Regarding the difficult but important conversations I have had in the past 36 (ish) hours.
I'm thinking about tactics.
Thoughts are still forming.
I'll circle back later.
There are some specific people I'd like to get involved in the conversation so I'll tag you all when I have something more coherent to say.
Laters! ❤️
I'm getting there.
I'm thinking about "friendship evangelism", a common idea in the church, and how we might apply the approach in other, non-religious contexts.
Put this picture in your mind:
A man stands on a street corner, Bible in hand, sincerely and loudly proclaiming the Gospel.
How are people reacting to him?
Are people stopping to listen?
Is anyone really taking in what he's saying?
Is his sincere and loving work changing any hearts and minds?
How do you think the people are feeling, being preached to by this method?
Are they encouraged? Are they uplifted?
Do they feel judged and condemned?
Does his method make people ask questions, or does it put people in a fight-or-flight frame of mind?
If the latter, what do they do?
Walk away and ignore the message?
Respond aggressively? Defensively?
Also, our preacher stands on his corner, speaking his truth for hours at a time.
He's saying nothing wrong.
He's harming nobody.
But is anybody stopping to listen to him for that whole time?
Does anybody even *have* the time to take in all he's trying to say, in one fell swoop?
Would he be better off breaking down his message into bite sized pieces and sharing them regularly but not all in one go?
Thread continues after I've had my shower.
Ahhhh. That's better.
So in the church, the concept of friendship evangelism is very simple. It's about meeting people where they are, without judgement, recognising the individual and their needs and listening more than we speak.
Now lets apply that to *any* big issue of the day.
Will extended diatribes, broadcast to all and sundry, change hearts and minds? Or will people react as they do to the street preacher, with indifference, mockery or even aggression?
Is it better perhaps to
a) Speak with individuals, giving them the opportunity to ask questions, challenging them where appropriate to think about their viewpoint
b) (and I am aware of the irony given the length of this thread) Keep our message short, concise, succinct. Bitesize chunks of information.
c) remember the *person* we are addressing has feelings just like we do
d) act out of love, first and foremost
We should ALWAYS call out unacceptable behaviour and attitudes of course but...
What if we do that on an individual basis instead of standing on our street corner, book of the law in hand with almost nobody really listening to us?
How about we try that?
It might just change a lot of things for the better.
Peace. Out. ❤️❤️
@stueytheround A few thoughts:
If God told a street preacher to do that then he should do it. There's a reason. However, we're TERRIBLE at thinking we know what God is telling us to do. It's often Satan that we're hearing and obeying.
Scripture seems to indicate a better way with Romans 12:15 and we have the example of Jesus who never did that. That way is to befriend people first where they are. Get to know people when times are good and they'll trust you to help them in bad times. 👇
@stueytheround I do. I was trying to respond to both (and I guess my struggle to do that came through too). I hope my explanation and the verse at the end are clear. I think a friendly approach works better regardless of the context. There's psychology to back that up BTW.
@danielbsmith Ah good. So long as I haven't caused you confusion.
@danielbsmith Please take note that I'm *not* actually talking about preaching the gospel or *any* kind of religious expression but using it as an example of communicating an idea. Hopefully the whole thread makes that clear.