Saturday, April 12, 2008
Taking the con out of conversion
Every Wednesday in April (9, 16, 23, 30), a conversation around the place of witness and evangelism in Christian faith is happening in the church foyer. The catalyst is a sermon series titled “Biblical pictures of witness” being preached on Sunday mornings. On the Wednesday those interested gather to read the Scriptures used on Sunday, to apply and to pray.
On the first Wednesday we talked about the Samaritan woman in contrast to the huge feelings of guilt Christians carry in relation to witness. We wondered about the following guilt free statements.
1. Only do your bit. No more and no less.
2. Only witness where God is working. Witnessing anywhere else is dumb, especially in response to evangelism seminars.
3. Only share what you know. Anything else is bearing false witness.
4. Only be real. Human struggles open doors.
I love this part of ministry: creating conversations around the Bible and in relation to mission, sitting with people, listening, being honest, learning, growing.
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Hi Steve, you won’t remember me but we first met in Melbourne at an ‘Unfreeze’ conference with Churches of Christ in 2004. I was part of a group of ministers going through this transformational process of what it means to be the people of God in our context.
I’m now in ministry in Adelaide and am looking forward to you visit later in the year.
I’ve been following your blog very loosely for the last few years but never really interacted with it. One amazing observation I have is, how do you manage to write in the future? The time stamp on this post is tomorrow afternoon and it is 3:30pm ACST on Friday April 11th.
That aside, thankyou for your blog and for posting these ‘guilt free statements’. I’m on a missional resource team with Mark Stevens and one of our key tasks at the moment is to ask fresh questions around our motivations and inspirations for mission and ministry and what really drives our Christian communities to congtinue to be gathered communities in the name of Christ.
I hope to interact more with you throughout the course of the year and look forward to the fresh conversations.
Mark Riessen
Ministry Team Leader
Blackwood Church of Christ
Comment by Mark Riessen — April 11, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
Hi mark, thanks for dropping by. in terms of the date stamp i drafted the post to go up 2morrow (Saturday), but for some reason the very old version of typepad won’t do that, but insists it go up 2day.
i’m looking forward to being in adelaide for 10 weeks aug-oct. i think i’m doing a day with your state denomination in sept.
i’m also doing 2 block course, a week on missional leadership and a week on using the bible in congregational life (through tabor and Parkin-Wesley) – plus a bit of coaching leaders with Uniting church.
but hopefully mainly writing and relaxing,
steve
Comment by steve — April 11, 2008 @ 8:26 pm