I’ve started meeting regularly with one of the men who comes to our core group.
He and his family are recent immigrants, fleeing the political unrest from his home country. Truly, they are starting over.
He is a follower of Christ, and we’ve started meeting recently to discuss topics like
- How to study the Bible
- How to prepare a message.
- How to effectively evangelize
After our last meeting, I gave him a scripture passage to study and prepare a message.
The Man of Peace
There is a church planting principle about finding the “person of peace.”
It is a phrase that comes from Luke 10, when Jesus sends out the 72.
In Luke 10:5-6 Jesus said, “When you enter a house, first say, `Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.”
This shows a level of spiritual receptivity. Gary Rohrmeyer writes in Spiritual Conversations:
How does one discern if a Person of Peace is in his or her life? Here are a few things to look for:
Did they receive you openly into their lives knowing that you are a follower of Jesus?
- Are they open to spiritual conversations? Meaning, you can dialogue with them about spiritual issues without them shutting down emotionally.
- Are they willing to look into the Scriptures with a curious spirit and not a critical one?
- Do they have influence with others? Are they in a position of influence over their family, friends and within the community?
- Is their home a hub of activity for the neighborhood and extended family?
- Do they have the ability to introduce new people into their sphere of influence effectively?
- Do they have a natural ability of including and bringing others to small groups, events or worship services?
The person of peace is essentially a “point person” through whom a church planter can make lots of new connections.
This person may be spiritually seeking, or already a believer who has lots of unchurched contacts. Sometimes it’s a person who has many people seeking them out for spiritual conversations.
Noticing the Person of Peace
This man I’ve stared meeting with seems to be a “person of peace.”
Even though he’s only been in this country for a relatively short amount of time, he has several people approaching him with lots of spiritual questions that he can’t answer.
He wants to learn how to answer their questions with gentleness and respect.
Put another way he’d like to know how to have a deep conversation around those themes. People with tremendous spiritual thirst are seeking him out and he’s not sure how to manage those opportunities to share his faith without killing a conversation
He wants to help his friends and has turned to me for help. We’ve started meeting for that very reason.
I think in a few weeks, we’ll have a gathering in his house with his friends to talk about their questions and search for answers together.
Let me ask you this?
Who around you seems to be spiritually thirsty? Who around you seems to be really connected to spiritually thirsty people?
Would you like to learn more about Gary’s book?
Register for the next webinar with Gary where he’ll talk about the person of peace
Related posts:
About EvangelismCoach
Chris, as you know, I believe in the person of peace concept. Wish I could have heard this talk on Spiritual conversations. Thanks for the book reference. I am going to order it.