Driscoll had 18. Kemp had four

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Mark Driscoll recently came to Australia and shared 18 observations under the heading ‘Obstacles to evangelism in Australia today’. I was at that conference, and just before Driscoll stood up to speak, I had a brief and very encouraging conversation with Rowan Kemp (Sydney University Evangelical Union Staff member) about the recent ‘RE: JESUS’ mission held on campus. He shared with me four observations about helping evangelism in Australia today.

Let me give you some background first. Sydney University EU encouraged the students to design, plan and run events that they thought their friends would attend. Let me tell you about just one example: the Christians studying mathematics put on a talk called ‘Jesus and Mathematics’ in the lecture theatre next door. 27 people attended. Two want to find out more about Jesus. How cool is that!

So all up, 90 outreach event ideas were generated and about 50 actually happened. How cool is that!

Rowan, pondering the many events and the mission as a whole, came up with four observations:

  1. Science vs. Christianity is still a very live topic in the mind of people. It is not yesterday’s debate.
  2. Social ethics matters heaps to people. (BP notes: most Christians have thought through ‘personal ethics’ [e.g. should I be gay or should I get married?] But most Christians are much weaker with regard to social ethics [e.g. should our government legalize gay marriages, given we’re a democracy?])
  3. People are happy to hear about Jesus if we bring Jesus to where they are (geographically, interests etc).
  4. People know nothing about Jesus, so we have to start a long way back, and the pointy end of formal evangelism is ‘find out more’ not ‘become a Christian’. It’s sowing rather than reaping.

I was praising God after my conversation with Rowan—praising him for working mightily through the Sydney University students and staff. I was also praising God for the gifts he’s given Rowan. These four insights are very helpful to the body of Christ.

3 thoughts on “Driscoll had 18. Kemp had four”

  2. Following on from Rowan’s last point Nick Pollard IFES UK staff evangelist, suggests that people are reluctant to think clearly about their worldview and are particularly reluctant to take seriously anyone who makes absolute claims or demands especially Jesus.Therefore we must find ways to help them think about their worldviews so that,in turn,we can then help them to think about the life and teachings of Jesus.

    He suggests Positive Deconstruction.1. Identify their underlying worldview.  2. Analyse it.  3. Affirm the elements of truth it contains.  4. Discover its errors.

      3 Tests to determine if the worldview is true are 1. Does it cohere? ie.makes sense, 2. Does it correspond with reality? 3. Does it work?
      Nick uses this approach with individuals , small groups and larger meetings.

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