Perspective Cards: Airplane Evangelism Story
Barry Warren boarded a Delta Airlines flight bound from Memphis to Oklahoma City, on his way to his uncle’s funeral.
Taking a window seat near the back of the plane, he sat down next to David. Barry learned that the middle-aged man worked in law enforcement and lived in Florida.
About halfway through the flight, Barry took out the beta version of his Perspective cards. The cards are an evangelism tool that he developed over the past 2 years as he’s served with Cru.
Grabbing them from his bag, he placed them on the tray table. They were in an old Aviator card box.
“That box has seen some years – some wear and tear,” David said.
“Yeah, it’s been in my bag for a long time,” Barry mentioned.
He took out the Perspective cards and placed them on the tray in front of him.
David was curious. “What’s that?” he asked. “Are those flash cards?”
“It’s a guide for having a spiritual conversation. There are 5 different categories,” Barry explained. “All a person has to do is choose the cards that best represents what they believe. You want to give it a go?”
“I’m not a very religious person,” he replied. “But, ok.”
Barry handed him the 6 yellow cards from the Nature of God category and asked David to choose.
After shuffling through them, David picked the agnosticism card and immediately started telling Barry that he went to church growing up, but he didn’t know why God was important. He didn’t feel the need for God and he expressed that he didn’t think much about spiritual things.
“Maybe God exists and maybe He doesn’t,” David said. “But it doesn’t seem to matter much. This is what I think. I guess I am not really into God,” David said matter-of-factly.
Barry continued to go through the other categories of Human Nature, Meaning of Life, Identity of Jesus and Source of Spiritual Truth cards. During the Who is Jesus? category, David chose the card that said Jesus was a spiritual being.
“Tell me more about that,” Barry asked.
David summarized his answer by saying Jesus was something more than just a guy, but not the God of the universe.
Soon, the flight attendant announced that the plane was landing and to put up the tray tables.
Barry told David that he had been an atheist and an agnostic, but was able to tell him how he came to know Jesus. Barry’s sister had read him some verses from the Gospel of John where Jesus said that He would give eternal life to anyone who believed in Him.
A few days after that conversation with his sister, he felt a great conviction in his soul that the Bible was true and Jesus was real.
“I told God, 'I believe you exist and all this Jesus stuff really happened,'” Barry explained to David. “'I am going to go buy myself a Bible and do whatever You want me to do.'”
Barry went on to tell David about how much God loves him and that Jesus died for his sins. While he was explaining this to David, he handed him a card from the Perspective cards – it was a skeptic’s version of the sinner’s prayer that says, “God, if You are there and it is possible to know You personally, then I desire to know You.”
David held the card in his lap and stared at it. As the plane landed, he was deep in thought. Barry wrote his email address on the back and told David if he had any questions he could contact him.
