Dave Ferguson shares five ways to bless your neighbors.
He says,
“From the very beginning, God’s way of reaching and restoring the world has always been through what I would call a blessing strategy…how do we in a very practical way that’s theologically grounded explain to people how they could bless people in places they are incarnating?
“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who live the adventure, and those who only read about others living the adventure.”
Alan Hirsch lives the adventure of being a follower of Jesus. His experiences and learnings show clearly in his writings, and even more so in this book written with his wife, Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship, released in February 2010.
In 9 packed chapters, he and his wife Debra look at church and culture and cast a vision for living a missional life that makes a difference.
I found myself repeatedly saying “Preach it!” as I read through this book. Each chapter ends with suggestions and study questions that will push groups to engage the culture around them.
For me, the biggest contribution this book makes to the missional discussion is the chapter on the Holy Spirit. Between the emotional excesses of certain Pentecostal expressionism, and the dry intellectual and theological control of fundamentalism, Hirsch paints a picture of his own discovery of growing in understanding the person and work of the the Holy Spirit.
Even moreso, Hirsch shares what a Spirit inspired missionaly theology might look like (which chapter 3 teases out):
Untamed is a book on missional theology and mission discipleship: what might this look like, what do these terms mean for Christians as we seek to call others into a relationship with Christ.
Following Christ is more than just an intellectual agreement with a set of propositional truths. Following Christ impacts all of our life and our calling as we seek to be centered around the life, death, resurrection, and mission of Jesus.
The incarnation is a foundation for ministry and the authors encourages readers to really refresh their own personal study of the Gospel to see how Jesus treated people. As you learn more from Jesus, you’ll learn to engage your own spirituality and how that plays out in your life of making a difference.
As you grow in your understanding of discipleship, this will impact how you call others to discipleship. Studying the incarnation will impact not only who we are, but what we do in the community. Throughout the book, they tell their own personal stories of what that looked like, and what principles we might be able to apply to our own contexts.
If you are tired of boring Sunday only Christianity, this book will hopefully light the fires of change. If you want to awaken a passion in your discipleship, this book can help you get started.
On Passion
We have called this an incarnation of the heart, and believe it is essential if we are to embody what it is to be like Jesus and to offer this gift to the rest of humanity.
Identification on the level of the heart implies a certain intimacy with the people you are trying to reach.
Identification, as we’ve said before, is understanding their stories, their heroes, their books, their take on things.
To incarnate on the level of the heart means we begin to feel their stories, their lives, their pains. Our hearts and compassion are thereby activated (p. 246)
On Mission
Following the logic of the incarnation itself, our message is heard properly only when we have gone through the process of identifying with people, hearing them, understanding the issues they face, humbly living with them, and knowing how they experience and express their search for meaning.
If we do this, we will have earned the right to address the hearts of the people and bring salvation to them. (p. 248)
Get your copy from Amazon (affiliate link:) Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship.
Following up from the previous posts
I want to share how I practice contact evangelism.
Based on the model of Phillip and the Eunuch, we’ll look for opportunities that are based on
In that example, the Spirit prompted Phillip to “Go and stand next to THAT chariot.” We can learn to recognize that nudge of the Holy Spirit.
Phillip was also able to observe the Ethiopians level of spiritual thirst. Visually, the Eunuch was reading from Isaiah. When Phillip engaged him with a question, Phillip was able to hear more about this man’s spiritual thirst.
Phillip was able to recognize where in the journey this man was – he was open to start following Jesus. Phillip was able to see the signs of the evangelistic harvest.
As such, I look for those moments prompted by the Spirit. These might occur with
If I detect a deep spiritual thirst, I’ll do what Phillip did and starting at that very place, go on to share with that person the Good News of Jesus.
If the person is open to talking and conversing with me, that’s one thing. If the person is not open to talking, I don’t push it. I don’t use trick questions or logical mindgames towards my pre-determined conclusion.
Rather, I seek to co-operate with God’s work in the moment.
When we do open air campaigns in the local park, we’ll use dramas, mimes, sketches, and the like. I’ve done this on many mission trips and am comfortable with it.
Once the skits are over, I’ll give a brief message that raises a question related to the drama and potential spiritual thirsts.
The message is brief. The goal is to raise a question and invite conversation about spiritual need or thirst.
Those who want to talk about the question are invited to talk with our team at length.
People who are spiritually thirsty engage our team in conversation.
We get to talk and pray with people who want to talk.
This manner allows us to get a hearing and still be respectful of those who have no interest.
As we choose this way of doing evangelism, we are able to engage in deeper spiritual conversation with eager people. People who want to engage us have self-selected to engage us in a conversation.
Typically, we find people with a deep spiritual need, some wrestling with sin, some that have questions that need answers, and some that need long term help from a local church or counselor.
In countries that I have visited that still practice this model, the goal of every encounter is to determine a person’s level of spiritual thirst.
Our response is different based on the person’s level of spiritual thirst. We choose not to argue with people who don’t want to talk with us and likewise, we don’t force a gospel presentation upon them without their permission.
When we determine a level of spiritual thirst, we respond accordingly. With enough spiritually thirsty people, perhaps we can even start a small group to allow people to explore their journey towards Christ a little more.
A church on invited me out last weekend to prepare their team to go door to door.
I thought I was invited to give my workshop on personal evangelism.
Because of some miscommunication, I didn’t realize that this was my expected purpose until it was too late.
The organizer mentioned that 53 people were attending the workshop. Here is what she said after the event.
“We often want evangelism reduced to a formula we can put into a book and follow it like a recipe. But what you’ve helped us to see is that evangelism is a process, and that it’s a process that each one of worked through ourselves in coming to faith.
This helps us to realize that when we go door to door, we need to be patient with people who are not yet ready to receive, and be receptive to noticing those who are.
We need to be listening to the Spiritual Thirst.”
I don’t normally teach on door to door style evangelism, and didn’t realize ahead of time that this was my expected purpose.
However, the style of evangelism that I teach can be applied to door to door evangelism, by focusing on listening to the Holy Spirit and find those who are ready to engage in genuine spiritual conversation.
Door to door techniques can be used well to
I think many door to door conversations can go wrong when it becomes a “sales call for Jesus.”
In this method, the evangelist has a fixed script to follow, trying to argue an often unwilling person to accept the offer of eternal life.
If a person is spiritually ready like the Ethiopian eunuch was in Acts 8, this can be done well – the person is spiritually thirsty and willing to learn more.
But if a person answering the door has little interest, or wants to argue about theology, then there is no spiritual thirst, and to try and stick to the script causes hostility, anger, and perhaps a deafness. Scripts are helpful when the spiritual thirst is present, and quite often useless when it’s not.
I think the key to door to door approaches is to listen for a person’s level of spiritual thirst.
If it is there, keep going in conversation about the person’s spiritual thirst. You get to help them move closer in their journey to Christ.
If there is none, offer to pray about a need and then move on. Door to door campaigns are not the place to waste time with the unwilling.
While there are many gospel presentations (I call them gospel scripts) that one could memorize for door to door evangelism campaigns, I teach an evangelism method can help you at each door you visit during your evangelism campaign.
If part of your purpose is evangelism, consider using the Effective Conversations for door to door training.
You can get a download version or a DVD version.
StreetImage source: Morgue File
Today’s Guest Article is from my friend who has served as our translator during our Nicaragua mission trips.
Earl and his family have been serving as church planters in Nicaragua for years, and he shares with us some reflections on getting out of the church walls.
Here you go. . . . . . . .
These are totally random and have no real order. They’re just a bunch of thoughts and you must determine their value. You must allow the Holy Spirit to show you how to apply them to your life.Why be light in dark places?
Why get dirty? …because He shined so I could see his love; He got dirty so I could be cleansed.
For those reasons I love him, I want shine in the darkness and get “dirty”. I want others to see his love and receive his cleansing and forgiveness.
How can I get dirty? (Getting dirty has reference to previous thoughts shared and internet conversations with a few college students. Jesus, perfect and holy God, came and lived in the world, among the dirt and the dirty. We should do likewise. This is the reason for the question, “how can I get dirty?” Philippians 2:5-8)
We can never merit God’s love, but we can show him our sincere love and genuine appreciation by obeying him, sharing the good news and making disciples of all nations.
Faith without corresponding action is dead.
I came to you in the power of the Holy Spirit, not with fancy, convincing words.
Some of the darkest, dirtiest places in the world are clean, well lit offices.
Getting dirty is…
Getting dirty is being Jesus where ever you are.
Posted by Earl
Pastors Allenn and Debbie Kemp recently led their church into a Faith in Action Sunday, following a program that has been developed by World Vision.
They chose to take their regular Sunday service and move it to the front lawn of the their church — going to the streets, so to speak.
Their church has done several short term mission trips, and this idea came out of wondering why can’t they do some of that same compassionate work in their local neighborhood.
One additional feature of their missional event was the prayer station (Follow the link to see how to do a prayer station).
Staffed with elders trained in compassionate prayer, this was a place where people could unload their burdens and have someone pray with them.
People self-selected to sit at the table.
This is a place where evangelism conversations can happen normally, as people express their spiritual thirst. (See What is Spiritual Thirst?)
This is also a place to hear about community needs that might be under the radar.
Alan and I did a phone conversation about how to setup the prayer station. Listen here:
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