday.
So, cheap grace? I am not sure, but prying open my luggage had, and generally still, requires great cost on my part. Salt shakers? Cheap evangelism hook? Maybe. Effective? Only through the Spirit…but that is where the miracles come in.