In the prior post I told of an encounter I had on an airplane with a world traveler. Thinking I was following God’s leading toward a spiritual turn in the convo, the traveler nevertheless stopped me out cold by declaring himself an atheist. I was confused. I thought God had said, “Rick, speak about me,” but when I obeyed . …
Evangelism for All Time: Part 2. God Goes Before Us
Part 1 is here. One day on an airplane I sat next to Elam, a world traveler. His particular mode of travel, I soon learned, was quite unique. He navigated around the globe in a small sailboat — solo. My imagination immediately took flight. Questions ensued about dangerous storms on the high seas, lonely star-speckled nights, radio communications, exotic ports …
Evangelism for All Time, Part 1
By the grace of God I’ve served as an evangelism trainer (and trainee!) for four decades. And again by the grace of God I’ve shared Christ with many. From these experiences I’d like to suggest some ideas about evangelism for you and your campus or church. To begin, I’ll mention that my wife Sharon and I are big fans of …
Do Christians Have to “Be Right?”
I saw a quote recently from a Christian author who was disavowing the ministry of evangelism because it meant Christians had to “be right” about everything. And if you’re certain you’re right, then everyone else must be wrong, and it’s your job to convert them to your viewpoint, lest they wind up in hell. If that was biblical evangelism I’d …
Hearing God’s Voice in Evangelism
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 across the room toward MC, he immediately disappeared into a crowd of other celebs. Darn, must not have heard that prompt correctly. I said …
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 …
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