Evangelism Forum Research... Please select one or more options
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You have people like Ray Comfort out there that makes God out to be a fascist dictator, and the best answer those evangelizing has for that is, "No HE LOVES YOU!" Which I have to ask you, if your neighbor made their child sleep out in the unairconditioned shed all summer long because they were misbehaving, who would say that they were loved? But people are threatened with eternal damnation, never see that God is LOVE, because those that claim to be God's are not loving. HOWEVER, they will be really really crappy, mean, bigoted, and call it love and then wonder why people don't come flocking to the Church. OH WAIT, no Calvin took care of that, they aren't called!
So, you have people that go, denigrate, demean, talk down to, explaining they will be in eternal torture and torment, if they don't jump through X, Y, Z, hoops, and this is all to show you God loves you!
That doesn't have to be the words you use, that is the image coming across to those people outside the Church.
The Church isn't growing, you just have members swapping churches. EVEN WITHIN the Church people know it's not right, that's why they keep moving on to find one that is THE one. If it was right, they would stay put. Since the Church isn't growing, which would be the CHURCHes FRUIT, I say judge it by the fruit. It's not GOD that has it wrong, it's us. If it's not growing, then we are doing something wrong.
Proudly spitting cliches saying THIS IS HOW IT IS, creates an epic fail.
Please, if you are opening an evangelism forum, buy the book unChristian and read it first.
And keep the cliches to a minimum and in their space add some substance.
I think Xian brings up some things worthy of consideration. I haven't yet looked over your site, though I have every intention of doing so ASAP, but I hope that it will encourage those interested in evangelism to really dig into the nature of their own faith, the content of their message, and the nuts and bolts of their techniques so that they will be planting good seed in fertile soil. In other words, I hope that it is challenging as well as encouraging.
... "Truth without love is brutality. Love without truth is a lie." I think that thought applies here.
Evangelism should be a challenging and very creative expression of our love for truth. Outreach should be explored and adopted into the daily lives of believers. What must take place, however, is a break from the obsession of church meetings in order to get folks out on the streets. I've tried doing it and know firsthand the stubborness and sloth regarding this field of Christian work.