how i see it

There are of course many buzz words that are floating around the evangelical world when it comes to evangelism: missional, relational & intentional just to name a few.  This series in not meant to be full of buzz words or concepts, but to help you practically share Christ with people you see in your everyday life.

The other day I was reading Francis Chan's book Forgotten God and came across a the number one reason why many in ministry (or everyday life) have such a hard time breaking down barriers people have when it comes to God.  He said " . . . when those outside the church see no difference in our lives, they begin to question out integrity, our sanity, or even worse, our God.  And can you blame them?"  This sounds obvious, but in order to be effective in sharing the love of Christ we have to have it together.  I'm not saying your life has to be perfect (not everyone can be like me, just a little joke so calm down), but you have to be living a life that obviously advertises the gospel.

In a sense (a large one) we are responsible for God's reputation.  If we call ourselves a Christian we are saying we are Christlike.  We are Christ's street team, his billboard, his super bowl commercial; you get the point.  We are what people who are not believers think believers should be.  We are essentially Jesus with skin on.

How to do this?  Easy (at least in theory) read your Bible, go to church, fellowship with other believers, fast, pray & have a accountability partner.  Basically read and do (what the Bible says).  I know I'm oversimplifying it here and maybe in the future I will write a series on the spiritual disciplines, but this one is about evangelism and this is hands down the most important step.  If you get this one down (though none of us will ever be perfect) evangelism becomes something we do all the time.  It's natural.  We do it just by living our lives.

This is not to say that we don't have to take initiative, or that we can just live life without a great commission mindset.  We'll be breaking down the great commission in the next few blogs.

Alisha & I spent the night downtown Chicago at a hotel last night. It's something that we do every once in a while (thanks priceline). We love getting away, having a nice dinner, all that married stuff. Today when we woke up at the hotel we decided to go to one of our favorite breakfast restaurants which just happens to be right across the street from a well known Christian college which will remain nameless (cause that makes this whole thing seem scandalous). After a great breakfast (a jack and chorizo omelet for me and cinnamon roll French toast for the wife) we had about a half hour to kill before we had to head to the train so we decided to go to the college's book store.

So this has been one of many neglected blogs. One of my New Years resolutions is to update this blog at least once a week. So here's to doing that. We'll see how this goes.

Recently Niteline had a Face-Off debate that asked the question "Does Satan exist?".  They pitted pastor, blogger and theologian Mark Driscoll (his blog) and former prostitute turned founder of Hookers for Jesus Annie Lobert against philosopher Deepak Chopra and former self described "demon caster outer" Bishop Carlton Pearson.  I obviously fall on the side of Driscoll and Lobert.  This is a very interesting debate and I would highly recommend checking it out.  Check it out here.

I went to a Catalyst event last Friday to hear Chuck Colson speak local pastors. I have to be honest, my mother often forwards me his Break Point emails and too often I don't read them. However, I did go to the event excited to hear him speak as he is considered one of the foremost Christian thinkers today. I wasn't disappointed. Instead of boring you with my notes on his talk, I just want to share some of his best quotes from the night. His quotes are italicized and in quotations, my thoughts are not.

"If you're in a ditch don't keep digging"
He was speaking of the current financial crisis.

"Don't despair, for when you despair you are sinning because despair denies the power of God"
The church and Christians in general too often have pity parties for themselves.

"Christianity is seeing all of life under the Lordship of God"
Don't compartmentalize your faith. God wants all of you, or none of you.

"We offer truth not therapy"

"Defend the truth and overcome evil with good"
That's all we need to do. All good comes from God