Evangelism @ MindSay 
god
I will be handling all of your problems today
I will not need your help. so Have a good day.
I had a customer at work thats just like me. going to college, christain, my age. lives a few streets down. and We had a good Jesus conversation about missionary work and about evangelism and sharing the love of Christ with people and all this stuff. I LOVE having Jesus conversations!!
I have also come to the conclusion that I need to soak in the love my friends have for me. because friends is what I need and for the first time in my life, I have amazingly faithful christian friends so I gotta start enjoying my life and walk in the freedom I have in Christ because what happened yesterday, doesnt matter today. It's gone. Forgiven. and today is a new day. and I'm walking in the path with Jesus leading me. Its the best place to be is right next to him.
I LOVE JESUS! and I am an on Fire for Christ Christian for a girl thats almost 20. He's amazing.
Here I go!
Now as much as everyone likes to bash on Christianity’s shortcomings, I think the religion, or rather the philosophy behind the religion, needs a little standing up for. Because it’s not really the morals that are the problem.
Now, I know as soon as these words slip from my fingers and onto the screen, some of you are immediately looking for fault or for confirmation in everything I say next. Pretty please, with sugar on top, do me the personal favor of suspending your judgment till just the end of this page…
And here’s the disclaimer: I am not a Christian. While raised in a Christian household, I do not identify with the religion. The reason is mostly to keep from being associated with many of its “spokesmen”.
But.
I am going to defend the idea, and I’ll tell you why.
A belief that stems from the Eastern religions (in fact, a rough interpretation of one of, if not the first line in the Tao Te Ching) is this: When you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.
It, the reason, the pathway, the guide to life, whatever you want to label it. Basically, those questions that religion was invented to answer.
It seems to me that what gets everyone fired up isn’t Christianity. The debates that are heated and personal are not the ones that center on the very principle philosophic beliefs behind whatever religion is being discussed. It’s argument over the presentation.
In one word: Proselytizing. In the case of Christianity, they call it Evangelism. Now, this is one of those ideas that sounds great… in theory. But in the rush to get out there and “spread the word”, people are missing something big.
Firstly, I don’t think that anyone wants to learn anything from someone if they found out that person was unqualified. Take a moment to explore an analogy with me.
Your Life = your house.
Religion = roofing your house.
There are a lot of different kinds of roofs, a variety of materials, methods to keep the elements out. Think tiles, tar, thatching, etc… Some work better in one condition than others, but generally they’re all there for the same thing.
No one just “knows” how to roof a house when they are born; most of the time, you need someone to give you a rough outline of what to do. Many people prefer having someone else build the roof for them, and use it without really knowing how it works. But for the most part, the general idea of what you are trying to accomplish is just common sense. Usually when someone sees a roof, they don’t ask, “Hey, what’s that for?”
It takes a lot of trial and error to get the technique down; some people have had a lot of this and can give you some ideas as to what has worked for them. But depending on whether or not they’re building the same kind of roof, even the most experienced person can give you the wrong information.
…Are you following? Because now we get to my point.
No one wants to learn how to roof a house form someone who is unqualified.
No one wants his or her house roofed by someone who is unqualified.
Because if you do, what do you get? A leaky roof. The roof doesn’t serve its purpose.
“Of course,” you say, “This is common sense.”
But how many people are out their who think they know what they are doing, but don’t? Like I said, even the most experienced person can give you the wrong information if you’re building different roofs. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, if you don’t mind the expression.
Which leads me to my own conclusion: those who don’t qualify should not be building roofs for other people, or teaching them how to build. Sharing ideas is one thing, but thinking you can single-handedly whip up the basis of their shelter just based of your personal experience is ludicrous, especially when you’ve never lived in their house.
So lets get out of this analogy and re-apply this to religion.
People almost always get touchy when they think a person is unqualified to be speaking about something, even though the person is adamant about their skills. This is where the issue comes from. It has NOTHING to do with whether or not the roofing method/religion is ‘correct’.
It brings me back to what I said in the beginning.
Who are most often the people who don’t know what they are doing? Who do I think is unqualified? The people who say they have it. The people who know, for sure, that what they have is the way. Because like I said, even the most experienced person can give the wrong advice.
Everyone’s house/life is different, and the wise person knows this. So instead of saying “THIS IS THE WAY, I’VE SEEN IT!” in my mind you’d be more likely to hear them say, “I can’t show you the way, but I can give you an idea based on what I've seen.”
I have no qualms with any religion. Whatever works is great. Christianity is no exception to this rule.
But I do have a problem with teaching done by unqualified people. And since no one lives the same life, yet the point of proselytizing is to convey that only one path is the correct path, I think the only person you're qualified to be proselytizing to is yourself. Share with me your experiences, your thoughts, your ideas. I can defend your right to ideas, even the ones I don't agree with. But don’t use your path as a yardstick against the path I or anyone else takes. Because in the end you just end up as the unqualified trying to teach.
And that’s not faith, it’s condescension.
). There's a point to this story: there were several points this morning when I seriously considered just giving up and staying home (starting with the moment the alarm clock went off). As I sat at home pondering it all this afternoon, it came into my head that there are really two basic evangelism strategies churches use. The first is actually going out and inviting people, individually and personally, to come to church. The other is by trying to create something so "cool" or good or attractive that people will naturally gravitate to it. My general experience has been that the second one doesn't normally work very well... unless of course your church's goal is to steal your members from other churches (if you can't tell, I'm not a big fan of that plan). My experiences this morning, though, cause me to put even more weight on the first idea than I already did. I mean think about it... I'm 21 years old and have been in the church my entire life, to the point where churches have been the only real employers I've had thus far in life; and yet even I got nervous and considered not going when I had to find someplace new. How many times must this be magnified for those who have never been to any church. Unfortunately, fancy signs and sermon titles aren't going to attract most of those people. It's time for the rest of us to start doing our legwork.
Ever have one of those days that completely challenge you? Where things going on are so difficult that you question everything in life? It has been that way for me since Easter, but this weekend pretty much topped it. Now this isnt a poor me blog or anything like that, so dont think that it is. This is actually a blog about how God is using the trials in my life to teach and grow me so that I can easily do what my pastor was talking about today, get over myself and share the love of Christ even with those I feel have wronged me.
The weekend started out rough with a major confrontation between my ex-husband and me and he made some pretty harsh threats in the process. It was difficult to send my children there knowing what is going on, especially since he lives 2 hours away. As I drove home that night after dropping them off, I was consumed by my fears and had to pull over and pray. Even though my fears never went away completely, I recovered enough to make the drive home where I continued to pray for most of the night. I eventually submitted myself to God and did my best to accept His will in their/our lives, but by the time today rolled around I was sporting a nice stress headache for most of the day and wasnt a nice person to be around.
After church was over I went to the grocery store across the street to pick up milk and bread. The parking lot was pretty full and I got to the end of the first row without finding a parking spot. The truck in front of me had on its right directional signal and appeared to be looking for a spot as well. Before the road cleared so the truck could pull out, a car on the left side of the row in line with the truck pulled out and went the other way. Without even looking, the man in the truck threw it into reverse and backed into me in an attempt to get into the spot before someone else came along and took it. Before I could realize what happened, the man jumps out of his truck, and runs over to my car and slams his fists on my hood. Then he begins shouting some pretty nasty things at me for being behind him, because apparently I wasnt supposed to be there. I started to get out of my car to assess the damage, and the man grabs my car door and swings it open. A woman who witnessed the accident ran over and stood between us afraid the man was going to hit more than just my car. When I moved my car out of the road to park and exchange information, the man drove off. I dont know if he actually intended to leave and realized enough people saw it happen that someone probably had his license plate, or was just driving on the street instead of through the parking lot, but he did come back and park his truck.
The man didnt appear drunk or on drugs, or anything like that. Had he not been screaming at me nonstop, it really wouldnt have bothered me that much. We all make mistakes, and the damage wasnt that bad. But the man didnt let up the entire time he wrote out his information for me. When it came my time to write down my information for him, his rant subsided a little and I had my chance to finally speak. As I said the words, Didnt you see me? I could hear my pastors comments about God loving everyone, about not judging people because of their behavior, as well as the fact that I dont get to choose whom God places in my life to reach out to and share His love with, kept running through my head. I couldnt help but ask myself was that what God wanted me to do here? To reach out this obnoxious man who was bashing me because he backed into my car? Unable or unwilling to hear His response, I decided not to say anything more, especially considering what I wanted to say in response to his verbal assault. Instead I found a paper to write down my information for him, handed it to him and told him I hoped his day got better. I do have to admit, I decided not to go into the store and get my bread and milk at that time, mostly because he went in and I was a little concerned of what he might do to me with his shopping cart. So instead I left, a little dazed by the whole situation.
Looking back now that I have calmed down, I do have to chuckle a little as I realize how in that tough situation God used me to plant a seed in this mans life even though I honestly didnt want to. See, even though I didnt verbally share Gods love, I didnt attack the man or respond to his attacks either. I remained relatively calm, was polite, and pretty respectful. And though you are probably saying right now, yeah so, how does that demonstrate Gods love, never mind plant a seed, the man doesnt know you know Jesus or anything else about you for that matter? Well the paper I used to write down my information on, the only paper I could find in my normally bulging purse was the program from todays church service. Something that had I responded the way I wanted to respond, or how I may have responded had God not been echoing the very message explained in the program in my ears, would have been far more damaging, than the fact that I didnt mention God at all.
So now I pray that somehow that church program and the fact that I did not respond to this man as I wanted to, God will use to reach him. And if he already has a relationship with Jesus, He will use it to draw him closer and help him deal with his anger. But if he doesnt already know Jesus, God will use it as a way to reel him in, and make him a part of His family.
His actual words were in regard to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He said, “You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”
He then went on to say, “We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”
The Associated Press dared to accuse dear Mr. Robertson, an honorable man of God, of calling for the death of a fellow human being.
Rightfully outraged by this horrendous stretch of truth, Robertson defended himself by saying, "I didn't say 'assassination.’ I said our special forces should ’take him out.' 'Take him out' could be a number of things including kidnapping."
You're right, Patter. 'Taking out' could mean a lot of thing, and I suppose kidnapping isn't a crime or a sin. But that isn't the point. You also said, "if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." It pretty hard to misconstrue that. That means you think we should assassinate him. There's no way around it.
You can't blame the media when the remarks you made were caught on videotape. Maybe you should pray to God for a brain. Or ask your followers to "contribue" their hard earned money for one.
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