Out of the Saltshaker and into the...Forums?

[Kunoichi]

OT:

Evangelism seems to have some negative connotations especially in modern times. Missionary also seems (at least to me) meant to mean off-country/foreign places where you go to tell/help/teach about Jesus etc. In my opinion, missionary can be done "at home" as well as abroad. Missionary isn't necessarily in my mind about going on the street and talking to random people about being a Christian (when I was first a Christian, that was extremely annoying and felt down right holier-than-thou). Not knocking those who do it, that was just my experience.

For myself, I was not raised in a Christian home. I was raised in a very combative atheist home. I became a Christian after looking at all other religions, all other faiths, talking with others of those faith, and well for me at least Jesus was who I felt was the one who actually made most hope and most sense to me. When I did choose to tell my family I became a Christian, it wasn't pleasant. If I made a mistake, I was told over and over how I was going to hell etc.

I then from 14 to 20 had a man who abused me for 6 years. It involved every "type" abuse that there is and it was very, very horrific. During those years, my faith was shaky at best. When I escaped that abuse, my faith was re-evaluated. Still for me, God and Jesus are what spoke to me through those situations.

As for how God has used that suffering, when I share and help others who have also dealt with the same situation I have...I don't preach to them but if they ask me how I have hope or whatever, I tell them. They know my beliefs and many of them still don't agree with me. But I have had some who while they don't have that belief they wish they did. Actions speak a lot louder than words sometimes, Love and compassion can speak even louder.

This is just my personal view on it. Not one to really sit and debate things that people are already set in what they believe, so frankly I don't. If they are Muslim, atheist, agnostic, wiccan..then I tell them while I don't agree; I respect it and if they have questions, I'll answer best to my ability. *shrugs*

[mechana2015]

From the SFL Blog, a better stated explanation why those of us that grew up in church (or at least I am) having trouble with the concept of testimony based evangelism.

Susan-

PW, I’m a PK, and can so relate. How did we miss the main message?

pastor's wife -

I think a big part of it is that Scriptures aren’t really clear on children raised in Christian homes. The Bible shows people as adults who didn’t know Christ who turned to Christ.
Also a lot of preachers and even our own parents didn’t come to saving knowledge of Christ until they were adults. They preached what they knew: “I was involved in a life of sin and rebellion, but I’ll never forget the day I asked the Lord to forgive my sins. My life has changed 100% since that time!” But if you’re a child raised by Christian parents, 1) you’ve never been allowed to live a life of desperate sin, and the sins of complaining, laziness, etc. are ones that keep recurring after salvation, so your life doesn’t have that complete transformation that the evangelists tout and 2) you’ve heard the Gospel message 100,000 times so it’s hard to tell which time was the exact moment you REALLY trusted.
People who grew up in a Biblically-illiterate home and made a decision later in life (a teen or adult) just do not understand the desperate longing and confusion we children had because our testimonies were simple and nondramatic.

[shooraijin]

I don't know if it's testimony-based that's the sticking point rather than transformation-based.

Then again, there is always the popular stereotype of the PK getting wild off the leash and coming back to God, possibly even as a manifestation of the same type of story.

[mechana2015]

Ah, yeah. I think I said that because somewhere just decided that testimony=transformation. (Probably all the sermons I heard saying just that.) You are correct though, it's the transformation based evangelism.

[ChristianKitsune]

I realize I'm coming in this thread rather late but here's my two cents on this topic:

I feel that "evangelizing" is important, but we need to figure out what it IS. IS it going up to someone and being like "Hay thar! You're goin' to hell! But JESUS LOVES YOU!" No, absolutely not, people will turn away and either laugh or be royal upset with the whole Christian thing after that...

I think what's important is not the words we speak, but the actions we show. As Nate said "The world will know who's we are by our Love." Yes, it's important to speak, but sometimes we may just need to stay silent and just.. BE THERE for those who who need Christ. You know?

Also, like WarriorforChrist Said, It's really about the Holy Spirit here. I think a lot of times we act without letting Him work, you know? Like we jump before he says "Go." And Although God can work with that, it's probably easier to just listen, and wait on HIS terms, or GO when he says go and not fight that...

I think to be perfectly blunt that Christians have grown a little soft and wishy washey. I'm including myself in that, I like being comfortable, and it's SCARY out there. To face people and be around them. I like having down time, and just being able to relax. But serving God and others doesn't really denote that so much...does it?

I believe that if we allow God to USE us... things could be changed. I believe if we loved like God does, and not hold back, we could see something totally different.

If we would only love like there is no tomorrow lives could be changed. And for some of those lives, there really is no tomorrow. (my town saw two suicides in one week at the college here) What kind of pain is the world going through, guys? And why are we (seemingly) doing nothing to help it?

(Edit: I realize this thread was about Forums or something, but it seems like people have taken it into a different direction over the course of it's creation... I apologize if I derailed it or something..)

[TWWK]

To all the past few posters, those are great insights. Thanks.

And ChristianKitsune, no need to apologize - I'm glad this thread has become more general in nature.

[K. Ayato]

I feel sometimes we forget to realize that evangelism is a gift (see Romans 12). Some Believers have it, some don't. Personally, I don't have the gift of evangelism. I can't go out in public places and proclaim the Gospel or anything. But I DO have the gift of encouragement and strengthening my brothers and sisters in Christ. Even so, I hope and pray the things I do leave a mark of love on the people I meet.

[TWWK]

I feel sometimes we forget to realize that evangelism is a gift (see Romans 12). Some Believers have it, some don't.

True...but does that mean we're not expected to tell others around us about Christ? Does evangelism refer to all proselytizing, or is it more referring to missions? I dunno. But I find two things particularly troubling if we avoid evangelism because it's not our gift:

1) Are we really okay with not telling our loves ones who don't know Christ about Him knowing that for eternity, they'll be separate from God?

2) When Jesus says that the second most commandent is to love others, can we really say we're loving them with the love of Christ if we don't tell them about the message that will determine their eternity?

These two ideas make me believe that I should tell the people I love and the people I'm connected with about Christ. That said, I'm usually too shy or scared to do so. The forums give me a way to be bold in sharing when I'm often anything but in real life.

[K. Ayato]

Hey, I didn't say that was an excuse for not sharing your faith with people you come across. I understand full well that we're to proclaim the Good News. I'm just pointing out that some have the gifts that enable them to go out with a street team or door-to-door or whatever. Others don't have those gifts, but there are many ways to share the Good News. I don't know what you've defined as "evangelism"; clearly we have our own definition for the term. What matters most is whether or not we're letting God enable us to be salt and light.

[mechana2015]

Websters Dictionary on Evangelism
1: the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ
2: militant or crusading zeal

Unless you're redefining it, evangelism is active or even zealous attempts to win people to Christ. Some people arn't good at this, bar none, no matter whether it's their family or friends or strangers, and forcing them to try it, especially once they're aware they can't is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It's like how some people are natural born salesmen and can sell sand in a desert and some people couldn't give away water to someone dying of thirst. The reason the gifts are listed as such is that some people are literally not capable of some of these things, regardless of how hard you try to push them into doing it. Perhaps through their example or actions or other gifts one may see Christ or develop a closer relationship with God, but evangelism by definition is active effort to communicate a specific message to somebody, and some people just aren't built for it. The diversity of abilities in the church is a great thing, and I don't understand the penchant for trying to mush everyone into one mold.

[TWWK]

[quote="K. Ayato (post: 1460673)"]Hey, I didn't say that was an excuse for not sharing your faith with people you come across. I understand full well that we're to proclaim the Good News. I'm just pointing out that some have the gifts that enable them to go out with a street team or door-to-door or whatever. Others don't have those gifts, but there are many ways to share the Good News. I don't know what you've defined as "evangelism"]

Sorry, I didn't mean to infer you were using anything as an excuse. I just wanted to use your post as a starting off point to discuss what I feel about sharing our faith with others. In fact, I think you and I agree pretty much wholeheartedly on the matter.

As for semantics...like I said, I'm not really sure what we mean by evangelism (dictionary definition aside). What does God expect of us? I'm not entirely sure.

[ChristianKitsune]

I think we are still getting hung up on what "WE" can do...guys, what we have, isn't from US. Our strengths shouldn't be limited to what WE can do. I think too many times we limit ourselves by saying "I'm not equipped to be this that or the other," and while that may be true, are we relying on God here? Or ourselves?

I think God can totally use someone who is shy, or doesn't "have the ability" to tell others about Christ. I mean look how he used so many people in the past. He uses surprising means and situations and people who wouldn't really "Fit" certain molds.

I mean look at Jesus, he wasn't rich, or "kingly" he was a carpenter, a servant and a traveler during his teaching years. And yet look at the impact he had on people. (yah, I know he was GOD but...work with me here XD)

So we shouldn't sell ourselves short and use things as an excuse to close up. (not that anyone here is.) God can use us far more than we've ever imagined. IF we allow Him to work and allow Him to move and use us.

[mechana2015]

Yeah but that action isn't going to take shape of the stereotypical dictionary defined preacher enforced model of 'evangelism' necessarily.

[TWWK]

Yeah but that action isn't going to take shape of the stereotypical dictionary defined preacher enforced model of 'evangelism' necessarily.

I'm not sure that's the model I'm trying to talk about. Spreading the gospel can be spread in many different ways - and should be, right? After all, Paul became all things to all people as the Holy Spirit worked in him.

[mechana2015]

Yes, but the thread OP was partially asking people to actively go to a forum to specifically talk Religion.

[ChristianKitsune]

And why are we relying on a dictionary alone to define something like this?

this isn't something we are called to argue about: The world needs to Hear or See Jesus in all of us, it's more than a commandment, it's a commission. (Co and Mission are the words there, we are working WITH Christ on this one and he's in control here...) We should want to tell people who Jesus was, because the world is DYING to know!

I just don't think something like this requires logic, it requires love for the lost...

Mech, I think it's obvious that people are changing the topic here to more than just being about forums...^^; it's just evolving, it's sort of off topic, but we are still talking about reaching people... be it at a computer desk, or in day-to-day life.

[mechana2015]

Because dictionaries provide social context history and background for words so we can all discuss things on the same page and with the same idea in mind rather than having people essentially saying 'pie squid computer free and if but when' and claiming that it means 'you're my best friend'. Words become little more than gibberish if the definitions being used by two people vary drastically.

[ChristianKitsune]

Because dictionaries provide social context history and background for words so we can all discuss things on the same page and with the same idea in mind rather than having people essentially saying 'pie squid computer free and if but when' and claiming that it means 'you're my best friend'. Words become little more than gibberish if the definitions being used by two people vary drastically.

I didn't mean it like that, but this is a very spiritual issue, and it's not something that can be defined by a few words and sentences. It's a heart matter, it's a faith matter... There are just some things that cannot be summed up so quickly or easily by simply looking up its definition; I believe this issue is one of them.

I certainly don't relate Evangelism to violence like that definition seemed to... but that's just me. I guess...I have edited my previous post to clarify what I meant.