Many years ago I followed a guy who was a Christian bookstore owner who also sought to go further into ministry, particularly in terms of consulting and writing. I never contacted him directly, but in my mind I wished him well. I knew that was a hard road to travel, but I could relate somewhat …
Category: Evangelism
A broad look at the broad topic of evangelism.
“Evangelical”— What to Do When a Label Doesn’t Really Fit You Anymore?
Ryan Burge is a professor of practice at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University (Click Here for his FB> He likes to share data regarding religion in America, with one specialization being looking at the term "Evangelical." A recent post he shared on FB regarding the term Evangelical was regarding different …
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Should One Ask Permission Before Sharing the Gospel Message?
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 …
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Is Sharing the Good New of Christ ALWAYS a Good Thing?
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. …
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A Sermon in Shoes
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 …
Should the Gospel Be Viewed as BAD News?
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 …
Permission to be Heard, and the Risk of Anti-Evangelizing
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 …
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Salvation: Unearned? Yes! Free? Not So Sure
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, …
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Defining Precise Limits on God’s Grace?
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 …
Evangelism Turned Sour
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 …