Finally I made a post about it and within 24hours of the post my problem was solved! [Big ups to you Jeremy for sorting me out!]
I wonder how many other areas in our lives we could find answers and breakthroughs for if we just reached out for help and leveraged other peoples knowledge and ideas?
So here is my next attempt at leveraging in your wisdom, knowledge and ideas:
I am busy planning for next years Sunday evening services [ours are targeted to the 25 - 35 years of age]. My question is this: What topics , books of the Bible, etc. would you like to see covered (in your church?)
I look forward to receiving your comments!
Posts
2 comments:
Hello Paul, I just want to respond to your comment about 'how many have verbally witnessed to more than 12 people in 12 months?' Witnessing verbally is good but it is just one way. I'd like to relate my thoughts on this to my personal experience:
We're all different. We respond to different approaches and we evangelise by different approaches. When I was much younger, I thought witnessing verbally was the way to go. Now that I'm older (34, so not ancient ;-) I've learned a way that I personally find more effective and has impacted people far more.
I'm not saying it's the only way to evangelise but it's consistent with my giftings and I've seen far more fruit from it than from any verbal witnessing I've done.
My primary giftings are mercy and service. As such, people in need are drawn to me, they talk to me and I am able to intuitively know what they need a lot of the time. It is in my nature to reach out to them and help them. That's the way I'm made ... it's what comes naturally. At the same time, I have found that by reaching out to others in this way, I don't need to even utter a word for them to take notice. Through my actions towards them they see something and they sense something of God. After that, I've found that they are much more open to talking about the gospel. For me, that is my cue to verbal evangelism. Few people will decline if you offer to pray over them - even if they don't believe.
Yes, encouraging conversation is one way. For some, simply coming alongside them is what is needed. If I come up alongside someone and help them out, and I'm thinking of a particular case here this year - someone unchurched, lots of hurts, not keen on churches or Christians - I don't have to say a word. It's a start, a dent in the resistance. Someone else may be able to pick up on that some day and take them further or that privilege may fall to me.
How many people have I impacted with straight out verbal evangelism this year - few. How many have I seen open up because of an action - quite a few.
Verbal evangelism is great. I'm someone who would respond to it. But I've also discovered for many people, especially those who would be put off by verbal evangelism, actions can really speak louder than words. When they see the peace you have and sense something of God in your life, they want it! To you that may seem passive - to me, it's effective.
I'm sure there are many other ways to reach people just as effectively. Maybe a good question to ask is what are your giftings? As such, what is your evangelism style? How can you implement that to best advantage?
Blessings :-)
J.R.G.
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