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...