“Oh man that movie was awesome. You have to go see it.” “Read this you will not be disappointed.” “I am telling you the truth. That stuff on your plate that looks like baby food is really delicious, and you don’t even have to chew it.” “It won’t hurt that bad and man what a rush!!!”
As the new Harry Potter film came out a couple of days ago I have heard a flurry of people giving witness to the film’s greatness. Katie and I went to go see it and the projector broke with 20 minutes to go in the movie. Though I can’t claim to have seen the movie the piece that I did watch was awesome.
The deacon at my church professes his love for is GPS to anyone who would hear. When I walk into the Common Market (with a checkers bacon cheeseburger and fries in hand) I am told that I need to repent from my sinful eating habits. j/k
I say all of that to say that we often have good news about stuff and we want to share it, but when it cones to the Good News (the one that matters…Jesus) we shy away and whisper into someone’s ear at best.
So if the news is so good then why is getting the new Iphone more likely to come up on our Facebook than something about the way God is working in your life?
Maybe it is because we are not willing to stake our reputation on our faith encounters. Stats show that 82% of people will come to worship if personally invited, but when invited we have one shot to give them an impression of the Good News that we are talking about. We have one try to live up to our word about our faith experiences being awesome and something that you would want more of.
How can we be more vocal about the Good News?
How can we be more risk taking in sharing our faith? I am convinced that true evangelism is friendship evangelism rather than knocking on doors. But there is also a much larger personal liability if friendship evangelism doesn’t pay off.
The other piece is that we (pastors and the congregation…the whole church) has to strive for meaningful worship that will change us to the core and challenge us from week to week.
