Evangelism

We talked some about evangelism today, and I asked you all to think of ways we can reach out to other people about the wonderful news we witness to each week.

Click on the post title to go to the PC(USA)'s page on "Presbyterian Evangelism". It has links to some material on evangelism (like definitions, and the upcoming Evangelism Sunday). Also, you can click around a bit and you'll find some related stuff.

Summarizing a few things we talked about:

1. IMHO, nothing about evangelism should come from or lead to guilt. If the reason you tell people about the Christ we worship is because you feel guilty, we're all doing something very, very wrong. (Imagine a husband telling people about his wife only because he'd feel guilty if he didn't mention her.)

2. Again IMHO, there are a number of different ways to evangelize; it's not simply limited to referring to some script in a conversation with your friends:

Tell me [name of friend] do you know the saving grace of Jesus Christ?
If yes: I'm glad for you [name of friend]. Will you join me at [name of church] next Sunday?
If no: Well, [name of friend], you can know God's grace and be saved from eternal damnation. Please join me at [name of church] this weekend.

I think that we need to get creative about evangelism, especially in a country where nearly everyone has a church, and where most teenagers do not have much choice about where to worship. (Their parents decide.)

I hope this blog will be of some use to that end. I, personally, would find it easier to refer a friend to a website (and then, maybe, invite them to church if they are curious), than to, out of the blue, start trying to "sell" them on Northminster.

Not everyone has a million friends, and it is not, again IMHO, sinful to appreciate the differences between you and your friends (like OrangeBlender and his Jewish friend).

That said, I believe that there are tens of thousands of teenagers (and tens of thousands of adults) within driving distance of our church who are just aching for the "Love Not Fear" message to which we witness.

I'd like us all to think about how best to reach these folks, who have been hurt so deeply by the fear of Hell that they do not know the freedom of love. Please post as comments any ideas you might have, or tell me or one of the other elders.

Comments

Tim Ruppel said…
Absolutely.

We've got a link on NPC's homepage now, too.

Get the word out!
1:56 PM
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