8 Thoughts on Being Genuine Friends with Non-Believers
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“Lost people know when we’re treating them as “projects” over against just loving them as people created in God’s image.” - Chuck Lawless
Clarifying the Message of Evangelism
Introduction
In our previous article, we sought to clarify the nature and goal of biblical evangelism. We noted that evangelism is proclaiming the good news of Jesus with the goal of persuading people to repent and believe in Christ. In today’s article, we want to clarify the message of evangelism so that we can faithfully proclaim the gospel.
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Don’t Put Your Faith in the Wrong Person
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“To anyone who has been burned by Christians, I gently offer a simple insight: those representing (or misrepresenting) Christ are not Christ. You probably know that, but it bears repeating.” - TGC
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Evangelism in a Post-Christian Culture
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“we can’t rely on “hit and run” gospel presentations for effective disciple-making ministry. Times have changed. We need to consider a different approach for engaging unbelievers with the good news of Jesus.” - P&D
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8 Reasons Why Non-Believers Don’t Always Listen to Us
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“1. They sense we’re treating them more as projects than as people we care about…. 4. They learn we’re not prepared—or willing, even—to engage their questions…. 5. They don’t understand our language.” - Chuck Lawless
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A Struggling Society Is One Ripe for the Gospel
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“The widespread cultural breakdown we see around us cannot by explained by a mere loosening of morals, or the wrong political party being in power, a pandemic, or our response to it. What we are seeing is the catastrophic emptiness when life is built on the wrong foundation.” - Breakpoint
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Christ, Culture, and the Church
This world is a mess. A few decades ago, Carl F.H. Henry wrote: “The West has lost its moral and epistemic compass bearings. It has no shared criterion for judging whether human beings are moving up or down, standing still, or merely on the move only God knows where.”1 In the absence of a Biblical world-explanation, Henry argued, “[t]he search for an alternative model is beset with confusion, and Western society drifts indecisively toward chaos.
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“The power of introverted hospitality in an extroverted world of church ministry.”
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“Jesus had no home on earth to invite others into. When he sat with the woman at the well or crossed the sea to purge a single man of his demons, he wasn’t trying hard to attract crowds…. Sometimes, no one could find him… yet he embodied hospitality—which translates from the Greek to love of the stranger—in everything he did, to everyone he met.” - C.Today
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Barna Research: Pastors See Missions as a Mandate, but Christians Aren't So Sure
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“Christians … tend to believe missions is a calling for some (51%), not a mandate for all (25%). On the other hand, the vast majority of pastors (85%)—regardless of denomination—says missions is work that all Christians participate in.” - Barna
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People Aren’t Scared of Your Faith
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Study: “Half of Americans (51%) say they’re curious as to why some people are so devoted to their faith. Even among those who are religiously unaffiliated, the majority (60%) are curious about others’ faith.” - Lifeway
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