A recent question from Todd Rhoades over at Monday Morning Insight queried church leaders about how they would squeeze Microsoft-camel-riding Bill Gates, through the eye of the needle of Sunday morning worship.

I scrolled down through the first few responses that could be quickly categorized as:

1. Purpose-driven: The "It’s not about you" gospel theme combined with the post-modern notion of a "personal relationship" with Jesus.

2. Legalism and grace: Tell Gates about the rules and about forgiveness.

3. Sidewalk preacher: "You’re going to hell" evangelism.

4. Apathy disguised as orthodoxy: Who cares? (I mean Quisnam blandior, or in the Greek: ðïéüs ÷Üäé) Why make the church relevant, indeed.

5. Others – friendship, prayer, the Holy Spirit.

Obviously, the question quickly turned from getting to church, to finding the way to God through Christ—that is the point after all. But I was disappointed that there was so much blustering from these pastors and so little insight. I mean, this newsletter/blog (slog?) is called "Monday Morning Insight" after all (italics mine).

So, risking absolutely nothing to put my money where my mouth is, I venture to describe the way I would get Bill Gates to church on Sunday, a.k.a. to Christ.

First, I would e-mail Mark Driscoll, who is pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle—where Gates lives, and ask him how does he get some 6,000 people from the least-churched area of the country to go to church? Here’s what he told The Seattle Times.

Driscoll wasn’t always interested in church either it turns out. Maybe understanding that mindset has helped him attract others who think similarly.

Gates won’t go to church because it isn’t a good use of time—at least that’s what he told Time magazine in 1997. Now, here’s the richest guy in the world, the world he has changed forever with computer technology, the world he is also working on eradicating diseases of poverty from as a $29 billion dollar hobby, and he’s worried about wasting time?

Maybe he’s like Driscoll and has to realize that even good, efficient, successful guys are sinners. Driscoll’s wife gave him a Bible that started him down that journey of realization. So that made me think about Melinda Gates. Apparently, she is a churchgoer, and has taken their daughter. So why not influence Bill?

I’ll never forget one particular statistic Dr. Thom Rainer came up with in his "The Unchurched Next Door" book that indicated that the biggest influence on men coming to church was, yep, you guessed it, their wives.

Here’s what Rainer said about that everyday phenomenon:

"Most churches indicated that their members included a significant number of churched wives who were married to unchurched husbands. The implication of this issue may be profound. We may have within our churches today a group that could be the most effective in reaching unchurched America."

If Melinda can spark the philanthropy of the richest family perhaps she can also point the way to living water, like the woman at the well in John 4.

"Go call your husband," Jesus told her.