Be interested in people
I love this quote that Bryan at “aGCB” included in his post “Take Courage & Love People“:
Be encouraged that simply finding people interesting and caring about them is a beautiful pathway into their heart. Evangelism gets a bad reputation when we are not really interested in people and don’t seem to care about them. People really are interesting. Every person you talk to is an amazing creation of God with a thousand interesting experiences…. Very few people are interested in others. If you really find their story interesting, and care about them, they may open up to you and want to hear your story—Christ’s story. (John Piper, Finally Alive, 185)
People are interesting. Be interested in who they are as God’s creation. Who knows… they may even become interested in you when they notice the difference that Jesus Christ makes in your life… assuming he is making a difference.
Alan,
What do you think of those who practice evangelism in things such as open air and enter relationships with the purpose to evangelize. How does that reconcile with the post and the “people aren’t projects”? I have been wrestling with this for a while now.
Lionel, the way I see it is this, all of our relationships ought to have a Gospel agenda. Helping someone grow in faith is just as much sharing the Gospel as evangelism is sharing the Gospel. In either situation the core question to ask is “Am I winning converts or loving people?†The litmus test is what happens to the relationship when the person rejects the Gospel (or accepts the Gospel in some circumstances).
I think in our culture, open air preaching is entirely inappropriate. Everyone sees it as a marketing campaign, filled with propaganda. I think open air preaching can be appropriate in other cultures, but it’d be cool to see the preacher stick around to build relationships with those who would.
JD
Lionel,
I’m not opposed to open air evangelism. The way someone approaches the people afterwards probably indicates whether he or she is actually interested in those people or not.
Jonathan (Talloaf),
“Am I winning converts or loving people?” That’s a good question.
-Alan
Thanks for posting this, Alan. And thanks for coming to our class today – it was great!