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Last year I attended the Oxygen conference in Sydney for ministry workers. During one of John Piper’s talks, he got to a point where he realized he had been talking about ‘the gospel’ as foundational to the Christian life without ever telling us what he thought that gospel was. So he told us he was about to outline ‘John Piper’s gospel’, which had six points to it. (more…)
Late last year I wrote about praying for our school and loving people at our school. Today I conclude my mini-series with the bit I find the hardest: gospel speech.
flickr: activefree
I’m no saleswoman. I don’t have the thick skin, the showmanship, or the gift of the gab. But apparently, that’s not what I need to help people get to know Jesus. The best salespeople, I’m told, show genuine concern and sympathy, and believe in what they’re talking about.1 That sounds a bit more like me. I can love; I can believe; I can pray. But I also have to open my mouth and speak.
That, I’m not so good at. (more…)
Love and judgment are not opposites. Love and indifference are opposites. Those ideas are well-known but still worthwhile to state. Connecting love with judgment helped me work through some of the theological obstacles I had when I was a younger Christian (i.e. the “how can a loving God judge people” ones). (more…)
Things don’t always go to plan. You try to do your Christmas shopping in October, but somehow you’re still looking for gifts on the 23rd of December. You mean to ask that couple from church around for dinner, but the weeks go by and the invitation slips your mind every Sunday. This is the year you’re going to exercise more and eat better… how did another kilogram sneak on to the scales? (more…)
In the September issue of The Briefing, Moussa Ghazal wrote about making conversation with Muslims. He spoke of two alternative approaches: befriending Muslims and patiently sharing the gospel, and the polemics of ‘expose-the-errors-of-Islam’. He suggested the former method is something any Christian can do, and the latter is probably best left to experts who have extensive knowledge of Islam (and Christianity!). Samuel Green is one such expert, and although he’s no stranger to warm, personal, gospel conversations, here he takes on the task of responding to ‘A Common Word’, an attempt by Muslims to engage in interfaith dialogue with Christians over what they claim is shared ground: love of God, and love of one’s neighbour.
If you insist to a friend that the ‘real meaning of Christmas’ is the birth of Jesus Christ, there are two kinds of response you’re likely to get. (more…)
Here’s my second post inspired by Lionel Windsor’s ‘gospel speech’ series. The last one was about prayer; this one is about relationships; the next will be on gospel speech.
flickr: Adam Jones, Ph.D.
Our local primary school is marvellously multicultural. During the years they’ve been there, our kids have become best friends with Buddhists from the Punjab, Muslims from Pakistan, and Catholics from Serbia, as well as some fair-dinkum Aussie pagans. At last count, the kids at school trace their recent ancestry to more than 50 countries. In a place like this, mission knocks on your door and asks itself in.
On my previous article about gospel speech, Craig made some comments and suggestions that I thought were so good they were worth a whole new post.
As a layman, what encourages me in evangelism, more than anything else, is hearing about other laymen doing it. For example, a while ago I heard a mate at church describe how he was planning to witness to the bloke in the next cubicle. That did more to encourage me than 10 sermons on evangelism would have done.
“I can’t do what they’re doing.”
Maybe you’re convinced that gospel-speech is at the very core of what it means to be a Christian. Maybe you’re convinced that the world needs to hear the gospel. But you look around, and you see real live gospel speakers. You watch them closely, and listen to the way they talk. Then you look at yourself, your own speaking abilities, your own background, your own life situation. And you realise, with a mixture of bewilderment, disappointment, and maybe even a twinge of jealousy, that you’re not like those gospel speakers. You don’t have their gift. How could you ever do evangelism like they do it? (more…)
“I’m more comfortable speaking the gospel to insiders rather than outsiders.”
Maybe you think that you’re not the kind of person to speak the gospel to outsiders because you’re more comfortable speaking to insiders. But gospel-speech doesn’t work that way. Gospel-speech breaks through distinctions between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. That’s because the gospel itself is exactly the same message for everybody.
This is a staggering truth. (more…)
After all those great posts by Lionel Windsor about ‘gospel speech’, I thought it might be good to write about what this might look like in practice, with a post or two about getting to know families at our local school.
flickr: AndersRuffCustomDesigns
It all started when my friend Rachel sent an email to Jess, Tanya and me:
I’ve been dwelling on how much I want to see families I meet at pre-school and school become Christians. And the best thing I know to do is pray. I think you all share the same passion – why not pray together? How fun to enjoy seeing God work!
“I’m not the mouth in Christ’s body.”
Paul talks about the church as Christ’s body. The body is made up of many members (e.g. 1 Cor 12:12). All of these members are equally important, but they’re not all the same. Some people are feet, others are ears, others are eyes, and noses, and hands (1 Cor 12:15-26). We all do different things, but we all belong to each other. “So,” you might say, “I’m not a mouth. Speaking is not my thing. I have other, equally important, roles in Christ’s body.” That is, maybe you think that you’re not the kind of person to speak the gospel to others because you’re not that kind of body part.
But there’s a problem with this line of reasoning. (more…)
This is the third episode of Trellis & Vine Talk, in which Tony and Col discuss fads and trends in evangelism, the value of evangelistic events, re-inventing Sunday night, and going to church twice a month (MP3).
“I can promote the gospel better by my good works.”
Maybe you think that you’re not the kind of person to speak the gospel to others because your particular role in gospel proclamation is to do good works. Why not, you may ask, let other people do the talking? Don’t your works contribute something important to the proclamation of the gospel all by themselves? (more…)
Am I Really a Christian?