OUT: Evangelism as sales pitch, as conquest, as warfare, as ultimatum, as threat, as proof, as argument, as entertainment, as show, as monologue, as something you have to do.
IN: Disciple-making as conversation, as friendship, as influence, as invitation, as companionship, as challenge, as opportunity, as converastion, as dance, as something you get to do.
You're more ready for this than you realize, and so are your friends!
(From the back cover)
Brian McLaren is founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church (www.crcc.org), an innovative church in Spencerville, Maryland. His passion is evangelism--especially evangelizing postmoderns.
More Ready Than You Realize tells the true story of Brian's developing relationship with "Alice," a postmodern young woman curious about Christianity. The book consists of emails between Brian and Alice and Brian's reflections on their conversation.
A sample of one of Alice's emails to Brian: "i need to make sure than im not being 'lured in', just to find out once i go aheand and believe that a whole bunch of other stuff comes along with it that i cant feel comfortable wtih, and then my whole person will change and ill ecome closed minded and bigoted and brainwashed and everything bad."
Brian's reflection: "Do you feel the legitimacy of Alice's fear about her 'whole person' changing? We Christians often talk about changed lives, but we fail to see that to many of our neighbors, the changes that occur with conversion are not all for the good."
Brian goes on to relate this converation with another friend:
"Why don't you believe in God?"
Jeff answered, "It's my brother. He became a Christian and now nobody can stand him."
I asked, "So you're afraid that if you start believing in God, you'll become an arrogant hypocrite, or something like that?"
"Exactly."
I felt I should just give him something to think about, rather than argue (remember, it is not about winning and losing), so I said, "Well, maybe someday you'll see a way to belive in God and bcome a better person instead of a worse one."
He said, "Wow, I never really thought if it that way. I guess that is an option."
This is a fun book, and one that helped me better get inside the minds of the postmodern people in my life. I hope that it's also helping me to be more conversational and less argumentative when I talk with people who are trying to figure out what they believe about God.
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