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?
[Read more…] about 5 Ways to Bless Your Neighbor
“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.
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. . . . . . . .
[Read more…] about Getting beyond the wallsPastors 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:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
One way that you can discover your community need is through setting up prayer stations at your outreach events.
For example, we did one at a dental fair where we partnered with the local dental school to give free cleanings to kids (Photos below).
Making this prayer station service available allows people who want prayer to sit and visit with your volunteers.
Praying together gives God an open door to touch a person’s life as an expression of your church’s love.
Many churches have started this practice and others want to try it, so here is a simple step by step layout of how to setup a prayer station.
As people visit the station, they will often share some kind of spiritual need. They will stay as long as they want or feel comfortable doing. You might be able to hear their spiritual thirst. (What is Spiritual Thirst?)
It’s an opportunity for evangelism that is not aggressive, as your guests expect to talk a little about their spiritual need while visiting your prayer station.
A Prayer Station is a simple place designated for free prayer to those who want it.
It’s an area clearly designated and staffed with trained volunteers from your church.
It could be a table with a sign, perhaps under a tent if it’s outdoors. Or maybe just a collection of chairs. Many groups have found a table helpful, as they can have a place for writing notes or displaying literature.
Nothing elaborate, just a designated place in the same area where your outreach is occurring.
For example, if you are doing your outreach on the lawn of your church, the prayer station should be outside in the same area. I don’t recommend setting up inside the church, as that is out of the traffic pattern of the people who attend your outreach.
Prayer Station on the church grounds.
The amazing versatility of this prayer station is that it can be used wherever you are doing an outreach on your church property.
For example,
We did a dental fair as an outreach and setup a prayer station in the same area where the free dental cleanings were happening.
Prayer Station in the community.
Some other churches may choose to setup a prayer station at a more public setting, such as renting a tent at a public food festival, or just out on the street in an area of high foot traffic.
As people pass by, some will stop in to pray, others will be curious, and some will likely wish you weren’t there.
In one town where I lived, they had an annual tomato festival that was very similar to a county fair. Vendors would rent tents to see their arts and crafts, food items, and advertise their services. Some churches would rent a tent and simply staff it as a prayer station.
Not all churches would be comfortable doing something like this at a location that is not their property.
Some will do this on a regular basis, like the 1st Saturday of the month at a park or with a business.
Recruit volunteers who are skilled at praying with other people.
In our prayer stations, we use people are filled with the Holy Spirit and able to cooperate with the Holy Spirit through spiritual gifts. They also have the gentleness to know how to express those gifts without being perceived as weird, combative, or loony. That’s part of my ministry ethos.
You’ll want volunteers who are comfortable listening to the stories of other people and who have gifts of compassion and mercy. This is not the place for the overly aggressive evangelist or the constant talker who doesn’t listen.
When a visitor comes to your prayer station, a simple welcome greeting is appropriate.
Then, a question like, “How can we pray for you?” will often be sufficient to get the conversation going.
You might want to confirm that prayer is not “Rub the lamp and find the genie” or any kind of magic.
Listen for the need and then take the time to pray with the person right there at that prayer station.
You can expect that God will open up your heart as well as theirs and that the Holy Spirit would touch their lives.
After praying, there are a variety of other things you might want to do
I recommend that your team keep a notebook where they can put topics for prayer. After a while, you might see some themes that God might be calling your church to meet.
How would you use this in your context?
If you like this idea, put it on your calendar, do it, and let me know how it goes.
