After I had preached on Sunday morning a man swaggered up to me. He looked mid forties, stocky and like his nose had been broken more times than he could remember. I was talking to a member of the church and he joined our conversation.

“So, does anybody do any witnessin aroun here?” he asked.

It felt like a loaded question. I don’t think either of us knew quite what to say…

“I guess it depends on what you mean by that” I said. I sensed that he meant standing on street corners and preaching, or stopping people in the mall.

“Well I mean going out in the street and talking to people about Jesus. There’s a whole world out there of needy people who aren’t gonna come in here and without Jesus they’re goin to hell.”

He was clearly edgy and wasn’t feeling like we were receiving his question real well. The fact that I had lampooned the wacko street preacher during my message may not have helped either.

He talked for a little bit and told us his story. He had been sent to prison several years ago for violent crime. He had lived a violent life and was a street fighter. But during a stint in solitary confinement he had met God in a ‘damascus road’ type of way.

He then started sharing his faith in prison and just before he got out he was leading a Bible study of over 200 men in the prison. His approach to evangelism was much like his approach to other things in life – no holds barred and no prisoners – pardon the pun.

After a short conversation where my friend spoke of the church’s craft group, and kids ministries I could see him glaze over and zone out. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

He had come looking for a church that would support him in his own evangelistic work, post prison and that would also be a church that would welcome his new converts. He hadn’t found one anywhere.

He drifted off from the conversation clearly frustrated. I was frustrated too.

Partly because I had encountered someone with raw passion and it had exposed me as having gone soft in some ways. I was frustrated because I knew what he was on about – there simply aren’t too many churches where people like him are welcome and where he would be understood and encouraged and where his friends would be accepted. He is a strong character with lots of opinions and he would be a handful. His friends would change the tone of the average middle class church.

As he drifted off I sensed God saying ‘go and have lunch with him’. I think it was partly so I could learn more about evangelism from someone who was naturally gifted and partly so I could encourage him not to give up on the church. In his zeal he was convinced that anyone who wasn’t doing evangelism like him was not serious about God and he had little room for those with any fear.

I have shared this frustration over the years and at times have been guilty of projecting my own passions and gifting onto others. Maybe I could help him see the value in sticking with others and helping them develop.

I caught him as he was walking down the street to his beaten up white ford meteor. I invited him out and he took me up on it.

We had a great time together and I found myself driving home inspired by this left field Jimmy Swaggart fan who wept over people who didn’t know Jesus and who went from half way house to half way house until someone would listen. He had clearly had such a life changing encounter with God that nothing was going to stop him or slow him.

I was rebuked for my lampooning of the street preacher and reminded that the kingdom of God is very very diverse. As he treads the streets of Fremantle he will connect with people who would never give me the time of day.

I pray he finds a community of people who will welcome him and his friends and who will support him in his passion for helping the broken and messed up follow Jesus.

I pray the evangelist won’t get tamed.

In 2 Cor 5 Paul writes that “It is Christ’s love that compels us” to be his ambassadors of reconciliation. It seems that Paul is suggesting that mission and evangelism ought to be a response to our own experience of the love of God.

I couldn’t agree more, but I also know its not always the way. Here is a new book that we shouldn’t need to read, but in reality we all probably need to get a hold of

Its entitled Compelled By Love and looks at our motivation for mission rather than our strategy.

I actually think the core of our problems in mission and evangelism are much less to do with technique and much more to do with motivation.

Its way too easy to be compelled by an achievement orientation or to evangelism from duty and guilt. To act from love is freeing and beautiful, but I would suggest is also somewhat foreign (sadly).

Maybe its more difficult for those of with a task oriented bent, because I know that most of the women I know see this as so obvious that it seems ludicrous to write a book about it.

If you want to explore mission compelled by love then this looks like an excellent book. And fwiw I am preaching on that passage of scripture at North Beach Baptist church on Aug 31st in the evening.

I have borrowed this thought from W. David Phillips

Martin Lloyd Jones, in his book Authentic Christianity which is from his Studies in Acts Series, makes the following statement:

I am convinced that the trouble with the world today is that it does not believe in God.  And much of our evangelism goes wrong because it starts with the Lord Jesus Christ.  But you must start with God the Father, God the Creator, one whose glory fills the heavens, who is over all.  With reverence I say that you cannot understand the Lord Jesus Christ, and indeed there is a sense in which there is no meaning to Him and to the message about Him, unless you start with God the Father.

It seems a bit rich to disagree with a theologian of this ilk, but I think I’d still rather tart with Jesus – the ‘God-man’.

What do you reckon?

And why?…

I’ll offer my ‘why’ in the comments later on!

Transform 08 is coming up, it’s SU’s key training event for the year.
It’s high quality, inspirational, practical and good fun.

A personal transformation with God being the centre is always a swell thing! A transformation where we can pass on what we have learnt to encourage, lead and empower others is even greater. And a transformation that will challenge us to impact our community and change our culture is the best!

Transform 08 is a conference that will not only challenge some of your thinking but it will also allow you to take away some practical skills that you can use to impact your community and church; whether it’s in children, youth or young adults’ ministry. This year our guest speaker is Brian Harris from the Vose Seminary, he is in high demand as a preacher, speaker and teacher, so don’t miss your opportunity to hear him!

Go to the website to find out more www.suwa.org.au/transform

Mark Brown is currently the CEO of Bible Society New Zealand. He was CEO of SU New Zealand before that and pre-that he was part of the scene here in Western Australia having been involved with Youthcare and a variety of other local ministries. Mark is pretty passionate about seeing people engaging with the Bible intentionally and also the opportunities that Christians have through Web 2.0.

If you want to check out some of what Mark is doing then head over to his blog. You can even see the church he is part of in Second Life. Mark will be our guest blogger for the next few weeks so keep an eye out for his posts.

Andrew (Hamo) is going to keep posting on evangelism, which is great! So I guess that makes him a regular (I think). So thanks to these guys for giving us stuff to think and reflect on.

There is a saying attributed to St Francis which goes like this: “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words”.

It has become something of a mantra for many in the current Christian world, but as I observe it I occasionally wonder if it hasn’t also served as something of an excuse.

These days I am inclined to say to those I am involved with ‘Preach the gospel at all times and whatever you do – USE WORDS!’

It seems we have lost the ability to speak to people about the hope we have within us, or at best we do so apologetically as if we were ashamed of or embarrassed by this so called ‘good news’. When Peter writes ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect’ (1 Pet 3:15) I think he genuinely intends for us to be able to articulate our faith in some coherent verbal way.

in missional language we speak of proximity, presence and proclamation.

Words.

They are essential in evangelism – not optional.

I realise this gives many people the yips as they mentally ponder conversations with friends turning sour or maybe even nasty. It conjures up imagery that isn’t helpful. Maybe door to door salespeople, or ‘bullhorn ‘ guys in the main street. Perhaps even that pushy Christian you know who just won’t take ‘no’ for an answer and insists that he will ‘get you one day’.

While those images aren’t helpful, I wonder if we don’t need to actually take some time to re-calibrate our thinking on evangelism so that it fits the world we live in.

I have no desire to harrass people into conversion but I do want to speak of Jesus often and in ways that are suitable to the listener.

A friend told me recently of how her husband found himself next to a person on a bus who was asking questions of faith and talking about issues of spirituality. This was perplexing and disorienting for him and he didn’t know quite how to respond.

What’s with that?

Can’t we just talk about who we are and what we know of God without feeling like we need to apologise? Why do we freeze up or have a brain fug as soon as the opportunity arises to speak of Jesus.

I reckon one reason is that we have somehow learnt that evangelism is presenting, selling and closing the deal all in the one conversation (to use some crass language!) If the person we are speaking to doesn’t come

to a point of faith then I think we may feel like it was a ‘failed attempt’. The occasional stories (or myths) we hear of people leading others to faith in the seat next to them on the plane only serve to re-inforce our sense of inadequacy.

What if it were as simple as responding to questions asked and then genuinely enquiring of the person we are speaking with as to how they see the world?

What if the pressure was off to ‘kick a goal’ and the encouragement was there to show genuine interest and care for the person we were speaking with?

What if God actually did have it all in hand?… What if he didn’t want to use us to complete the picture for this person, but only to add one part to it?

I have become much more relaxed in my own evangelism since I took away the conversion goal posts. Sometime I even change the subject, knowing that if it comes up again the person is serious about their enquiry.

Let’s get back to using words in our evangelism (you can’t really proclaim Christ in the absence of words) but let’s relax in the moment and enjoy the relationship and the work God is doing rather than feeling we need to go home with a new convert notched on our belt.

I remember reading some time ago that only 5% of those in churches are actually gifted as evangelists. (Do you ever wonder who works this stuff out?!)

At first I accepted this information as ‘fact’. Even though I didn’t know the research methodology, the figures seemed to ring true. Very few people claim to have passion and skill in the task of communicating the gospel to others particularly if it involves using a verbal message.

Yet I have been wondering why God would allocate such a measly percentage of the churches resources to such a significant task.

Why does God seem to ‘gift’ many more people with the skills of caring for other Christians, or singing on stage, or playing the drums than he does with evangelism?

Or could it be, as I suspect, that there are actually many out there who could be excellent evangelists if they were able to overcome their fears?

Some of you will know that the most commonly recurring phrase in the entire Bible is ‘fear not’. And for most Christians I would suggest that fear if often one of the greatest de-motivators in any attempts at sharing faith.

Now to put things in persepective, let’s recognise that this is not fear of persecution, fear of martyrdom or even fear of losing employment. Usually its fear that we might look silly… or people might think less of us… or we might feel awkward… or stumble over our sentences.

I can understand the fear of being burnt at the stake for your faith. I think I’d be a little scared too! But our fears just seem a tad insignificant by comparison. I will certainly accept that they are real fears and legitimate, but I hope we can also accept that sometimes we need to suck it up and get over ourselves.

In a world where thousands die for their faith, I genuinely ‘fear’ for a church that is concerned that it might feel embarrassed. Sometimes we need to regain some perspective on this whole issue and appreciate that what we ‘fear’ is really not that so terrifying.

Are we really lite on for evangelists?

I am not so sure…

I’m at the Brisbane Airport waiting to catch a plan. I have taken the chance to go to browse the internet. Thought I would tell you where I’ve been.

Went to visit the blog of an SU Queensland team member Marty. His blog Engage the Bible summarises what his role in Queensland is about.

Ok, delayed 25 minutes now so I have dropped in on backyard missionary’s site and found that our own Geoff Westlake has started blogging here.

Another 5 minute delay has given me the chance to go to brownblog. Mark Brown has been the person who has kept encouraging us to get a SU WA blog up and running. He is the CEO of Bible Society NZ and has some great ideas about web 2.0

The time on the departure board just changed by 5 minutes, Rod Thom is going to trial SU’s Blokes progam (5 min more). A mentoring program for teenage boys (5 min more). Rod writes

Ok 10 min more delay and my hour of internet access is about to expire so I am out of time to talk about my time with other Director’s of SU’s in Australia so maybe that is for another time.

One of SU’s volunteers is cutting their hair. This is a significant event for Michel, who is a magician. Michel has been kind enough to raise money for SU, with the event occurring this Saturday. The local paper captured it like this; (another great example of volunteer commitment, above and beyond)

A key part of SU has been our Intern program which provides an opportunity for people to volunteer for a year with SU and engage in ministry with young people through adventure camping or being a performer with one of our creative arts projects. Over the last few years we have had a number of interns from overseas. In fact we have two who have stayed to join our staff team.

Cross culture ministry experiences are a very popular way for people to travel and engage different cultures. They are also often significant in helping people develop or adjust their world view and also develop their understanding and their relationship with God.

While a great opportunity they can be a burden on the local ministry group or sometimes the people engaging in the cross culture ministry can be poorly supported and left to flounder from their experience rather than grow. Learning from SU’s own experiences and the stories of others I think that it is always important that any cross culture ministry experiences are arranged through groups where appropriate preparation, support and review are a part of the program. A selection process and criteria seem to be a feature of the best programs. It seems that if a group is prepared to say “no you would not be appropriate for this” then they have a good process in place.

At the moment we have in a place a process for overseas people joining SU WA for an internship. We have a partnership with SU England and Wales that has been really fruitful. We currently don’t arrange or send people as we feel we don’t have the processes or partnerships in place to make it so. That may emerge in the future.

In the mean time if you have an appetite for a cross cultural ministry experience we have a couple of groups that we know are looking. One is SU Hungary and the other is a UK group called Careforce. We have heard good things but you would need to liasie with these groups yourself.

Here are a couple of links

http://www.suhungary.com/summerclubs.htm

http://www.careforce.co.uk/