]]> http://withoutashepherd.com/2010/07/23/kirribilli-kids-art-workshop/feed/ 0 hayleyneal kkartsidea tutors http://withoutashepherd.com/2010/06/11/5-quick-questions/ http://withoutashepherd.com/2010/06/11/5-quick-questions/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:38:28 +0000 hayleyneal http://withoutashepherd.com/?p=1391 ]]> One method for walk up or door-knocking evangelism is take with you a survey to complete with those who speak with. One of the surveys that I have used while on Summerfest is ’5 quick questions’:

1. What characteristics best fits your idea of God?
   a. Loving
   b. Angry
   c. Distant
   d. Relational
   e. Other
2. Who do you think Jesus is/was?
3. What do you think is the biggest cause of the problems in the world?
4. If you could ask God one question what would it be?
5. Why do you think God hasn’t stopped the suffering in the world?

BENEFITS

• Like all surveys, where you ask a large collection of people, you can gauge popular opinion.
• You can get to know the peoples beliefs, concerns, ideas, of those who your church is trying to reach.
• The questions get to the heart of most peoples objections to Christianity.
• It’s a 2-way conversation, where the respondent has the power of the conversation. Less threatening for them as they can say no to you, turn you away, or stop you mid-survey.
• Helpful diagnostic tool to see where people are at with the Christian Faith.
• The results in themselves are valuable as they give you insight, plus they might even provide some sermon illustration material; bible study openers: how would you respond to the person who says… etc.
• Stimulates conversation.

CHALLENGES

• Can just look manipulative. Just using the survey to get in so to bible bash them.
• Sometimes hinders ability to share the gospel (often the aim of door-knocking) as once the survey is completed the conversation is over.

TIPS

• Be polite and friendly.
• Introduce yourself…
  Hi I’m Hayley, I go to Church by the Bridge, just doing a survey & would love your opinions on a 5 quick  questions…
• If they say NO straight out… respect their decision and thank them for their time:
  Thanks anyway, hope you enjoy the sunshine this afternoon.
• Be genuinely interested in hearing peoples responses.
• Don’t force conversation on people.
• Be happy to walk away with just survey results.
• Close the survey by saying: ‘just wondering if I can ask one more question in response to one of your answers… e.g.
  Why do you think God is…
  What do you mean when you say Jesus is the Son of God?
  If Jesus is just a good teacher, why do you think Jesus was killed by the authorities for disturbing the peace (insurrection)?
  You said, Jesus was the Saviour? Who do you think he was saving and what was he saving them from?
  How does your worldview answer the question about suffering, if you think Christianity can’t?

At Church by the Bridge, we try to do this in a number of ways:

• Art Exhibition and Prize
• Fair Trade Markets
• Winter Appeal & Christmas Appeal collection for the needy
• Community Lunches
• Clean Up Australia Day

The only other thing I can think of are:

• Free Winter Care Hampers…. My idea is to get a washing basket (or another container that people would use) and put a blanket, food, a beanie, woolies voucher, etc,… Potentiall there may be opportunity to parnter with an organisation like ANGLICARE and ask them if they can help you give to those in need in your area. Somehow partner together. I am going to investigate this so I will get back to you with what I find out.

What are some things your church does, or things you hope to do, or have stored away on your ideas shelf?

I found these remarks both an encouragement and a rebuke… mostly felt the latter though.

Encouragement: locals not at church miss me when I am not out and about in the community
Rebuke: where have I been if I haven’t been out and about in the community?

Good question… and I agree with them. I haven’t been out and about in the community as much as I previously did last year.

Upon reflection I’ve forgotton to take heed of my own advice, ‘If I was a Community Pastor…’

• Pray for my community.
• Have time flexible to just to hang about and be open for conversations.
• Have coffee with unbelieving locals, locally.
• Be interested in the things that locals are putting on.
• Be a friend to those who are lonely… pop-in-and-say-hello ministry.
• Say hello to strangers.
• Get involved in community activities/meetings.
• Go gospelling

These have dropped from my list of priorities because:

• Change in routine from last year; lack of preparation for strong routine in 2011.
• Not putting ‘hang time’ in my calendar
• Letting administration and maintenance of ministries dominate my time.
• Impatient in seeing fruit of my labours.
• And in my favour, this year I have been trying to invest more in believers at church and so mobilse them to do some of the ‘community pastoring’ work with me, rather than going out on my own. This takes time and will hopefully bear fruit later.

Solutions:

1. Plan.

2. Prioritize.

3. Patience.

4. Prayer.

Author |
Anonymous

It was a painful ten minutes in front of my screen.

“No worries that tennis game can wait, but it would have been nice to catch up for chats / snacks sometime.”

My friend wasn’t telling me that he really needed this catch up.  Nor was he signalling that this was a last chance for our friendship; or even suggesting that he didn’t understanding about my other priorities.  The writer, my dear dear, non-Christian mate Dan indeed has his own priorities.

But what could I say?

As I looked at my diary, there just wasn’t another opening… for six weeks.  I know God’s sovereign.  I know he will save who he’s planned to.  I know my mate can come to faith without me in his life at all.  But I know that the gospel moves me to prioritise relationships too; and that God’s leaving this current creation still ticking over so that he can bring more people into his family.  Like you, I do have a real care for the lost (even if it often slips away to the back of my mind).

So with a genuine grimace on my face, I started to type:

“Mate, with symbolic tears, I’m really sorry to say that I’m just too busy for the next little while.  It’s a mixture of life, family expectations, work.  Yeah I really haven’t been giving work the attention I should have.”

I suppose that’s fair enough, I thought; God really is sovereign…  And I really shouldn’t fail those close to me… or my work.. in order to put Dan first.  But seriously, what the heck am I doing?: I’ve seen him only twice all year…  And it’s not like I’ve been having much time with a whole lot of other non-Christian mates.   Ahhh, they said it would happen and it’s happened: most of my social time is with Christians.   Arghh…

I really believe the gospel and I really believe that God uses people to share it with other people.  Sending this e-mail is just lame, I thought.

So, as is often the case for me, a better solution came, with a calm re-think of my priorities.  The family, the church-stuff, the work-stuff all needed to stay high up the list…  So what could go?  Well, not my sport/ exercise.  Stopping the little of it I get to do probably would not be good for my mental health and wouldn’t free up much time anyway.  Likewise, for bits of down-time.  They feel good for me when I have them and feel right when I look at the Bible’s take on rest.

What else could go?  Well… here it is:  time with other believers.

As I looked at it all, it seemed like I was getting enough feeding from the Bible: during the week in groups, at church on Sun, and it’s almost daily with my wife at home too.  But other time I’ve booked in with Christian friends… do I need that?

Well sometimes: yes.  When I need it, fellowship with Christians, especially ones I’ve known for years, is a great source of care.  But also, it’s fair to say that lots of the time I have with other CHristians is simply enjoying each others’ shared interests.  It’s not necessarily always rich, Christainly-shaped fellowship.  We label it fellowship because we’re all Christians there, and we say grace when we have a meal together, but really it’s just comfortable, social time.   And I’m not saying that’s all wrong…  I’m just saying that that in light of how little time I have socially with non-believers, that Christian-only social time, is what I need to cut.

Maybe obvious, but it felt like an epiphany at the time.   I had an injection of joy as I decided to pull out of my regular social catch-up with other Christian friends.  In turn, I deleted what I had first typed in that e-mail and keyed a new one to arrange a time with Dan.

That’s it.  A swap of priorities.

So fellow believers, here are the questions for you:

• Is having non-Christians in your life a high enough priority for you?
• Is your social life full with Christian-only stuff?
• Is there stuff you do now with only Christians, that you could include non-believers in- sport, book club, going for coffee, gym…??

I had a mate once, who said he was pulling out of his weekly Bible Study so he could play in a basketball team with non-Christian mates.  I’m not sure about that,  but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures. Around 3% of people in Sydney in gospel-serious churches and for many of us as low as 0% of our social time is spent with non-believers. Yeah… maybe these are desperate times??

Well, if you buy this, do something about it:

• Pray.
• Change your priority list and your diary.
• Encourage a Christian friend to do likewise.

This week, I went to hang-out with some friends who run an organic fruit and vegetable markets. While I was at the market I experienced the great relevance of the doctrine of the Trinity. I walked away from the afternoon saddened by the busyness of life that means we don’t take time to relate and engage in each others lives and also excited after tasting the glorious truth life is really all about making space for others. I watched people pass by, I entered conversations, I was invited to join conversations and lives of others. I bumped into people from my church, local community, made contact with some strangers, saw people dance and laugh with each other, I had one long conversation about spiritual things and generally just got to enjoy the love and joy of life lived in relationship with fellow humans.

This is one of the reasons why I love supporting my organic food friends as they are striving, through quality food, to see people come together in their local communities – connecting, playing and working together. They encourage people to make space for others… which is how God created us to live.

God, since the beginning of creation, has been in relationship. As theologians would put it ‘perichoresis‘ which comes from the Greek verb ‘perichorein’ that means ‘to contain’ and in that way ‘ a making space for the other, ‘a dynamic containing and making room for another’.  A similar Greek word, ‘perichoreuein‘, which means ‘to dance around’ which has been used as a metaphor for the relation of the Persons. The later Church Fathers came to apply the term and its concept to God: the divine mutual indwelling of the three Persons in the one Being God.

Tim Keller describes The Trinity as:

“a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love. The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this– perichoresis. Notice our word “choreography” within it. It means literally to “dance or flow around”.”
— The Reason for God, Timothy Keller pg 215

and the great philosopher and writer CS Lewis explains:

God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing – not even just one person – but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance … (The) pattern of this three-personal life is … the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality.”– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The fact that the Godhead is made of of three-persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, means God was, is and will always be personal and committed to engaging with others. And if this is the God whose image all humans have been created in likeness of and mirror forth into this world then there is a profound overflow effect into our everyday lives, not only in our attitudes towards Him but also others:

• Life is best lived in relationship with God because God created us to have relationship with him.
• Life is best lived in relationship with others because God created us to be like him to enjoy making room for others.
• Love is experienced by making room for God and being contained by Him.
• Love is experienced by making room for others and are contained in the lives of others.
• Joy is found when we make room for God and are contained by Him.
• Joy is found when we are make room for others and are contained in the lives of others.

_______________________

The Trinity | If you want to read more about The Trinity, check out the Desiring God’s topic index or check Christianity.net for quick answers to some common questions. OR Why not check out how Jesus talks about His experience of His relationship as God the Son with God the Father and God the Spirit in John 17.

Make Connections | If you are keen to see how Food Connect can help build relationships in your local community why not check out the Sydney Food Connect Website.
Get in contact with the team or feel free to contact me and I would love to help you make connections.

You Can Afford Organics | If you are a local to Crows Nest… pop along to Crows Next Plaza on Thursdays between 9am-3pm to say hello to Brock & Tsung from ‘You Can Afford Organics‘ and grab some tasty, fresh and 100% organic produce.

Too often we find ourselves without friends who aren’t of faith and we limit the opportunites God might have for us to preach the gospel.
Here are 5 tips to help you maintain contact or reconnect:

1. Spend more time around people.

If you want to make friends with people outside of church and work, you first need to put yourself out there somehow in order to meet people. Friends seldom come knocking on your door while you sit at home watching TV or surfing the net.

2. Join a sports team.

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to join a sports team, but not all teams are so competitive, rather social fitness. As long as you enjoy the sport and support your teammates, joining a local team with a laid-back attitude could be a great way to develop new relationships or to help strenthen exisiting relationships. Why not join a team with a work colle

3. Volunteer

Volunteering is a great way for people of all ages to meet others. Working alongside people who are passionate about helping others or changing things you develop strong bonds.

4. Talk to people.

You can join a club, go to community art school or join a sports group but you still won’t make friends if you don’t actually talk to people. You can talk to anybody: the postman, the person sitting in the sun on a part bench, the person next to you on the bus, or the person in front of you on the lunch line. Don’t be too picky. Most conversations will stop short and not necessarily end up anywhere and you may not ever talk again to the person but who knows maybe once in a while you might actually make a friend.

5. Make eye contact and show your pearly whites: smile.

Check your body language and develop a personable and friendly presence. If you appear unfriendly to people they will be less likely to be friends with you. It is one thing that helps in building report. Try not to frown, squint, fold your arms, stare, or make disinterested looks. Open yourself up to opportunities.

1. They are people of prayer.

2. They have a theology that compels them to evangelize.

3. They are people who spend time in the Word.

4. They are compassionate people.

5. They love the communities where God has placed them.

6. They are intentional about evangelism.

7. They are accountable to someone for their evangelistic activities.

Written by Thom Rainer. Read his full article here on the Gospel Coalition website.