I received an email from South Africa overnight about an Angus Buchan event this weekend. I thought I would pass it on in case anyone wants to watch it on God TV…
“This Saturday (19-07-2008) Angus Buchan (author of the book, Faith like potatoes) will be preaching at Loftus stadium Pretoria South Africa, with a estimated attendance of 67000 people. This event will be broadcasted live on GOD TV around the world”.
More details can be found here
Recently someone I know commented that I was not judgmental like most Christians they had meet. I was taken aback, but I also took it as a compliment. All I could say was that I know where I have come from and what I have done, and I know Who has forgiven me and what it cost. I explained that I had been forgiven a lot and I was in no position to judge and that I am glad I don’t come across as judgmental.
As I thought about this compliment though (as good as it made me feel for a bit) I couldn’t help but feel that in many ways we do come across as judgmental. As Christians we talk about sin and getting right with God and it must sound at times that we are judging people.
I have found that the times when my evangelism efforts have worked best is not when I have told people they are sinners who need to get right with God, but when forgiveness is weaved into my story. If I share some of the things I have done in the past and then talked about the weight that lifted off me when I confessed them to God, they seem to understand.
After all, the Gospel message or Good News is first and foremost about a loving gracious God who wants to walk with us daily. Yes there is the sin that needs to be dealt with, but in many cases people need to hear about the forgiveness we have experienced first, so they will be open to receive God’s forgiveness themselves. When we do this our gratefulness to God comes across rather than sounding judgmental.
I was just over at BillyGraham.org and found an article about a young guy who was bullied at school and felt empty and alone. Another kid from his school invited him to a crusade and it changed his life forever.
It really shows the power that taking an interest in someone can have and how a simple invitation can change someone’s life for now and for all eternity.
If you are interested in reading the article you can find it here . Enjoy!
As a Christian involved in ministry there are times when you wonder if you are making any difference in the lives of the people around you. A lot of the times you don’t see any real measurable difference you are making and sometimes in your quieter moments you can tend to get a bit discouraged.
One of the things I have learned to do in ministry, especially in the area of evangelism, is to look for small encouragements along the way. One simple example is the other night someone I know opened their new Bible and brought out a tract I gave them four months ago. They read part of it out to the group and then said I believe this is true.
Now you might think this is a small thing. But it was good to know that they still had it, that they had read it cover to cover and they understood it. On the grand scheme of events it is quite small, but to me it was little encouragement that encourages me to listen to God’s prompting and hand out more tracts.
If you are in ministry I would encourage you to look for small signs of what you are doing has made a difference. Listen to people’s word and see if they repeat something from one of your sermons or if they are helping someone in the way you helped them. You might just find that you are making more of a difference than you think.
God Bless,
Dave
One of the things we talked about last night was the effectiveness of various outreach philosophies. We talked about what we have seen work and what has not. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that evangelism works best in the context of relationships. No surprise there I guess?
This got me thinking about how I go about relational evangelism and what has worked for me in the past. Here’s a few random thoughts on what I have done that seems to have worked when I have entered a new workplace or club etc.
1. Natural relationships - I just try to be a friend and get to know people. I don’t try to make friends to evangelise them, but as I get to know people this seems to naturally happen.
2. I am a Christian - I let people know I am a Christian. Again this is done in a natural way. If they ask about my weekend, I might say what we did or mention church. This just opens them up to the idea I am a Christian.
3. Prayer needs - I let people know I pray and that if they ever have any thing that they need prayer for I am willing to pray for them on the spot or during my prayer times. If they are going through a major life crisis I ask if it is ok for our church to pray for them.
4. Questions - During conversations I might let them know that if they ever have any questions about God and stuff they can ask me. This is to open the lines of communication to spiritual things.
5. Bible - I ask if they have a Bible and if they would like one. If they do I give them and Bible and a tract. Again I let them know if they have any questions they can speak to me.
6. Living right - I have found that when you let people know your a Christian, they watch you carefully to see if you really are living out your faith. I try to do my best to follow Jesus in everything I do.
7. Follow up - I ask if they read the Bible or the tract and what they thought. If they accepted Christ I give them some sort of discipleship program for new Christians. This is to help them set a solid foundation for their new faith.
For me these are the things I naturally do in the course of building relationships. All the way through I pray for the people God prompts me to pray for and ask that I will recognise the opportunities God places before me.
I have found that more often than not, people come to Christ. This is as a result of being open to God, being open about your faith, by really living the Christian life and by being the best friend you can be.
One of the things I love about aid organisations like World Vision and Compassion is that they break down the task of helping those in poverty into smaller pieces. If you or I were to go out and try to “fix” world poverty, we would try for a while and then probably lose heart due to the enormity of the task.
World Vision in particular realised this and came up with the idea of one person changing one persons world. They worked out that individually we can’t change a countries cycle of poverty, but an individual can enormously impact one persons life and change it for the better. Hence, child sponsorship was born.
As I thought about this recently I came to see how we can use this approach in our task of evangelism. You and I can’t bring the whole world to Christ, but we all have one or two people in our lives that we can impact for eternity. It might just mean committing to praying for them everyday for a year, purchasing a Bible for them, giving them a tract or inviting them to church. Simple things like this can change there life forever.
Is there someone in your life you could pray for? Is there someone you could give a Bible or tract to? Is there someone you could invite to your church?
I am currently going through and reviewing the articles and other pages on our PASSION website. I felt it was time to update some of the pages and cull some of the older articles. One of the pages I have had a look at was our evangelism tips page. It lists our top five tips that have helped us in sharing our faith. I thought I pass it on as it might give you some suggestions that would help you in your efforts. Here’s the link to our “evangelism tips” page.
Here’s the outline of the message I did in church yesterday. It is titled “Praying for breakthrough in evangelism”.
1. Pray for your environment
This is the place where you spend most of your time or you feel God wants you to impact. It might be your street, workplace or school.
2. Pray for those around you
I find the best way to pray for people is to ask the Hold Spirit will move in their lives (see John 16). These are the people who are in your sphere of influence.
3. Pray for yourself
It is easy to forget to pray for yourself in when praying for breakthrough in evangelism. If you are reguarly out there on the front line you need to cover yourself too.
Since I became a Christian back in 1989 I have learnt a few things about sharing my faith. Some of them the easy way, some of them the hard way! Here is a few of them…
Prayer is Vital
I believe prayer is the key that unlocks the hearts of those around us and opens them up to the Lord. I have found that no matter how hard some people are or how closed they are to the Gospel, if I commit to pray for them regularly, in God’s time they start to soften. Before long some actually come to me and ask about my faith!
The Holy Spirit does the real work
As Christians it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking it is our job to save our family and friends. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, that the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. This verse says very plainly to me that I can preach until the cows come home, but if the Holy Spirit doesn’t move, no-one is going to get saved. Remembering this can take the pressure off us all!
I am just called to sow
I have had many times when I have tried to share my faith and the words just didn’t come out right. I have walked away shaking my head wishing I should have said this or that. One day as I was dwelling on this a bit too much, God layed on my heart is that as a Christian I am just called to sow His word into peoples lives. If I do my part faithfully, He will take care of the rest. As I said before, knowing this takes the pressure off.
I hope this helps if you are active in sharing your faith 