Comments on: Being There

By: C. Holland

C. Holland — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:17:10 +0000

@Ozgur: Welcome to the blog! You’re right, we want to quantify evangelism by counting the number of papers, etc. we handed out, sermons preached, etc. Here in Western Europe, it starts with sharing a cup of tea in someone’s house, which by itself sounds nothing like sharing the Gospel. But in taking that time to relate to someone, eventually God gives you the natural opening (or questions from the person) to clearly present the entire Gospel message. Thing is, this can take 5-50 visits and can’t easily be measured or predicted.

@Committed: Thank you. In our go-go, modern world, I think Christians today expect too much too soon, both in their walk with Christ and in evangelism. I’m just as guilty as others of putting my own deadlines on God, and it’s just not healthy. I pray that Christians won’t be so averse to supporting or even entering long-term mission ministry (and I’m talking about longer than a 2 or 3 year stint).

By: Committed Christian

Committed Christian — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:01:46 +0000

That’s great to hear about a missionary in it for the long haul doing what God has called them to do…thanks for sharing how important it is to wait on the Lord and do as He leads in His timing. Not to mention, trust Him and His ability to touch people’s lives.

By: Ozgur

Ozgur — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:04:10 +0000

Hi,
I have been noticing this more and more in last 3 years or so but especially this summer during my stay in my homeland, I discovered that this is a major issue to think about.
I think that the one main reason is not that people hear the Gospel which is of course the purpose, but for “us” to do something to tell people about. Because I feel like we want to be able to say something like “I handed out … bibles, but if God does not draw them, I cant do anything”

I feel like this is a cop out from living with people and actually caring for them naturally rather than going into it with a mind set “How can I bring Jesus out of me?” The Gospel should come out if you want it or not. It should be over flowing work of God, not just few pieces of paper.

I appreciate your articles. I hope to read more of them and ask you some questions.

Blessings,

ozgur

By: tai fu

tai fu — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:50:13 +0000

Sometimes the best thing we can do cost nothing. It costs time (to write it) and money to print tracts. I am sure they are effective in some locations but I do know it costs only time and not money to build relationships but that is what people need. We can’t just go call ourselves missionaries and treat people like items in an assembly line. Giving tracts confers no relationship and it makes the people handing out tracts look like salesman to sell something, but when we go out and make relationship happen it goes beyond that. While that will require more time and fruits aren’t obvious it just takes a long time from planting seed to bearing fruit.

By: C. Holland

C. Holland — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:48:06 +0000

@Rose: Thank you!

@Karl: I’ve witnessed the arrogance and disdain that you describe, and it makes it difficult to convince supporters that your living and working in the field might make you a better expert than just following the latest formula. If we held all churches in my field to an expected growth in a certain time, they’d all be shut down now and that’d be just wrong.

@Tai: Thank you. We’ve got to engage our brains in ministry. If there’s a place in this world where tracts work, then by all means use them. Just don’t absently replicate a method and consider it sacred. Relationships take longer but I believe any spiritual fruit from them will likely be more real.

By: tai fu

tai fu — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:07:18 +0000

Thank you for not being one of those missionaries that is so eager to hand out a tract and talk about “eternal life” the first chance they can. We have a load of them in Taiwan, and I suspect in other countries too. Many missionaries would have stacks of tract to pass out and then start talking about being Christian the first 2 minutes they see them, and if I were those people I would think, “looks like this guy just wants to convert me to Christianity in order to “do his job” or to score some kind of a heavenly brownie point”. I go to a mosque in Taipei in order to reach out to Muslims (there is only one mosque in Taipei… Taiwan have less than a few thousand Muslims) and the worst thing you can do is to try and talk to Muslims about Jesus or eternal life, because they have the idea that we worship three gods (no kidding) and that we are trying to attack their culture. My strategy is to simply make an effort to be around them on a regular basis and attempt to develop a relationship. It will take more time and I am not able to do this as often as I like but I am sure this will work better than simply showing up to a mosque and start throwing out tracts (which will get you evicted from the mosque in free countries, and possibly imprisoned or killed in less free countries)

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Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:22:06 +0000

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By: Karl Dahlfred

Karl Dahlfred — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:06:38 +0000

Keep plodding. I too resist the formulaic answers when the Scriptural “formuala” (if you will) is just to do the basics and love people, and God may give you fruit in good time.

The lust for formulaic answers betrays a dependence on self as if the growth of God’s church ultimately depended on us figuring out the right methodology. And of course, for those who think they’ve figured out the right methodology (as the “key” to church growth), there is a growing arrogance and disdain for those using a different methodology because those wrong-methodology people are hindering the growth of God’s church. And faithful servants of God who are seeing little fruit are looked down upon because they are not doing house churches, or obeying universal principles of church planting movements, or whatever.

Too little attention is given to God’s sovereignty in making the church grow when, how, where, and at what speed He chooses. And the unfortunate result is division in the body of Christ where there not be any.

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:12:02 +0000

It sounds to me like you are listening to the Lord and doing what He says! It reminds me of this quote (I know you’re not into missionary quotes, but it’s a good one!) from Fredrik Franson. You are depending on God and He is answering.

Your little growing church is in my prayers.

“If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray.” -Fredrik Franson