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I was very impressed by the service I received today at Discount Tire here in Austin, TX.  Let me begin by saying I hate car repair.  It is something I cannot do myself, and moreoever I barely even understand what other people are talking about when they help me.  As a result I find it difficult to trust the people fixing my car in my time of need.  (Those feelings remind me of survey results expressed by many people visiting our churches these days.)

That is one reason today was so refreshing.  Last weekend my family had the wonderful experience of getting a flat tire while in the "fast lane" on the highway.  At first my wife pulled off to the side of the road... the left side.  The flat was on the passenger side.

It only took me a few seconds to realize that attempting to change a tire with my back sticking out into the highway was not a great idea.  I do know that much about car repair.

Next we enjoyed a trip from zero to 60 across three lanes of traffic to get to the other median; that was fun!  Oh, and my two kids were in the backseat this whole time, thankfully oblivious to the true nature of what was going on.

I managed to get the tire changed and in light of our recent experience I figured it was not a good idea to leave it flat.  I inspected the tire and found a large hole in the tread and figured that was a good thing; at least it was not in the sidewall.  After doing a bit of research I set off for Discount Tire to get a quick tire fix.

As I pulled into the store this morning the first thing I noticed was that they were slammed.  The parking lot was packed and there were people walking around everywhere.

The next thing I noticed was David walking over to greet me.  I barely had time to wonder, "How did he even see me driving up?" before he offered to assist.  I showed him the tire and he lifted it out of my trunk and said that he would fix it if he could; for Free.  Sadly that was not to be for this tire.  Apparently driving at 60mph across three lanes of traffic on a flat tire does bad things to it.  There were many more splits than I had seen; this tire was dead.

You might be thinking, "Of course David was helpful; he wanted to sell you something."  I agree that David's vision includes selling tires.  But, the fact is he was willing to serve me today for no charge at all, not knowing if I would join in with his vision in the future or not.

During our time together he was able to tell me more about his vision of tires; how he wanted to offer the best tire at the best price with the best service.  He told me that if this had been one of his tires he would have been able to replace it for $15 instead of the $150 I was about to spend.  I won't say I was happy to buy a new tire today, but I did not feel like I was getting robbed and tossed, bleeding, onto the side of the highway either.

I walked out of that store today thinking of how it would be to have guys like David permeating the culture of our church.  What would it be like if we freely served the world, and un-apologetically shared God's vision with them during the process? What if we were not ashamed to tell them the cost of following His vision because we are so convinced that the reward is greater by far?

Jeff Johnson is a Coach/Consultant with 15 years experience in the ministry.  He has served in large, traditional churches as well as church plants and wants to use that experience to partner with church leaders as they find and fulfill God's vision for their community. You can read more at www.jjohnsonlive.com.