Outreach in Today's Culture Archives - Page 2 of 5

Lighten Up; It’s Just a Conversation

Part of our job as leaders is to mobilize God’s people as everyday missionaries. To be ambassadors for Jesus where they work, play, drink, grab a coffee in the morning. In short, where they live. Many have been burned trying to repeat a sermon or even when inviting someone to church (which is deemed irrelevant…

Safe Places

The book was a best-seller for many weeks, so I read it as a 20-year-old hoping to understand business. Titled “Winning Through Intimidation,” it was all about gaining a power position over your “adversaries.” The author, a high-end real estate broker, viewed every relationship as adversarial. He’d lost a series of deals when buyers and…

Why Christian Apologetics Matter

As a young person, Christian apologetics held a strong appeal for me. I thought “having all the answers” would enable me to beat my non-believing friends into a relationship with Jesus. As a youth pastor, I’d often take young people on evangelistic training missions. Armed with scripture booklets and arguments, we’d randomly accost strangers with…

A Problem of Wineskins

I think you and I have a problem with Jesus and new wine. At least, I do. I’ve heard (and preached) dozens of sermons about the new wine of the Spirit, always ending in a call for revival. But a revival of what? Our old wineskin? Too often the cry for revival is a plea…

Unchurched Harry & Mary, a Sad Saga

This is the unhappy story of unchurched Harry and Mary. Harry and Mary came into our lives as a useful metaphor for those we would seek to evangelize. Useful for a while, that is. The law of unintended consequences jumped in and made a mess of things. Churched vs unchurched eventually supplanted actual talking to…

God Talk in Everyday Conversation

Inviting someone to church is not evangelism. Bringing them into a friendship with Christ is. The Bible describes our task as reconciling others to Christ. The suggestion is that of a broken friendship renewed. It’s less about conversion and more about a growing friendship. Since most people believe in God as children, even adults who…

Friendship Evangelism in a Post-Christian Era

I know it sounds corny, but it’s accurate. What I call “friendship evangelism” has always worked. Annual polling of our congregation consistently revealed 85+ percent came to Jesus through conversations with a friend. The Art of Neighboring I recently found new evidence of this after reading, The Art of Neighboring. It is a guidebook for…

Evangelism: Follow me as I follow Christ

I recently picked up a book with evangelistic intent, but soon lost interest. The author kicked off with a funny story then launched into a host of heart-warming spiritual experiences and a couple of instances of answered prayer. So far, so good. Then came the evangelistic blast. The book grew preachy and I tossed it…

A Sunday Bummer: Online Preachers Miss the Point

The first Sunday in the new year was a disappointment. The world is in trouble with the announcement of two new strains of COVID-19 in the last week. One of these may emerge as COVID-21 if it doesn’t respond to a vaccine. Meanwhile the church seems asleep on mission. I spent most of Sunday listening…

Singalong, Marketplace Bible Study or Microchurch?

It began with a question: Why not turn it into a church? We were under my VW van replacing brake pads when my new friend, Loyd, told me that he and his brother had started a “Sunday night singalong” in Kobe, Japan. They were teachers in a “Christian” English school, owned by a church but…