The Increase (5 of 5)
Series: The Way
Patrick Edwards
Acts 2:47
Introduction
I feel like in this course of this series that a fair amount of the topics we’ve covered are ones that people hate or cringe hearing sermons about: money, serving, being a better Bible reader, being a more consistent person of prayer. These are topics I think we resist not because we hate the topic itself, but because so many of us feel guilty when we think about them. We feel guilty for not giving or serving or for how little we read our Bibles or that we don’t really pray. And I get it. For me, the topic has always been evangelism. Whether a sermon, or evangelism training, or the entire class I had to take in seminary, the topic of evangelism has always made me feel guilty.
Why? As an introvert the idea of just knocking on doors and talking to strangers really stresses me out. I’m a rather non-confrontational person and so the idea of upsetting a stranger gave me anxiety. On top of that, I never felt the way that I saw others around me feel about evangelism. I hear a preacher say something like, ‘‘It should break your heart and make you want to cry thinking about lost souls going to hell,’ and, frankly, I’m not that kind of emotional person who cries like that. Now turn on the movie Rudy and I’m fighting the water works, or any movie where a dog dies and I’m a blubbering mess. But the topic of evangelism never emotionally moved me the way I saw it do others and so naturally I felt like there was something wrong with me as a Christian for not sharing that reaction.
But the more I’ve studied Scripture the more I’m convinced that we go about evangelism and missions the wrong way. Just like a guilt-based approach to get you to read the Bible more, or pray more, or give more, I don’t think the answer to becoming more missional as a people is just to guilt you into sharing your faith with non-Christians. I think the answer is educating ourselves with what God’s Word says and t ...
Series: The Way
Patrick Edwards
Acts 2:47
Introduction
I feel like in this course of this series that a fair amount of the topics we’ve covered are ones that people hate or cringe hearing sermons about: money, serving, being a better Bible reader, being a more consistent person of prayer. These are topics I think we resist not because we hate the topic itself, but because so many of us feel guilty when we think about them. We feel guilty for not giving or serving or for how little we read our Bibles or that we don’t really pray. And I get it. For me, the topic has always been evangelism. Whether a sermon, or evangelism training, or the entire class I had to take in seminary, the topic of evangelism has always made me feel guilty.
Why? As an introvert the idea of just knocking on doors and talking to strangers really stresses me out. I’m a rather non-confrontational person and so the idea of upsetting a stranger gave me anxiety. On top of that, I never felt the way that I saw others around me feel about evangelism. I hear a preacher say something like, ‘‘It should break your heart and make you want to cry thinking about lost souls going to hell,’ and, frankly, I’m not that kind of emotional person who cries like that. Now turn on the movie Rudy and I’m fighting the water works, or any movie where a dog dies and I’m a blubbering mess. But the topic of evangelism never emotionally moved me the way I saw it do others and so naturally I felt like there was something wrong with me as a Christian for not sharing that reaction.
But the more I’ve studied Scripture the more I’m convinced that we go about evangelism and missions the wrong way. Just like a guilt-based approach to get you to read the Bible more, or pray more, or give more, I don’t think the answer to becoming more missional as a people is just to guilt you into sharing your faith with non-Christians. I think the answer is educating ourselves with what God’s Word says and t ...
There are 17249 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
