Dan's Marinations

Over the past couple of months I've been musing here about evangelism, and I suspect that this post will pretty much wrap up this series unless the Spirit moves me otherwise.  I started by asserting that too many people and churches live in nostalgia for some mythical past rather than thinking about the future.  This past is always better than it actually was in reality.  I then offered three basic assumptions that must be in place for evangelism to take place.  Next, evangelism is personal I wrote.  At heart it is one person interacting with another.  It always comes best from relationship.  Lastly, it is very important that we know our own story.  If you have have faith, there is a story of how it came to be there.  Think about your story, how you came to know Christ. What I suggest now is that just as it is important to know your own story, it is important to know what you believe.  This does not require a seminary degree, or any specialized knowledge at all.  Theological edu

Over the last several weeks several thoughts about evangelism have been marinating in my mind.  First was the idea that it's hard to go forward while looking backward.  Far too many churches look backward nostalgically to some mythical past, rather than looking to the future.  Yes, we do need to reflect on what we've done from time to time, but only in order to make what we do in the future better.  The second thing I mentioned was that evangelism requires three basic assumptions:  that God was/is doing something unique in the Christ event, that we must have some understanding of the thanks that we owe to God, and lastly that we must believe that the life of faith is the best life available.  If we can't at least handle these, my suggestion was to skip the church enterprise altogether and go to the golf course.  Lastly, I suggested that evangelism is personal and comes best in the context of relationship.  It is one person taking an interest in developing a relationship wit

An evangelism related blog I was reading recently included the following illustration.  An expert on evangelism and outreach was visiting a local church.  In the meeting one of the members asked him what the church could do to reach out to the growing immigrant population at their local school.  To this, the resource person responded, "what are you doing to reach out to them?" Churches do have an important role in evangelism.  They can do publicity and marketing campaigns such as putting up banners at local school fields and gyms, having billboards, church signs, conducting mass mailings, and maintaining a user-friendly and visitor-friendly website, etc.  The local church also has other important roles in evangelism.  One of the most important of which is to equip and motivate its members for mission.  This includes forming and training disciples.  The church's educational programs should encourage and enable members to think more deeply about their faith.  The church c