For the week of November 15, 2004
Spiritual Friendship |
More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix, Brian D McLaren |
By: Linnea Nilsen Capshaw |
“To practice spiritual friendship, to make disciples, to evangelize—whatever we call it—cannot be put any more powerfully or poignantly than as liberation from “overwhelming disdain” of guilt and shame to a genuine experience of God’s love. So we reach the point in the book where I try to summarize what Alice has taught me about helping people feel a little of God’s love….
1. The Relational Factor: Count conversations, not just conversions.
2. The Narrative Factor: Listen to their story, share your story, and share God’s story, not just propositions or formulas.
3. The Communal Factor: Expect conversion to normally occur in the context of authentic Christian community, not just in the context of information.
4. The Journey Factor: See disciple-making as a holistic process and unending journey, not just a conversion event.
5. The Holy Spirit Factor: Believe that God is at work “out there” in everyone (either working from the outside to get in or from the inside to get out), not just “in here” in the church.
6. The Learning Factor: See evangelism as part of your own discipleship—not just the other person’s!
7. The Missional Factor: See evangelism as recruiting people for God’s mission on earth, not just people for heaven.
8. The Service Factor: See evangelism as one facet of our identity as servants to all.”
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