Do you hear what I hear?


Gordon M Smith in his book Spiritual Direction, makes a brilliant comment and fleshes out an approach to evangelism that I concur with and see as very helpful.

I have recently been asking people--often unconverted people--this question: "Where are you on your spiritual journey?" Or, "What is happening on your present journey?"

Smith believes that if we approach evangelism from an event basis we are most interested in focusing our conversation on the following.

  • This person needs to surrender to God.  
  • This person needs to ask Jesus into their heart
  • If they are know God they need to know certain things, believe certain things, and agree to  live in light of these truths

However, perhaps a better approach, according to Smith is the following:

  • Could it be that God is at work in EVERYONE'S life?
  • Evangelism is not so much a preprogrammed series of questions--but a particular response of a person at their stage of life.

Here is more from Gordon Smith



So, perhaps in evangelism I might built on the following assumptions:


  1. God is chasing people--I don't have to.  God loves people more than I do.
  2. I too am on a journey --just at a different stage.  So I need to be less aggressive to get the guy to buy into a critical stage of 'conversion.'  I just need to help him keep moving and responding to the work of the Spirit that is already going on in his life (as well as mine!)
  3. I need to personally listen to the prompting of the Spirit--partnering with Him--as He draws the guy I am ministering to--towards Him.  
  4. Pray most of all that a real demonstration of God's love flows through me towards people.
  5. I need to intently walk with people.  I have a tendency to 'preach' at the lost.  "Hey lost guy, I'm found--you're lost--listen to me so you can get found too!"  
  6. I simply want people to hear what I hear.  The sweet sound of the Father's feet as He runs to the front door to open it and hug me one more time!  





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning to hate your sin

Image
   John 5:13-15 (NLT) 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.   Lord give me grace, power, and effort to maintain a resilience against sin.  Sin is ALWAYS a dark path. It ALWAYS pays wages.  The wage of sin is death.  Sin will always hurt, always destroy, always wound—you, relationships, stuff, goals, etc.  It is a killer.  It is a wound-er.  It is a consumer of all that is healthy, strong, good, and perfect. Learn to hate sin. Learn to fear sin. Learn to run as fast as you can away from sin. Search deeply for hidden sin. Be disgusted with your sin.  Repent, repent, repent daily for your sin. Be afraid of your sin. Be petrified of your sin. Be worried about your sin. And keep repenting, keeping running into the arms of grace and the arm
Read more

Dumb Mistakes

Image
      Dumb Mistakes   Why do Christians, pastors, leaders, ushers, —everyday Christians— make real dumb mistakes.  Now I am talking about real dumb moral mistakes—lying, cheating, immorality, thievery—-like why? Christine Pohl warns us as follows: “By compartmentalizing aspects of our actions or thoughts, we are able to ignore major inconsistencies and wrongdoing.” Ever heard yourself asking this question: ‘What was he thinking when he did that?’   You think of moral failure or just plain —dumb decisions—and you ask that question!   How does that happen?  What were they ‘thinking?’  Well, Pohl suggest “he wasn’t thinking he had stopped thinking and reflecting.  Instead, the person deliberately excluded a part of his or her life from spiritual and moral scrutiny.”   So now a word of help!  Do the daily examen!  (See.  https://pwcusick.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-examen.html )   If there ever was a culture, a time, a season when Christians need to act like Christians —it is now!   The ancie
Read more

Duh--What church should I attend?

Image
Part # 3 of three Part Blog: Why go to church? What is the ‘church?’ How to find the right congregation? How to find the right congregation? A congregation is what we normally refer to as a church.  Here is the distinction I am making.   The Church; This is the one described in my previous blog… “what is the church.”  It is the timeless eternal body of believers. A Congregation: This is a local gathering of believers who are part of “The Church”. Think of it this way—-three levels: Level # 1-  THE CHURCH—the mystical eternal union of all believers. Level # 2-   The Church in a town/ city/ area.  Because of level # 1, there is realistically only ONE church in a town, city, etc. Level # 3-  Congregations:  These are various groups of people that meet together for primarily four interactive, communal, things: Word:  Preaching, teaching, sharing Sacrament:  Celebration of the Lord’s Supper (communion/ eucharist) Worship: Music,
Read more