In this chapter Lee Stroebel has a direction in mind. I might take things in a little different one.
He tells the story of getting together with an old college buddy named Tariq. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but Lee knew Tariq was going through some troubling changes in life and could use a friend. They decided to get back together for a classic college-esque road trip. Throughout the trip they had many conversations, about Tariq’s life and the changes that were coming, and also about Lee’s life and his newfound faith. Throughout the trip Lee would bring up faith. At the end of the journey, he talked to Tariq and was almost surprised when Tariq agreed to pray to the Lord and to enter into a relationship with Christ.
Lee says this is an example of hang time. Punters want hang time, basketball players want hang time. You want to maximize this kind of time and Lee says in evangelistic terms we maximize hang time by spending time with non-Christian friends. This is true, but I think there’s something else to hang time that comes up here. Lee spent an entire week with Tariq and brought up faith throughout, but he didn’t batter him with it. He would bring up the conversation and if they also wanted to talk about old friends, life changes, etc, that was ok too. Lee would bring up the Gospel and he’d let it hang there.
You see, sometimes hang time isn’t just about maximizing length, but putting something up there at the right time, and leaving it be. Letting it come back to the person at just the right time. How many times have you said something about faith or otherwise that they didn’t seem interested in, but they came back to later on. Sometimes our Gospel sharing is at it’s most effective when we’re bold enough to put the faith out there, and then we let it just hang and le thte Holy Spirit do his work.
