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Here are some good words about everyday evangelism. Most of us wish we were bolder, had more non-believing friends, had more experience answering hard questions (why do we suffer, etc.), well...we wish we did the evangelism piece better. The blog link by Mez McConnell doesn't answer all our difficulties, but he does gives a few pointers in the right direction. (And, by the way, Mez, you have a cool name).

Dying To Disciple: How Far Are We Willing To Go In Our Pursuit of People?

by Mez McConnell

It’s fascinating how the Lord Jesus used so many informal settings as teaching opportunities. Reading through Luke’s gospel offers us some revealing insights as to how Jesus used this style of teaching as he travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem. Luke contains all sorts of stories, questions and metaphors for how Jesus interacted in the normal scenarios of life. It is a book filled with a variety of parables. Importantly, most of them are about everyday stuff with no connection to the Scriptures (received at the time) or church or, indeed, anything remotely religious at all. Jesus used them to cleverly connect spiritual truths to people within their own cultural contexts.

I believe that one of the reasons many Christians struggle to effectively communicate gospel truth to people on Monday through Saturday is because they talk to unbelievers like it’s a Sunday! We may be able get away with ‘churchy’ language on a Sunday but not the rest of the week.

Blue-Logo-2-e1390374006955I think that the parables of Luke remind us that many of our relationships with unbelievers don’t get built from the pulpit or in formal teaching sessions; they get built, in the main, ‘on the road’ (so to speak). In Niddrie that can mean in the car on the way to the chemist for their ‘script’ (Methadone/Valium etc), giving someone a lift to town because you passed them at the bus stop, going to the local hairdresser, the job centre, the doctors or at the corner shop. Most of the best conversations I have had have been off the cuff, chance encounters in the street and I have just decided to change my schedule. Flexible Spontaneity, we call it at Niddrie. That’s where some of the more task focussed members of the church fall down. They won’t cancel or delay that meeting they are on the way to, no matter what. Someone may stop them in the street but they miss out because they are on their way somewhere. The problem is that we’re all on our way somewhere! The key to a more intentional life is to develop an ‘on the way’ evangelistic heart.

Many people whose lives are task focused and driven by their diaries don’t like chaos and so they desperately try to impose order upon it.

Continue with the rest of this article: Dying To Disciple: How Far Are We Willing To Go In Our Pursuit of People?