I know I started a series on looking for the dark places on campus, and I'll get back to that soon, but this is relevant to the discussion. Matt McComas has a great post on evangelism, specifically in the Northwest. Evangelism – what’s working, what’s not? Thinking through whats working and not working with evangelism in our specific location is vital .
Evangelism is different here in the Bible belt, most of the students I interact with at SFA, have either been to church or they speak great "christaineze". This semester especially, we've found that students have no idea what it means to be a Christian. They either assume they are Christians because they have been to church a few times and agreed mostly with what they heard, or they really are Christians but have no idea how to articulate their faith.
As a staff team we have a come back around to sharing the Four Spiritual Laws/Knowing God Personally booklet with every student we sit down with. We feel like this may be our only chance to give them a clear presentation of the gospel, which so many of them claim to believe. It has been a blast. I have personally shared the gospel more this year than maybe any other time since I've been on staff with Campus Crusade. (I don't know if thats something to celebrate, or an indication of my failures for the last 10 years) Last year we tried to build relationships first, which may work for students, but not for a 38 year old hanging out on campus. Its almost as if the student expects me to share Christ with them. They don't expect me to hang out with them, they know I have a specific motive.
Although I love the Soularium and will try out the new Perspective cards today, for me I have become more committed to making sure I go through the Knowing God Personally booklet with students. Its always an awkward transition but I'm the same guy that schedules vacations around the opportunity to check out new baseball stadiums. How much more awkward can I get?
Evangelism is different here in the Bible belt, most of the students I interact with at SFA, have either been to church or they speak great "christaineze". This semester especially, we've found that students have no idea what it means to be a Christian. They either assume they are Christians because they have been to church a few times and agreed mostly with what they heard, or they really are Christians but have no idea how to articulate their faith.
As a staff team we have a come back around to sharing the Four Spiritual Laws/Knowing God Personally booklet with every student we sit down with. We feel like this may be our only chance to give them a clear presentation of the gospel, which so many of them claim to believe. It has been a blast. I have personally shared the gospel more this year than maybe any other time since I've been on staff with Campus Crusade. (I don't know if thats something to celebrate, or an indication of my failures for the last 10 years) Last year we tried to build relationships first, which may work for students, but not for a 38 year old hanging out on campus. Its almost as if the student expects me to share Christ with them. They don't expect me to hang out with them, they know I have a specific motive.
Although I love the Soularium and will try out the new Perspective cards today, for me I have become more committed to making sure I go through the Knowing God Personally booklet with students. Its always an awkward transition but I'm the same guy that schedules vacations around the opportunity to check out new baseball stadiums. How much more awkward can I get?
Dude. You're like a blogging machine. Good thoughts man. We're wrestling thru the same issues. I think evangelism is incredibly hard in the Bible Belt. So hard to break thru to help them see that what they experienced growing up is likely religion, not the gospel.
ReplyDeleteAs I told Matt on Twitter - "Evangelism is not as fun in the south bc students are less honest about their faith. That's why it's fun to hear what's going on up in the secular NW"