It’s no secret that I think evangelism is a good thing! I’ve been thinking about the message that was given at church on Sunday by our new vicar, Iain. He raised some good points that I think are worth discussion.

Iain is currently walking through a series on the book UnChristian; it talks about how non-Christians perceive Christians today.

Iain started off by saying (and this is my paraphrase) that he hopes his life will be one that reflects Christ’s. We should aim to have our lives reflect his. This reminded me of some things that Roger Hershey spoke of at our student conference earlier in the year. One of Roger’s sons, Brett, died a few years ago, and at his funeral, one of his friends said something to the effect of “I’m not a Christian yet, but if there’s one thing to be said about Brett, it’s that he wanted everyone to know the Jesus Christ that he knew.” I hope that this will be true of my life!

Iain talked about how there are a range of different perspectives that people have about Christians/Christianity, from those who are closed off to it, to those who are cautiously open. However, according to research in UnChristian, 70% of those 16-30 years old think Christians are too focused on conversion, and don’t genuinely care about them.

This is certainly a provocative statement, but to be honest, I’m not really surprised by it. When I talk to people on campus, I hear stories of how Christians have tried to force the gospel on people, or bad experiences people have had with Christians in their lives. Often, a person has heard how their friends perceive Christians, and their perception becomes a reality to them (Iain mentioned this as well).

I do think that we need to be intentional about sharing our faith. So how do we do that when non-Christians perceive us in this way?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers about how to solve this problem, but I do have a few ideas:

• Be prepared to have a conversation when you talk about spiritual things with someone. Having a conversation means it’s a two-way event, and that involves listening. I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet in any way here, but I’ve had people say to me “Thanks for taking the time to listen to what I had to say when you shared with me.” I hope that this is something I can always do.
• It’s OK if you have a spiritual conversation with someone, and don’t get to share the entire gospel. Whether you’re using a tract of some sort with a stranger, sharing your testimony with a friend, or talking to a group of people, it’s good to get them sharing their thoughts. If the person you’re talking to walks away from the conversation with a positive experience, then the door is potentially open for another conversation in future. Not everyone is ready to receive Christ the first time you meet them.
• Be prepared to say sorry. If you talk to someone and they’ve had a bad experience in the past with a Christian (or even think they have), then I believe it’s OK to say “I’m sorry for your past experience, and any pain we as Christians have caused you.” The fact that it wasn’t your personal fault doesn’t really matter to them at this point.
• I really like what Bill Bright said about sharing the gospel. “Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and leaving the results up to God.” I know for some of you this is like preaching to the choir, but when you leave the results up to God, you don’t have to worry about converting someone, because you know that you can’t! I honestly believe that if we were all able to live this out all the time, then non-Christians wouldn’t have many of the perceptions which they have about us now.

Iain challenged us to look for a “Truly prophetic imagination to see and express the alternative reality we seek to live by.” For me, this means I need to rely on God’s Spirit to help me live in a way that honours him, especially when it comes to non-Christians, as the way I live represents Christ to them.

What are your thoughts or experiences on this?

There are many things I hope to do in life. I recently wrote a list of 100 of them.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how hope can turn into expectations, how those expectations can turn into assumptions, and why this isn’t always a good thing.

There have been many times where I’ve heard people say that we should “expect big things from God.” The reason people say this would seem to be based on the view that we shouldn’t limit our ideas about what God can do to our own human understanding: an idea which sounds good to me.

But when we hope (and pray) for something, can we rely too much on this idea of expectation in God? Do we see expectation change from one form (expectation for the sake of not limiting God to an easily definable box), turn in to expectation of another form (assumption that something will actually happen)? How does this change sneak up on us?

In hindsight, there have been times in my life where I’ve asked for something from God, really have hoped that said thing will happen, and it has. An example would be when I needed a car, prayed for one, and literally got given a car within a month.

There are also plenty of times where I’ve asked God for something, hoped just as much (or more) for it to happen, and it hasn’t. Looking back at some of those situations, it would seem that hope turned into assumption, that after some length of time I was no longer trusting in God as much as I originally had. I think this happens because when we expect something to happen, we no longer have a felt need for hope in that situation; we eliminate the need to trust God as much as we do when we’re praying for something that we wouldn’t normally expect to happen.

When we assume something will happen, I think what we’re really saying is that we understand in our minds what the outcome of that situation will be. That’s presumptuous, because even if we don’t explicitly think it, we’re saying we know as much as God does in that situation! That seems like idolatry at the highest level.

Psalm 71:19 (ESV):

Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

My sister just walked in (I’m at my parents’ house), opened the fridge, sighed, and walked back out. The above took about two seconds.

Isn’t it funny how even when we know there isn’t anything that we want to eat in the fridge, we open it up anyway? Perhaps it’s from a hope that something has magically appeared.

I’ve always wanted one of those fridges with double doors and an ice dispenser.

Tech buzzwords are getting worse (OK, so they’ve been pretty bad all along). Check out this ad from HP:

‘Webinar’? Sounds pretty corny to me! Not something that’ll be selling me anything. Does anyone pay attention to these things, or are we all buzzworded-out?

I’m a doubter. I doubt a lot of things. I’ve been thinking recently (read: over the past 5 minutes plus the time it took to write this post) about the psychology of doubting, and how that relates to our trust in God.

I’d like to say that when things that I think are in God’s plans don’t go the way I had hoped, that my doubt about whether they were really God’s plans in the first place is doubt in myself. Whoa, what a mouthful; let me break it down in an example:

I have an idea about how something (be it a short event or a longer term plan) should go, and what I think God’s plan is in regards to how that thing should go. Then that thing doesn’t go the way I had hoped (planned), and as a result, I doubt that God’s plan was what I originally thought it was.

Simple, right? I can look at myself in any given situation that doesn’t go the way I want it to, and say “Any doubt in this situation is with regards to my own ability to do/plan/see things according to how God sees them.” In (attempting) to say “I doubt myself”, I’m theoretically putting God first, and saying “God, you know better.” But there’s a problem! Am I really trusting in God, or am I still trusting in myself?

Other than the fact that things didn’t go the way I planned, did I learn anything from the situation? Did I learn to trust in God more than I already knew how? Or did I just say “my fault” and ‘move on’? How can I ensure that I’m really going to trust God in the future? These types of situations can lead into the trap of thinking (probably subconsciously, as if that’s an excuse!) “Well, I’m going to plan X, Y and Z, and if things don’t happen that way, I’ll deal with it because it wasn’t God’s plan anyway.” Some trust in God that is, huh?

I’m sure there are many things which lead to one finding themselves in this sort of situation: perhaps the choleric need for achievement, and the sense that a goal should be achieved because of one’s own hard work (in essence the need to be in control of things). Or perhaps the sanguine need to please people by being quick to offer an explanation/apology when something doesn’t go as expected. (There may be some influence for those of the melancholy/phlegmatic nature too, but I don’t readily identify with those, and I wasn’t intending for this post to turn into a commentary on personalities).

Isaiah 55:6-9 (ESV):

Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Psalm 143:10 (ESV):

Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Editors Note: This post is meant to be having fun. Take it with a grain of salt, it’s not serious!

Why do people place a different value on couples than what they do on singles? As a single yourself, I am ashamed at the seemingly weighted importance you place on linking to those who are married on your blog. To clarify, I am talking about the links contained in the right-hand sidebar on your website. If one wanted to find a link to my website from yours, they would first have to trudge through an extremely long list of links entitled pair, then through the on topic category list, only to find the single list below the archive list!

This is an outrage and I demand an explanation! As if today’s media wasn’t already enough, trying to tell us what is important and how we should live! And now I see you are openly siding with the man on this issue!

I may be the only one to say this but, I wish I got more email! Now, before I go any further, let me clarify. What I mean to say is, “I wish I got more personal email.” I get plenty of bits and pieces for sites I subscribe to, newsletters, etc. And yes, I’d probably need to start sending emails to other people in order for me to get some back. Maybe I’ll start doing that…

The cool thing about personal emails, is that getting one is now pretty much as exciting as receiving a piece of personal snail mail (not a bill or statement). This, I reckon, is because people are using email less and less, due to overcrowded email in-boxes and the proliferation of social networking sites.

And the advantage of email over snail mail? I tend to put pieces of paper down and then loose them