A broad look at the broad topic of evangelism.
I am writing this as a teacher of missions, not as an evangelist. In fact, I do evangelism very rarely. If that makes me unreliable to you, no worries. I will just give the TL;DR. I do believe that their are settings where asking permission is absolutely critical. There are other settings where it is …
Continue reading Should One Ask Permission Before Sharing the Gospel Message?
Is sharing the Good News of Christ always a good thing? In theory it always is… but theory can fall apart when bumping up against reality. I will give a few little examples that I have shared before, but then will put more focus on the last one since I haven’t talked of it before. …
Continue reading Is Sharing the Good New of Christ ALWAYS a Good Thing?
Yesterday my wife and I were talking... I can't really recall what now... but something she said triggered a kids song in my head that I had not heard in decades. The song goes like this: Do you know, Oh Christian, you're a sermon in shoes?Do you know, Oh Christian, you're a sermon in shoes?Jesus …
I was glancing at my FB feed--- something I don't do that often, and hope in the future to do even less. One of my friends shared a quote. The quote does not have a name attached to it, but there was a picture of the speaker. He looks familiar. He is an Evangelical preacher …
As I note regularly in my posts, my wife and I are part of a counseling center. One thing we like to tell our trainees (and I would like to think we practice) is "We have have to earn the right to be heard." A similar way of looking at it is "We need to …
Continue reading Permission to be Heard, and the Risk of Anti-Evangelizing
I remember being told over and again that our salvation is free--- Free grace. As a kid, this seemed fine and good. Who doesn't like free? And in a sense the word "free" is correct... but I believe there are problems with the term that should not be ignored. Simply in terms of common definition, …
Continue reading Salvation: Unearned? Yes! Free? Not So Sure
I teach Cultural Anthropology, Inter-religious Dialogue, and Contemporary Issues in Missions. Note that none of these are standard theology courses. So you would be right to think that I am not the most meticulous and studied Christian theologian out there. That being said, those three courses keep bringing up certain questions... and these questions are …
I was reading a post in a different website: "When the Evangelistic Tables Are Turned" in the website: A Life Overseas. You Can read the article by CLICKING HERE. The article speaks of how a missionary family moved into a new country and a new neighborhood and was soon befriended by a family there. The …
Two common understandings regarding salvation are Exclusivism and Pluralism. Christian Exclusivism can be pictured as "One path alone takes us to God. All others take is elsewhere." Pluralism can be pictured as "Many, and perhaps even all, paths potentially take us to God." These are not all of the options, but they are the most …
I have been reading a long paper (over 200 pages long when including endnotes)--- APOLOGETICS, MISSION & NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS: A HOLISTIC APPROACH, by Philip Johnson. It is in Sacred Tribes Journal, Vol. 1, #1. I must admit that I would have preferred a "Reader's Digest" version of it, but it is excellent. I had …