There have been some interesting things going on recently. Many people are excited, talking about revival, and reaching “the lost”. When a bunch of Christians gather, it doesn’t seem odd to celebrate and worship God. But it strikes me that when we start interacting with those who aren’t followers of Christ, it would be naive
Tag: evangelism
Do We Assume God’s Role in Evangelism?
A while ago I was reading a book (The Divine Conspiracy I believe) which talked about God being in charge and in control of your life. It caused me to think, “How often do we take charge of something which is God’s responsibility?” This starts in our own lives. How often do we try and
Offensiveness of the Gospel
At times I’ll hear someone talk about how the gospel is offensive. In virtually every case, what the person has in mind is something along the lines of “non-Christians don’t like the ‘gospel’ because it confronts them with their sin.” Yet I want to suggest that this doesn’t match with what we find in the
Hell?
Another topic of discussion lately has been hell. For conservative evangelicals at least if not for most Protestants, the only view even ever presented is that there is a “heaven” and a “hell” and that after death every person ends up in one of those for all eternity. It doesn’t take even a very careful
I’m Not Sure Evangelism Is The Point
An recent event reminded me of an outreach ministry I was involved in a number of years ago. This ministry was an attempt to reach out to the people who go out to one of our city’s main bar districts, Broad Ripple. (I definitely see this as a forerunner to Pub Theology, for those who
Book Review: “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven”
Overview I recently read the book “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven” by Mark Cahill. I must admit, the title alone turned me off. It said to me that the author held to a common view of evangelism, one which I believe has some significant shortcomings. However, since a group I am a part
The Problem With (some) Christians: Funeral Illustration
Today I attended a funeral with my friend Dan. The funeral was for the cousin of a friend of ours, who had committed suicide. Funerals are generally tough anyway, but this one was just downright painful in ways it shouldn’t have been. This mainly had to do with the minister who was “doing” the funeral.
Effective Evangelism? (Part 4)
Part 3 Our Message to the World In my experience, many christians fall into one of two categories: the first is one whose faith, no matter how devout, has little effect on their life as a whole, and so they are pretty much the same as the average unbeliever in their beliefs and values. The
Effective Evangelism? (Part 3)
Part 2 Road Blocks to Evangelism I dare say that unbelievers may well be afraid of joining us today, but for far different reasons. They fear that they may be judged and unaccepted as they are. I have also heard that they are actually afraid they may become worse people! Christians are often seen as
Effective Evangelism? (Part 2)
Part 1 A Better Way to Stand Out While there are few direct commands to evangelize in the new testament, there is plenty of directing to live a christian life. There is plenty of teaching about loving one another and practicing all of the virtues, while at the same time warnings for believers not to