Missional Relationships

I have, in the past, developed curriculum for evangelism and taught on many different evangelism techniques. For the most part, I find them to be inadequate and an ineffective usage of time and resources. I don’t even like the word “evangelism”. It is our natural tendency to take things from being simplistic to complex. It makes us feel like we are doing something. We like to make up complex words to stand for simplistic ideas. From there we enjoy complex formulas. Sharing our faith, in all actuality is very simple. We are just scared to do it or have been so confused by all the mumbo jumbo talk we don’t feel adequate in doing it.

What I plan on doing is far from phenomenal; my goal is to keep it simple. The only prerequisite to sharing your faith is to have faith. So, everyone who is a member or volunteer of The Core will be sharing their faith and will in some way be a part of this team. Now some will be taking on roles that are specifically designed to go out to the masses and I will have more direct contact with those individuals. I hope to only provide tools and a support network of individuals sharing their faith.

“Designating outreach for a specific time and place can become a hindrance which, I believe, we must strive to work against. Our lives should be lived as outreach to others. At all times we are to be a witness of Christ. Working within The Core we are providing a tool, The Front Porch, for outreach.” (I love quoting myself)

The above quote is the first emphasis in our spurring of outreach. We will work to constantly remind each other in our fellowship of this simple truth, our lives are our outreach. I would prefer that at some point we sit down together with every volunteer and team member and go through the following:

1. What is your salvation? (Every individual that volunteers or joins as a member should answer this question at some point) In this part of our discussion everyone will share when they trusted in Christ and how that took place, what it meant to them.

2. What is evangelism, outreach? I think we all know the answer here but we can make it pretty complex and confusing. It is simply sharing our faith in some facet. We will discuss at this point options of evangelism, outreach: random acts of kindness, giving to the poor, relationships, etc. We would then specifically discuss how we share the message of Christ. I have my own preference but we must trust in individuals to be guided by the Spirit to decide how and in what way they will share their faith: FAITH, Romans Road, your own salvation, basic discussion of the Truth. This will also be a time when we discuss the timing of this occurrence. Again, our lives should be constantly lived as tools of outreach; hopefully the individuals we come in contact with see that in some way. The question is: when do we share our faith in words? When do we tell them the Truth of Christ? The answer is, when we are led by the Spirit to do so. We must guard against just trying to get a notch in our belts. We must truly care for people and by truly caring we desire relationships not just to throw down the word and then take off on our merry little way. People see right through that, and have probably experienced that already. We are called to give our lives to others, not a few minutes sharing the Roman’s Road. That doesn’t eliminate this from happening; we must do what we feel led by the Spirit to do. Fast Food evangelism is generally ineffective.

3. Where can we evangelize, outreach? The answer to this is obvious, everywhere, but we will work to establish specific places downtown that we can focus on as a team.

4. Where do you want to evangelize, outreach? Who knows what people will feel led to do. Some may feel led to the Square; some may feel led to our coffee bar. In our discussion we will discuss the difference between a ministry project and a relationship. We will discuss a commitment to individuals and ulterior motives. We will discuss the needs of individuals and what they are looking for.

In conclusion of this simple workshop will be an example of someone who shared his faith. I think of Paul and how we read of him spending several days inside the synagogue talking, preaching and teaching with the people (Acts 9). I think of Paul who worked as a tent-maker and spent his weekends forming relationships by sharing the love of Christ (Acts 18). Mostly I think of Paul spending time in the marketplace and the synagogue reasoning with the people there. “Day by day” forming relationships. I think of him speaking to them with his knowledge of who they were by trying to understand them. Paul did this because he truly cared for these people. God used him because he gave his life to those around him. Again, this tool does not need to be used to serve self-serving motives but is only a tool we use as part of living our purpose; giving our lives for others. This isn’t fast food evangelism; we should truly give our lives for others. We should want relationships with others. It’s simple, not easy.

Feel free to comment and tear this thing apart. You won’t hurt me as long as it is to the benefit of the Kingdom.

A couple of things I hope we can broach during the Wed. meeting:

1. When will this workshop be done? How often? With who? etc.

2. I would also like to discuss the possibilities of charity to the outside using the Front Porch and the Core network. Obviously we have a lot on our plates already but I would hope to do something to show love outside our doors. We can do something as simple as once every couple of weeks going out to pick up trash. I think handing out water on the square is wonderful but I would love to explore more options that people can feel is more up their alley. I think the workshop above will give us more views from different people on how things can be done but I believe it would be beneficial to get this conversation rolling.

See you thugs on Wed.

Longer Sorry

Letter So

Later Sloppy