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?
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 was reading a journal article, "Evangelism, Theology, and the Church" by Thorsten Prill (Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 29 No. 4 (2005) p. 303-330). It has several models of evangelism. I find it quite valuable. Here is a brief summary of these. I recommend reading the article to get a deeper look at this: #1. Proclamation …
The Great Commision is not so great when it is one-dimensional instead of three-dimensional. Here, let me humbly reprimand us as evangelicals, among whom the very term "Great Commision" caught on like wildfire in the first place. We have essentially equated the Great Commission with the ministry of evangelism, with Matthew 28 earning the distinction …
Continue reading Quote on “Three-Dimensional Great Commission”
Found a nice article today that I had not read before. It was written around 1994. It is on the Missio Nexus website, titled "World Evangelization by AD2000: Will We Make It?" (https://missionexus.org/world-evangelization-by-a-d-2000-will-we-make-it/). The article was written by "Anonymous." I don't know who wrote it, actually, but the address for queries suggests that he or …
Continue reading Who Are The Appropriate Targets of Christian Missions/Evangelism?
Inter-religious Dialogue (IRD) is often looked at critically, or straight-up negatively by Evangelicals. I teach a course called “Dialogue with Asian Faiths” and for me, I take the title seriously. It is about dialogue (two-way) conversation with people of other faiths--- especially the great world religions that have their origin in Asia (which is pretty …
Continue reading Reasons for an Evangelist to Take IRD Seriously
I had asked my students in my Asian Faiths class to read the Camel Method. It is a method for sharing the Christian Gospel to Muslims utilizing a few select passages from the Qur'an. I asked my students to talk about their thoughts on this method. I then responded with the (somewhat amended) posting: I …
The Matthew 28 version of the Great Commission speaks of developing Disciples. There appear to be three basic steps: They are Evangelize, Baptize, and Teach/Train. The question is where does it start. Within the context of the various Great Commission versions, the start seems to be with Evangelize. That is because the key issue of …
Continue reading The Great Commission: Changing the Starting Point
My daughter is a nursing student at a hospital here in the Philippines. She was looking through some of the reading materials that were left lying around. One caught her attention enough to take a picture of every page. It was a "gospel tract." Fairly long one. I will put a few quotes here. In …
One of my students is writing on the mission work of Paul as it may provide insight to his ministerial context. Describing the targets of Paul's work, my student described three groups. First, he noted that Paul reached out to Jews. He would go to the synagogue and share Jesus as Messiah, Lord, and Savior. …