by Les | Jun 20, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Recently I have heard some people express concerns about speaking to others about their Christian faith. For most, when they hear the word evangelism they get a mental image of walking onto a stranger’s front steps and knocking on their door and then asking them if they know Jesus Christ. I can honestly say that the very notion of doing this frightens me and I would expect that I wouldn’t be warmly welcomed. Thankfully, statistics indicate that this method is not the most effective form of evangelism.
A few years ago Rev. Dr. Jeffrey A. Johnson, American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ national coordinator of Evangelism and New Church Planting, wrote a book called ‘Got Style‘ that introduced friendship evangelism. Dr. Johnson once met with a group that had gathered here at Meridian Avenue on a weekday afternoon to discuss friendship evangelism. Dr. Johnson’s book says that the most effective evangelism is where you share your faith in the context of a friendly, casual conversation. This is done by looking for opportunities to talk about your own faith experiences.
So how does friendship evangelism work? There are several ways in which to utilize friendship evangelism, the way that I like best is to look for a chance to make a statement that offers an opportunity that allows the listener to begin asking me questions. Below are a couple of examples that have worked for me in the past.
While sharing a pizza with someone from work I mentioned that the best pizza crust that I ever had was while I was in Santa Ana, El Salvador. A statement like that will either not be responded to or it will prompt the other person, or persons, to ask what I was doing in El Salvador. The answer to his question was that I was there helping to build new homes following two devastating earthquakes in 2001. Often more questions will then be asked; how did you get there, who were you working with, what things did you see and why did you go?
Another choice that I have used to start the same general line of questions and responses is by stating that the most unusual thing I have eaten is Iguana. This normally receives questions such as, where did you eat that which is followed by what you were doing there. (I was in Nicaragua at the time.)
The point of this type of methodology is that the other person(s) feel that they are in control of the conversation. If you, out of the blue, begin a discussion about the need of salvation, or about what Christ has led you to be a part of, you are controlling the conversation and others may feel threatened that the ‘do you know Jesus’ question is coming. On the other hand, if you can turn the conversation so that others are asking questions, then they are leading the conversion and they feel less stressful. From their perspective it is simply a friendly conversation.
Generally, if you can put another person into directing the flow of the conversation then they are more open to actually listening to what you have to say. People are often eager to hear how God has influenced our lives…. as long as they are asking the questions.
Questions are bridges for effective evangelism. If you feel that you don’t know enough to effectively witness (evangelize), be assured that you know more than you think you do and always trust God to take the conversation to where it ought to go. When exercising friendship evangelism be sure to subtly mention that whatever you have done is to God’s glory and never for your own.
It is the task of the Holy Spirit to save the lost, not our’s. Our job is to plant seeds and to water the garden that another may have already planted. The Holy Spirit will move in a person’s life when the time is right. We are to be available and willing to share Jesus in our life but we should earn the trust, from another person, to speak of Jesus to them.
I have mentioned a couple of methods that I have used to open conversations to share my faith with others. Helen, my wife, is far more gifted in the use of friendship evangelism. She was employing friendship evangelism before either of us knew there was a name for it.
by Les | Jun 13, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Julie P. recently said that the most important thing that we, the church, should be doing is to bathe our church in prayer. To bathe means to immerse in water, to clean oneself with soap and water. The word bathe, when used as a verb, indicates an active participation in the cleaning, immersing process. To bathe our church in prayer is a prayer process that means intentional and thorough cleaning.
Here are seven ideas of how to go about how to bathe Meridian Avenue in prayer. Feel free to expand on this list below as the Spirit leads you in prayer.
1. Pray for unity in the church.
Pray that God will help us to set aside any differences we may have as we look to serve the greater cause that is Christ.
2. Pray that God will be glorified in all things that we as a church do and that Christ is continually exalted.
Pray that we as a church may make a difference in this world for the glory of Christ and for God’s purpose.
3. Pray that God’s Spirit and power will fill the church.
Pray that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
4. Pray that the church would be faithful to go into all of the world and share the gospel of Christ.
Pray that we are bold in saying that Jesus paid the price of our redemption and for us to never take the gift of his love, in our behalf, for granted.
5. Pray for those who serve in church leadership.
Pray that every leader of this church, and churches around the world, have their hearts and minds directed towards Christ.
6. Pray for God’s power and protection against the attacks of the enemy.
The enemy we combat is strong but the power of God is far stronger. Pray that each of us is sheltered in His strength against the enemy of the church.
7. Pray that the church is awakened and is stirred into action.
Pray that each of us is awakened and that we live aware, listening to God’s words, and willing to make a difference in the lives of others.
by Les | Jun 6, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Luke 6:38, Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
By accepting Jesus as our savior we come to know God. Through studying the scriptures we grow in faith and understanding. By serving others, as an extension of knowing Christ and maturing in faith, we can become happier and live more fulfilling lives.
It is wonderous that people derive joy by serving others and giving of themselves. By giving to others, by serving our fellow man and woman, we can experience a sense of fulfillment that cannot be found in any other way.
There are so very many ways in which we can serve others. We can serve within our church by helping in the kitchen, being an usher, helping to decorate the sanctuary or by serving in a leadership capacity. We can also help our neighbors who have need for assistance. This can be as simple as collecting their mail while they are away from home or shoveling a snow covered driveway. We can even serve as a volunteer with one of the many community programs to help those in need. The opportunities are plentiful and many of them provide an opportunity to tell others how Jesus has led you to serve.
Those who have come to experience God, and have grown in faith, should serve others just as Christ and his Apostles served others.
Acts 20:35, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
by Les | Jun 1, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Every new Christian needs an opportunity to grow in their faith. Unless a new Christian, a newbie, has a mentoring Christian’s influence in their life they will likely continue to think and act as they did prior to experiencing God. Those of us who are more mature Christians have an opportunity to influence new Christians.
To effectively have a mentoring influence in a person’s life, Christian or not, the mentor must spend time with the one to be mentored. A newbie can come to worship services every Sunday, greet and shake hands with mature Christians every week, but not have their life influenced for lack of opportunity to spend meaningful time with a more mature Christian. Without an opportunity to spend quality time together there is limited opportunity for a newbie to meaningfully connect with mature Christians.
Connection is vital in the development of any new Christian’s faith development. Without a connection to others who are attending the Sunday service the newbie remains the newbie and often feel unnoticed or detached from others attending worship service. This is one of the reasons that Pastor Dick has mentioned small groups, connection groups, several times.
Gathering in smaller groups provides opportunities that will never exist during a worship service. In a small group the newbie is one of the few present rather than another face in a crowd. Small group gatherings are more intimate. A small group allows an opportunity for the new Christian to be noticed as well as an opportunity to get to know the others in the small group. It is an opportunity to learn about each other’s families, jobs, hobbies and, of course, to grow in faith.
In a small group it is easier to share your faith experiences which new Christians need to hear as well as an opportunity for the newbie to ask questions he or she might have. Small groups become like an extended family, a family that every member can ask advice from and seek support.
Also, in a small group, more mature Christians have an opportunity to grow. They learn from the experiences of others and from the God given knowledge that others have. There is also an opportunity to learn to communicate the Good News that is Jesus with others more effectively.
The skills gained in a small group can also be used outside of a small group. You never know when God will put you before someone in the checkout line at a grocery store or next to someone in a department store that needs to hear something from your faith journey.
Small groups allow more mature Christians to help guide those who have recently come to Christ (Experienced God), as well as an opportunity for all to grow in faith while learning to better serve others.
by Les | Jun 1, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
How does one experience God, where does one experience God and when does one experience God? These are three questions that are hard to give a good answer to.
All experiences with God, every one of them, are subjective. Everyone comes to know Him in a unique and special way. The experience, the first time knowledge of His presence, is always personal. If you get right down to the basics, the Bible is a book that records the history of how God reveals himself to people. Moses met God through a burning bush, Jacob wrestled with God and Isaiah met God in a vision. Still, there is one place today that we can experience God’s presence, a place that Jesus promised to be. That place is during worship. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Jesus wants us to come to know Him and to accept him as our Savior. He wants us to seek Him and to pursue him and to have a share in his eternal kingdom. It is His wish that we feel his magnificent presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit; the inseparable trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that connects us to the individual member of the trinity as well as connecting each of us to one another.
It is God’s desire that we come to experience him and to grow in faith to become mature and able servants that are empowered to serve others.
by Les | May 18, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
A number of years ago our family was vacationing in West Virginia. On a Sunday evening we, and the people we were visiting, entered a small country church for evening services. As services began the music leader said that he remembered the day that he was saved (pronounced save-ed), some thirty years prior, like it was only yesterday. I later mentioned the speaker’s zeal to the people we were visiting and got a response similar to this, “It is too bad that he hasn’t moved forward and grown since that day.”
This reminds me of something another friend once said to me. He said that there are only three things that a Christian is to do. The first is to make disciples and the second is to help the new disciple to grow in faith and knowledge. The third and final thing a Christian is to do is send the prepared, mature disciple out to make more disciples.
Far too many churches concentrate on the first step, making disciples, and fail to mentor new Christians. New disciples need patient guidance and instruction if they are to grow in their faith.
Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20 read as this, “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus himself instructed Christians to teach new Christians to obey his instructions. If we fail to teach new Christians then we are failing to fulfill His great commission. We, as disciples of Christ, are to help others to experience God, grow in faith and to serve others.
