Mingling in the throng at a local charity event a few months ago, I seemed to get a prompting from the Lord: “Go talk to MC (Minnesota Celebrity).” I obeyed the prompt. But as I started toward MC’s position, he immediately disappeared into a crowd of other celebs. Darn. Must not have heard that prompt correctly. I said to the …
The Five Thresholds of Conversion
In their excellent little book, I Once Was Lost, Doug Schaupp and Don Everts talk about the stages or “thresholds” that people go through on the road from unbelief to belief. This is important for Christians as we share the faith with others. Many secular persons have a lengthy process in front of them to find Jesus. The thresholds represent …
In Evangelism, Climb Out of the Boat . . .
In my prior post I suggested that when it comes to the business of evangelism, we Christians don’t “bring Jesus” to others. We’re not salespeople. Rather, we’re detectives, investigators. Our job is to discern what God is already doing in the lives of those around us, then get involved. But how? How do we participate in this work of God? …
God Gets There First
A kindly man in my neighborhood, Gene, has not spoken to me, nor I to him, in 25 years. Our disassociation is not due to any animosity I’m aware of but, most likely, to simple neglect. Recently, things changed. Gene traversed the vast chasm separating us – our back alley – to initiate contact. He came to tell me the …
Naming Jesus
I met John at a golf tournament, and at some point in our four-hour tour of 18 holes together, we talked religion. This always happens. I bring it up in one form or another by mentioning church, prayer, hymns, Bible, religion in the media, etc. On the 7th hole he asked what I do for work. The easy reply is …
Explicitly Jesus
Not long ago I was about to hop an Uber cab in Detroit when I got a prompting from the Lord. He seemed to be saying, “I want you to talk about Jesus in the first ten seconds of this ride.” Ten seconds isn’t a lot of time. The driver greeted me outside his car and stowed my bags in …
Growing a Ministry 2: Evangelism (cont.)
Last week I mentioned a fictional ministry context — a hundred people at my church (or yours) in their 20s and 30s — that we are trying to move forward in evangelism. After convincing Pastor to preach a three-part series on evangelism, we invite everyone to a big training weekend, and 90 folks show up. They watch a video series by a …
Growing a Ministry 1: Evangelism
Let’s say I wish to bring positive change in evangelism to my ministry context. The context in this (fictional) case is comprised of folks in their 20s and 30s at my church, of which there are about a hundred active. My first impulse is to ask Pastor to preach a series on the topic of evangelism. This will help get the hundred motivated …
Equipping Teens for College, Part 4: Gospel Outline
In Part 2 I mentioned the importance of freshman possessing a big picture overview of the Bible that they can articulate. Closely related is being equipped with a particular gospel outline. Whereas the overview is a summary of the Christian worldview as a whole, an outline of the gospel functions as an evangelistic tool to be memorized and shared easily …
Equipping Teens for College: What I wish they brought with them from home
Recently Sharon and I bought a car.* It got me thinking about the oft-used phrase standard equipment. Here’s the “standard equipment” I wish Christians students possessed when they enter college from their hometowns and churches: 1. A big-picture overview of the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. Important because it keeps students grounded in the story of redemption. In contrast, students tend to arrive …