Evangelism - and the upcoming meeting

Hi all,

While commenting on my own post, I clicked on the Jeff Slater link at right. Many of you may have known Jeff, I understand he was an EHUMCer. He is a pastor at my boss' church in Hutchinson now. My wife also went to high school with him. Odd connections really. Getting back to the point...

His blog has a decent "Evangelism" posting on it, at the top as of today. Here's the link: http://ministrygeek.net/  It speaks to something that's been rattling around in my head. Something Mr. Strickler communicated in a response to "Hospitality Team Dialogue" - if I understand Mr. Strickler's meaning correctly. It addresses the concept that "Evangelism by internal focus is all well and good, but we need to work on evangelism externally". Good point. Our focus has been helping the church shift thinking, making it a more hospitable place, learning (for ourselves) what evangelism looks like and what it doesn't, and discussing the groundwork that needs to be laid. I looked at it as "triage" really - with the big stuff yet to come. These are very important, still, and unfinished. But I feel a concern within our group that if we don't start thinking externally pretty soon, we may get mired. This is one thing I'd like to bring up in our upcoming meeting. JC/Mark have communicated a list of about 6 items for us to consider and act on in the next few months...one of those is this "turning outward" concept.

As a reminder, our next meeting is set for 12:00 to 1:15 on Sunday, August 19 and I'm bringing lunch. Don't forget to shoot me an e-mail or a comment on this post to RSVP. I don't want to end up short on the food.

Ever yours in Christ,

Chris

Comments

[Earl Graffius]

I certainly agree that we need to start to focus our preparing our efforts externally. To be prepared for faith sharing it will take training and practice. The 9 week course is a good start, but we need to develop an on going education program that will prepare those with a desire to witness to Christian Cults and other religions. I would say that we have very few who could respond to Mormons and Jehovah Witness'. How to witness to someone from the Islamic faith is a challenge for which very few have the skills. For all of this and more there is a wealth of literature available. There are also experts in these evangelism specialties who have training courses that are available. By starting now we will develop very skilled witness' who will have the skills to make a difference in many peoples lives for Christ. Isn't that the great commission?

Earl Graffius