Here's something I read a few weeks ago that has stuck with me since like a Jack Russell terrier on a postman's trouser leg.
"In many churches today there is a strong emphasis upon evangelism – equipping people to share the good news of Jesus. There are programmes to train people for this, to help them deal with the questions of postmodern people, to help them persuade people of Christian truth so they will want to become Christians.
Five years ago I was doing research into evangelism in the church of the first three centuries. And I was puzzled: the early church was growing rapidly, but in early Christian literature there are no training programmes for evangelism and practically no admonitions to evangelism. Why? I concluded, not least through reading what early Christians themselves said, that the church before the conversion of Constantine was growing because it was living in a way that fascinated people. It spoke to their needs; it addressed their questions; and it didn’t so much persuade as fascinate people into new life. Early Christians believed that, in Christ, God had begun a vast movement of reconciliation that had incorporated them; so they had renounced violence, converted their swords into ploughshares, and stopped studying war. This was something they had experienced, and that had given them a new way of living."
It's from 'Becoming a Peace Church' by Alan and Eleanor Kreider. Available as a pdf download here (scroll to the bottom of the page).
Fascination - Alphabeat (Official Music Video)
"In many churches today there is a strong emphasis upon evangelism – equipping people to share the good news of Jesus. There are programmes to train people for this, to help them deal with the questions of postmodern people, to help them persuade people of Christian truth so they will want to become Christians.
Five years ago I was doing research into evangelism in the church of the first three centuries. And I was puzzled: the early church was growing rapidly, but in early Christian literature there are no training programmes for evangelism and practically no admonitions to evangelism. Why? I concluded, not least through reading what early Christians themselves said, that the church before the conversion of Constantine was growing because it was living in a way that fascinated people. It spoke to their needs; it addressed their questions; and it didn’t so much persuade as fascinate people into new life. Early Christians believed that, in Christ, God had begun a vast movement of reconciliation that had incorporated them; so they had renounced violence, converted their swords into ploughshares, and stopped studying war. This was something they had experienced, and that had given them a new way of living."
It's from 'Becoming a Peace Church' by Alan and Eleanor Kreider. Available as a pdf download here (scroll to the bottom of the page).
Fascination - Alphabeat (Official Music Video)
1 comment:
Kind of what I always really thought about evangelism...
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