John Dobbs comments on "Why do the lost seem so far away" got me thinking of lots of random thoughts. Why was the early church so successful in evangelism? Definitely their zeal was a huge factor of it, but the latter part of Acts 2 explains a lot of it as well. "46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Enjoying favor of all the people. Their kindness, their love, their generosity was appealing to all who witnessed it.
Often time we become focused on agenda evangelism. We set out to convert someone but we have not taken time to show them the love, kindness and generosity it takes to grow in favor with them. I'm not saying that we don't evangelize, for that is our purpose as Christians, what I am saying is that we take the time and build relationships and trust with those we are seeking to engage in biblical discussions. I think of myself as a good person yet I know this is something that I need to work on in my life.
If you click on the title bar to this blog topic it should take you directly to JD's blog
In Him,
David
2 comments:
Great perspective! I sometimes get in the trap of comparing our church today, to that beginning church. They sure had a good thing there, wish we could see what made it work so well.
Great points David. People are not dogs to be trained, mannequins to be manipulated into place ... they are ... people. And they are to be loved and treated with dignity, served in humility. We are to build relationships with people, not try to meet our quota. Thanks.
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