Notes from the Trail

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Pastor Joe Thorn of Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, IL has an interesting blog entry about effective evangelism that cites six personal observations about evangelism that are worth reading and responding to here. He says, 

“..this isn’t technical research pulled together by Ed Stetzer and the people at Lifeway. These are conclusions I have come to after living in this community for 31 years, sharing the gospel here for 14 years, and serving as pastor here for seven years.”

His observations are:

1. Door to door evangelism is seen as an unwanted invasion.
2. Initiating conversation at Starbucks is welcome.
3. The evangescript is perceived as invasive and fake. (By “evangescript,” he refers to a memorized or rote presentation that one commits to memory.)
4. Showing how real-life concerns connect to the gospel is well-received.
5. The churched are often as clueless about the gospel as the unchurched.

What are your own observations about evangelism related to south Arkansas? Is that just how you “feel” or is it a conclusion from personal experience?

Many thanks to Richard for surfacing this entry. I’ve also posted it over on the Journey site.

It all started with Adelyn’s second swim meet of the year. It was in Camden, so the fam loaded up with friends and Amanda (who is doing a fantastic job as our swim team coach) on Friday afternoon. The meet started at 6:00 and lasted until about 8:45 or so. It was a late night getting home, but we were all excited because Monticello did very well in the meet. Adelyn placed first in every event she swam. I’m thinking of changing her name to Nemo.

Then on Saturday a.m., we met the McKinstrys at the Commercial Bank parking lot on Highway 425 N for a junk sale. We, fortunately, were the ones selling junk. Normally at my house, wifey is bringing it home from other similar sales. Under cloudy skies that threatened a downpour, we ended up making a little over $50. (Our goal was $170 to pay for Sam’s kids camp that he is going to with First Baptist in two weeks.)

Happily satisfied that we could get 25 cents for a book and $1 for an old pair of shoes, as well as seeing the junk pile in the carport be diminished, we came home to crash for a few hours. I worked on Carolyn’s new iMac that has a screen problem (we just got it off Ebay, and thankfully the seller is refunding us the money) before determining it was a lost cause. Around 4, Carolyn headed off the the Akin-Copico Wedding Extravaganza while the kids and I stopped by Ray’s for a greasy hamburger on our way out to the ballpark to watch Adelyn play softball.

Today was Father’s Day, and I got a really cool wallet with my family’s picture all over it. You can see them here. Journey was packed, and Jeremy shared his faith story. It was a wonderful day of worship, celebration and honoring Christ Jesus. Jeremy showed us what real-life, hard faith looks like. A lunch at Ameca was followed by a Sunday afternoon nap (of course).

5:00 found us out at Western Pines park with a herd of other friends from our church to clean up. We raked, painted the bathroom building, and then enjoyed burgers, wiffle ball, fellowship and a lot of laughter. There were all kinds of new friends and faces with us, and it’s our delight to serve our community in this way as a small opportunity to say that God is love. Jesus said,

“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20.26-28)

One funny thing happened over the weekend… Sam had grilled hamburgers - maybe it was Thursday - for supper. I had been at a meeting, and when I came in, he announced proudly, “I grilled tonight on the Gary Coleman Grill.” Nice. I tweeted that and was asked by Tracy Reed if we had also used the Todd Bridges marinade.

“Whachu talkin bout, Willis?!”

Great weekend!

A blast from the past…

 
Baptist Collegiate Ministry highlights, 2001-2002 from Jeff Noble on Vimeo.