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Category Archives: Evangelism
Introducing God to my friends
Everyday Ministry
‘Jars of clay’ is a column featuring stories about people speaking the Bible’s life-changing word in every situation. In our first-ever instalment, Karen Beilharz reminisces about the year she spent trying to introduce God to her friends. (more…)
Wesley, charms and church planting (Part II)
Everyday Ministry
According my trusty Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, the following are synonyms for ‘pedant’: dogmatist, purist, formalist, quibbler, hair-splitter, casuist, sophist and nitpicker. Given that theologians study dogmatics, doesn’t that tend them towards pedantry? And if so, how could I say in my last post that church planters need to be theologians in order to contextualize the gospel?
Theologians are as risk-averse as actuaries, so how can they contextualize the gospel successfully?
Hit me with a Psalm!
Everyday Ministry
Psalm 53, to be precise.
Psalm 53:5, to be preciser.
Okay, so if you really wanted to connect the gospel with the people in the community, you just know intuitively that telling them that they’re under judgement is marketing suicide. It’s a bit like selling your medicine by asking people to come along to a discussion group so that they can share about their favourite disease.
Christians who believe judgement is real often respond, therefore, by hiding the information about God’s wrath inside the fine print of their mind. After all, they reason, the Bible reserves its worst words of judgement for religious insiders.
The power of Columbo
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
I loved Jean’s post on the tongue-tied Christian who struggles with the snappy response to evangelistic opportunities that open up in conversations. I guess I recognized myself in the mirror.
By providence, I’d just begun reading a book on evangelism and apologetics by Greg Koukl called Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing your Christian Convictions.
Although he talks about “controlling conversations” in a way I’m not quite comfortable with, so far, there’s stacks that’s helpful.
What’s your story?
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
Isn’t it delicious to share stories with a friend, a spouse, a brother or a sister: “Remember the time when …”? Whether it’s funny stories, tragic stories, joyful moments or painful recollections, it’s the stories that bring us close—that breed familiarity, friendship and love. Shared stories are the glue of relationship.
Reading the Bible with your eyes open
Life
You read what you see.
You knock on the door of the dingy inner city terrace. You probably did see a whole lot of Harley Davidsons outside on the footpath, but obviously you weren’t thinking. The door opens, and now you see a room full of leather-clad, patch-emblazoned, hairy types of the bike riding persuasion. You were supposed to invite the happy householder to a gospel thingy at the local church. If you go along with that plan, you suddenly see a different future stretching out before you—and it doesn’t seem to stretch that far any more.
Is it easy to love our neighbours?
Up front
We’ve been reading the Sermon on the Mount around the dinner table, and it’s made for great discussion and interesting questions. (“Dad, why would someone want my tooth?”) Recently, we were talking about the issues Jesus raises concerning loving your neighbours and praying for those who persecute you. The discussion went something like this:
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Ministry in the military
Everyday Ministry
Stranger evangelism
Up front, Sola Panel
I believe in stranger evangelism.
Over the course of 2009, my own denomination in this part of the world is mounting a concerted campaign to make meaningful, relational connections with everyone in our area, thus helping them to come into a relationship with God through his word. (more…)
From homosexuality to the gospel
Up front
Have you noticed how often non-Christians raise the issue of homosexuality with us these days? “Why is the church so anti-gay?” “What do you think about gay marriage?” “How can you be against two people being in a long-term, loving and supportive relationship? Why should it matter what gender they are?” (more…)
A truly reformed pastor
Interchange
In Briefing #365, Gavin Perkins wrote an Up Front piece which argued that “the good pastor is actually primarily an evangelist”. He argued for this on the basis that Jesus’ parable in Luke 15 talks about a shepherd who leaves the 99 in order to find the one who is lost, and on the basis that Jesus saw the helpless crowds in Matthew 9 as “sheep without a shepherd”. He also reminded us of the example of our hero Richard Baxter in this regard (author of The Reformed Pastor). (more…)
Creating the right question
Up front
I’ve heard it said that, in terms of relating the gospel to culture, the mistake that traditionalists make is that they give the right answers to the wrong questions; they’re answering questions that no-one is asking anymore. They’re tackling issues and fighting fights that belong to a previous generation. (more…)
A cure for gospel tongue-tie
Everyday Ministry, Sola Panel
Tongue-tied adj. unable to speak. Synonyms: aghast, amazed, astounded, at a loss for words, bashful, choked up, dazed, dumbfounded, dumbstruck, garbled, inarticulate, mum, mute, shocked, shy, silent, speechless, stammering, uncommunicative, voiceless, obstructed.
I know people who talk about the gospel in a relaxed, friendly, winsome way. I’m not one of them.