- Dec 20, 2003
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I am preaching a sermon on Luke 5:1-11 this Sunday. It has gotten me thinking about what works when it comes to evangelism. Jesus was incredibly seeker friendly, using a fishing boat to preach to a fishing community and using a big catch of fish to convert fishermen in to fishers of men. He embedded his message into the community and he reached people.
When I was younger I went on a great many church missions did street evangelism, church services in the open air, drama, door knocking. Once we carried a cross into the middle of the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin and had loads of conversations with everyone from Satanists, to drug addicts, to prostitutes to business people , everyone really. Doing drama, leafletting, one on ones, street talks. The stats were all important in these things - how many converts being the key criteria. But then we would leave and lose all contact with what God had done through us.
The best missions were probably the ones we did with local churches where we built the connections for the first time between the people we met and the churches in their neighbourhoods. But Jesus built entirely new connections, entirely new relationships from nothing. These exploded into the phenomenal growth of the church down 2000 years of Christian history. Peters evangelistic nets were bursting with the fish he brought into the kingdom. Was this just a matter of grace or can we all expect such amazing productivity and culture transforming success in showing Jesus to others. I must admit I think I am failing in this area
Later in the workplace I would try to initiate a conversation about Jesus every day. But it got to the point where no one would sit with me at the lunch table and I started to shut up cause I realized they did not want to hear it. Of course it might have been just the way I was saying it. Later people became Christians in my workplace and in community in the context of relationships and made a point of coming up to me and encouraging me for being a witness. When I asked how they said , you have stubbornness that simply does not yield and considers the faith obviously true. All those years of being mocked for my faith had apparently been my witness rather than starting conversations about it myself.
As I have grown older I have become less and less willing to witness to people outside a relationship with them where there is a chance for them to see the deeper witness of a life dedicated to Christ but not without its faults. In a sense how my faith copes with and indeed overcomes my imperfections being the real witness. But this passage from Jesus is making me think about this again. The depth and power of what Jesus did in Luke 5 challenges me deeply. Are we really doing evangelism anything like this and with anything like this kind of transformative effect today.
Anyway I am interested in what worked or works for you , what attracted you to Jesus and his church and what repelled you?
When I was younger I went on a great many church missions did street evangelism, church services in the open air, drama, door knocking. Once we carried a cross into the middle of the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin and had loads of conversations with everyone from Satanists, to drug addicts, to prostitutes to business people , everyone really. Doing drama, leafletting, one on ones, street talks. The stats were all important in these things - how many converts being the key criteria. But then we would leave and lose all contact with what God had done through us.
The best missions were probably the ones we did with local churches where we built the connections for the first time between the people we met and the churches in their neighbourhoods. But Jesus built entirely new connections, entirely new relationships from nothing. These exploded into the phenomenal growth of the church down 2000 years of Christian history. Peters evangelistic nets were bursting with the fish he brought into the kingdom. Was this just a matter of grace or can we all expect such amazing productivity and culture transforming success in showing Jesus to others. I must admit I think I am failing in this area
Later in the workplace I would try to initiate a conversation about Jesus every day. But it got to the point where no one would sit with me at the lunch table and I started to shut up cause I realized they did not want to hear it. Of course it might have been just the way I was saying it. Later people became Christians in my workplace and in community in the context of relationships and made a point of coming up to me and encouraging me for being a witness. When I asked how they said , you have stubbornness that simply does not yield and considers the faith obviously true. All those years of being mocked for my faith had apparently been my witness rather than starting conversations about it myself.
As I have grown older I have become less and less willing to witness to people outside a relationship with them where there is a chance for them to see the deeper witness of a life dedicated to Christ but not without its faults. In a sense how my faith copes with and indeed overcomes my imperfections being the real witness. But this passage from Jesus is making me think about this again. The depth and power of what Jesus did in Luke 5 challenges me deeply. Are we really doing evangelism anything like this and with anything like this kind of transformative effect today.
Anyway I am interested in what worked or works for you , what attracted you to Jesus and his church and what repelled you?
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