What is doubt, and how does it affect our evangelism efforts?
Doubt is part of our human nature.
In our conversion journey, some of us likely had lots of doubts to overcome.
As we talk with others, we need to help them wrestle with their doubts as well.
[Read more…] about Doubt in Christian Conversion
Church planting is not easy work.
Ben Arment shares some lessons he has learned out of his church planting experiences in his book,
Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before it Starts
In the introduction, Arment writes for church planters who struggle.
How did church planting become such a spiritual crapshoot? Why is it that some churches fail why others succeed? How is it that prayerful, hardworking men and women who are called by God and filled with faith could fall flat on their faces?
Pulling from his own experiences in church planting, both from one that struggled to get going and one that he is currently in, he takes this angle:
He writes:
This book attempts to uncover the mystery of church planting. . . Church planting, it turns out, is remarkably organic.
Part 1 is called Good Ground – where Arment shares about spiritual receptivity at the level of local community. I write about spiritual receptivity a lot, but focused on the one-to one conversation level. Arment brings the wisdom of doing that work in the community.
Part 2 is called “Rolling Rocks.” Arment looks at momentum and suggest some was to capture that social momentum.
Part 3 is called “Deep Roots.” Arment looks at how a new church development springs out of the the roots of it’s community, rather than a vision being imported from another community. Church planters will have a deep connection to their local community, some that will take the time to build.
“Planting a church in a spiritually infertile community can be done, but it’s like walking up an escalator that’s going down.”
I know that church planting is not easy work from my first hand experiences.
I spent 5 years on the team to start a church for immigrants that still is up and running with it’s founding pastor.
I spent 7 years on the team to start a second church for immigrants that continues to this day with it’s founding pastor.
Seven months ago, we’ve gotten our family involved in a third immigrant oriented church that will look forward to starting public services in October 2015.
My role has always been a support role and never the lead pastor. That is consistent with God’s calling on my life.
But that doesn’t mean I’ve not seen the ups and downs of launching a new church.
Bruises from disappointments when people walk away.
Blessings of seeing people discover faith in Jesus Christ.
Bruises from early co-leaders who abandon the original vision and bail out.
Blessings from new believers who are so excited about Jesus they keep bringing their friends.
Other books to church planting take a look at leadership and theology of church planting. This book adds a sociological layer, focused on momentum and social networks.
For my take, the core of this book is knowing the spiritual receptivity of the community where you will plant your church.
Some might call this
As I look to participating in my 3rd church plant in a brand new community where I have zero roots, this book points out some of the challenges that will be ahead of me.
Arment uses the parable of the soil types in Matthew 13:3-9 to apply to church planting along with examples from his own experience.
Not only is your ability to share the gospel dependent on a person’s heart condition, but your ability to plant a church successfully is dependent upon your community’s spiritual fertility as well. . . It never dawns on most church planters that their target community already has an established degree of spiritual fertility (page 20).
Arment then unpacks
To see how they all fit together, you’ll need to pick up your copy of Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before it Starts, by Ben Arment
When I have taught churches that want to do a door to door evangelism campaign, I invite them to not only think about how to share the gospel, but also to learn about the spiritual thirst of the community as one of the 5 outcomes of door to door work. I believe that noticing spiritual thirst will open good conversational doors.
You might do the community exegesis of visiting with local officials to learn about the community.
The church you want to plant is not a fortress, but are the people of God on the mission of God. Brainstorm ways the church can bless its community and ask the question “How can we be the best church for the neighborhood?”
In the process, you’ll learn the spiritual receptivity of the neighborhood.
All links will connect you with the book on Amazon. Any purchase made will earn me a small commission. I’ve read each of these and can recommend them to the discussion.
Order your copy of Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before it Starts, by Ben Arment from Amazon. I will receive a small commission.
Escalator photo credit: Going up via (license)
My unsaved friend had a few questions for me about the New Testament.
He had been reading articles on the Internet about objections to the credibility of the New Testament
How would I answer such questions? How could I help my unsaved friend evaluate such evidence?
How would you approach your friend who tossed similar questions at you.
One evangelism fear that people have is being caught without an answer to questions like this. My friend has given me a specific example of an “I don’t know what to say” moment.
This is where a book like That’s a Great Question: What to Say When Your Faith Is Questioned, by Glenn Pearson, can be a helpful tool for you.
The book is focused on helping you analyze objections that are commonly found to the New Testament, specifically claims against the reliability of the New Testament.
Pearson focuses on worldview filters that skeptics and believers bring to the reading of the New Testament. I’m grateful he recognizes that he himself brings a filter that starts with the NT being reliable.
I found myself laughing at his humor, his funny stories, and his first hand adventures in talking about his faith in Christ.
It is a book on apologetics I found hard to put down. No boring list of data facts here.
One reviewer on Amazon said:
In a manner unknown to many authors today, Glenn skillfully blends humor and intellect to produce a great work of apologetics. This book will be a valuable resource
Pearson himself writes:
The purpose of this book, then, is to demonstrate that a commitment to academic excellence and intellectual integrity is consistent with belief in the Bible. I hope to equip you with valuable perspectives and insights that will help you identify and confidently respond to filters often used by those outside the historic Christian faith. Furthermore, I will arm you with practical principles that can clarify some tough challenges to Christian beliefs.
Part 1 is an introduction to filters that skeptics bring. Filters strain out evidence that is unwanted, or creates blindness to likely alternatives.
For example, chapter 3 is a discussion of two types of filters that add to the stories of Jesus, based on secret or suppressed documents, conspiracy theories. This chapter made me laugh out loud a few times.
Chapter 5 tells the story of a college class and the Jesus seminar and shows about how anti-supernaturalism leads to forgone conclusions, stacking the deck with similar thinking minds that filter out other explanations or possibilities.
Skeptics have a basic problem when it comes to explaining Jesus’ message. They claim that the Jesus of the Gospels was a remarkable but mortal man whom his followers elevated to divinity. But they never seem able to explain adequately just who did the extreme image makeover or who wrote his amazing speeches.
Part 2 is applying filters that a Christian believer brings to the same objections.
Part 2 of this book presents eighteen principles that provide a solid interpretive approach to the Bible. I call these “Pearson’s Principles for Approaching Puzzling, Perplexing, and Problematic Passages.” If the principles are valid and if the Bible is reliable, this approach should address critiques colored by various filters and which question the validity of the biblical text.
Some apologetic books focus on difficult questions about particular texts (God Behaving Badly). Other focus on learning and challenging religious worldviews (Evangelism Slightly Less Difficult, or Tactics).
Others focus on Reasoning from the evidence to the existence of God (God is not Dead). Pearson’s approach is to expose the presuppositions that a skeptic brings to a Bible passage and how a Christian can reasonably deal with objections and still have intellectual credibility in belief.
Do I have biases about the Bible?
Of course. I have concluded that it is reliable and accurate and is, in fact, God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible, and historically reliable revelation to humanity. This is not simpleminded acceptance, but an opinion backed by considerable research and study.
Are there problems with my position? Of course. I am fully aware of the intellectual challenges inherent in this theological view, but there is strong supportive evidence for my stance.
Do skeptical critics have biases? Of course. They, too, would say their positions are based on careful research, and they are correct.
Are there intellectual problems with their positions? Of course. There are enough complicated factors that neither side can claim victory based solely on the academic arguments.
The point, however, is that it is possible to be a thoughtful, well-educated, well-adjusted person and to believe that the Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant, and infallible revelation to all people in all ages.
I found That’s a Great Question: What to Say When Your Faith Is Questioned to be a great book for Christian believers who need to know how to analyze plausible objections to the credibility of the NT.
Young adults headed to college or already in the university will find this book helpful. If you regularly engage non-believers in meaningful conversations about your faith, you’ll run into objections and questions that are addressed in this book.
If you are a skeptic, than this book may bother you. Pearson politely shows you the presuppositions you bring to your own analysis. He admits he brings his own as well.
If you are spiritually thirsty and honestly searching for how a bible believer can believe the Scriptures, you’ll find a honest assessment of the evidence and plausible explanations of alleged contradictions in the text.
Order your copy of That’s a Great Question: What to Say When Your Faith Is Questioned from Amazon. I will receive a small commission.
Having read a steady diet of popular church growth books, Dan Dunn’s Offer Them Life: A Life-Based Evangelistic Vision is different academic challenge.
It is not a book to consume in one sitting, but a great book for those who want to think deeply on the biblical theme of Life.
I love Dan’s passion for evangelism and it clearly shows through the book with a mix of scholarly wrestling plus how to make such insights available in practice. Dan’s cross cultural missions experience (a passion that I share personally) gives him tremendous insight into his study.
This book requires deep thought and this was a welcome refresher in an age of “theology lite” books I’ve read the last few years.
Reading it felt like an appropriate return to seminary. For me, that was a timely challenge that I appreciated.
Dan has made the effort to survey the scholarship and to synthesize their thoughts plus his own surrounding the biblical metaphor of life.
I appreciated Dunn’s scholarly approach. Rather than reduce the gospel to 3 propositional statements, Dunn looks throughout the scriptures at the theme of Life. He takes well-developed steps to map out a comprehensive picture of this metaphor throughout Scripture to show the centrality of this message in Scripture.
His thoughts would serve missionaries, pastors, and evangelism trainers like myself as they prepare their evangelism habits and teaching materials.
These are the two most important points:
1. A solid case can be made that “full, vibrant life” is the central theme of the Bible.
This is therefore what God calls us to enjoy in relationship with God, others, and creation. It is not only eternal life, but a full and meaningful life as one lives out God’s purpose and plan for which we have been created.
2. Portraying the full vibrant life that God intends to non-Christians is a central element of evangelism.
This what we should be inviting non-Christians toward. Sure, the offer of salvation includes forgiveness of sin, but it also includes the offer of “abundant life” here and now.
We should not stop using other biblical/theological language, such as redemption, forgiveness, salvation.
Dunn only asks that we add full life oriented imagery and vocabulary to our theological/biblical understandings and also our evangelistic communication.
Dr. Dan Dunn has done what few can do. He has written a very academic and scholarly treatise delivered in a language we all can understand. His brilliant mind, disciplined academic pursuit and passion for helping others find life in following Christ has resulted in a book every Christian worker should include in their library, not as another dusty tome, but as a pattern for their life and ministry of evangelism. Every theological school which hopes to actually equip their graduates to do the work of the ministry should include this book in their curriculum.
Dan is a personal friend of mine and I have taught with him in the seminary he has founded in Venezuela.
I have gotten to know him over the last few years as we share passions for personal evangelism and a profound love for Latin America.
Even if I didn’t know Dan personally, I’d still recommend this book for your academic reading. Let it impact how you practice evangelism.
Order your copy of Offer Them Life: A Life-Based Evangelistic Vision Amazon. I will receive a small commission.
During a recent church visitor assimilation webinar (available now for purchase), we discussed some excellent resources on the assimilation process. One participant recommended a short book on hospitality ministry that was helpful to them.
See You Next Week is a short text crammed full of ideas that could help your church get started in improving the welcome and integration process in your church. If you haven’t read any books on this topic, this book might fit what you are looking for. It can help your congregation develop it’s friendliness.
I’ve read several books on church hospitality. I’ve written two myself. This particular book would be aimed at the church that doesn’t have an existing hospitality committee or advocate who wants to run the ministry and needs someone to start taking charge.
See You Next Week would be a good primer and overview of the church welcome and hospitality process.
If you have already read some of the related books in this field, you won’t learn anything new. However, See You Next Week would help you refresh your interest. The ending section on 11 principles for your volunteers would serve any ministry leader well as a resource for their volunteer training.
In either case, you can find short and quick tips that you would need to polish your existing hospitality and welcome ministry, and quick reminders for your volunteers.
The book is not about evangelism, or even how to share the gospel along the way. The authors know that is an important topic, but it is outside of the scope of their focus on creating a good welcome and developing your ministry of assimilation.
This book is all about integrating that newcomer into the church family as quickly as possible. This is not a book on evangelism. It is not a book on advertising. It is not a book on church programming. It is a book that focuses attention on that narrow range of activity that should help the newcomer on their way into your church community. On their part it might start with a tentative, “We should try that place out sometime.” But we want it to end with an assured, “This place is my new home!”
See You Next Week is laid out as short two page chapters, followed by a QR code and weblink to more in depth information.
The authors move through
Here is what you need to know about the flow of the book. We start together with clearing up some of the basic facts about the subject and the need to integrate newcomers. Then we move on to the attitudinal, mechanical, logistical and general organizational elements to consider. Finally, we give some practical advice for every committed church participant
I presume the promised online resources are still in development. The preface promised additional resources via the links. I sampled a random few and didn’t find the additional resources hinted at in the preface. Mostly, I found a page that has the text of the chapter, the audio reading of the chapter, and occasionally resource paper or additional resources. Maybe more resources are coming as the product development continues.
The book is admittedly not about evangelism, or even about how to help people find faith in Christ. The target is to help your church members be intentional in helping newcomers feel like becoming part of the local church family. The writers say right off the bat:
“This is a book about one small slice of church life and therefore doesn’t deal with the diversity of the multiple elements that matter.”
It is full of practical tips on conversational small talk, how to relate to new comers, and various principles that volunteers should keep in mind when serving on a church’s hospitality or greeter ministry. They look at attitude, some mechanics, and some organizational elements of welcome and hospitality.
The value I found in See You Next Week was the 11 resolutions for hospitality volunteers. These are directed at the volunteers, and you as a ministry leader could use them in your volunteer training.
Most of the books I’ve read in this field talk a lot about the mechanics of hospitality, but this set of 11 principles was written specifically for the volunteer. It gives you specific ways you can live out a warm welcome from the relational side.
If you want to add a copy to your library, order yours here. If you do, I’ll get a few nickels.
Or check out my own ebook that is available to download here. A purchase of my ebook will also reward you with a free consulting conversation with me about your hospitality ministry, plus information on the best way to get visitor contact information.
One spiritual conversation is just not enough. The Lord will use many conversations to help bring your friend to Christ. But sometimes, you’ll want something that you can give your spiritually thirsty friend something that they can read and ponder over.
Books are good for this. Invite your friend to read one with you and discuss the chapters over the next several weeks.
So what is a book you can recommend to your spiritually thirsty friend?
[Read more…] about Give This Book to Your Spiritually Thirsty Friend
Do I have biases about the Bible?