Rediscovering Evangelism
In my post-high school Christian life, I have not considered myself as having strong desires to verbally share my faith in order to convert others. In fact, I have had some strong thoughts against verbally sharing my faith in any attempt to convert someone else by convincing them my way of believing was better than theirs and assured of a place safe from the evils of a hell.
However, this past weekend I had a fantastic conversation lasting over three hours with a staunch atheist who recognised that although he could not at this point subscribe to any religion, he had an unsatisfied longing within himself to believe in something Greater. It began as many such conversations begin with me in the UK - explaining to folks what a Mennonite is and why I call myself one. It flowed from questions of the faith's principles and set of beliefs and practices to a general discussion on faith and religion.
I shared many of my likely radical views of faith with him, for which he readily listened and even more readily challenged. Many times throughout the conversation, he seemed awestruck that I could actually believe what I was saying. The views I espoused on religion and faith seemed so unlike many he had heard and he found resonance in many of them.
As a person who believes Conversations are most often Holy experiences, I thoroughly enjoyed the three hours of to-and-fro engaged debate and dialogue on religion and faith, and in fact could have continued throughout the night into the hours of dawn. I was strongly aware of the strange beauty of the engagement between us during our conversation, a beauty pointing to the presence of God dancing in the confusing muck of these humans tackling these issues of the spirit.
I left the conversation having a strong desire for further engagement and the chance to wrestle alongside this person in their quest for faith. I believe I'm rediscovering an excitement of sharing the Gospel of Christ, and am on the edge of my seat to see where God may lead in the particularities of my hopeful future conversations with this fellow seeker.
However, this past weekend I had a fantastic conversation lasting over three hours with a staunch atheist who recognised that although he could not at this point subscribe to any religion, he had an unsatisfied longing within himself to believe in something Greater. It began as many such conversations begin with me in the UK - explaining to folks what a Mennonite is and why I call myself one. It flowed from questions of the faith's principles and set of beliefs and practices to a general discussion on faith and religion.
I shared many of my likely radical views of faith with him, for which he readily listened and even more readily challenged. Many times throughout the conversation, he seemed awestruck that I could actually believe what I was saying. The views I espoused on religion and faith seemed so unlike many he had heard and he found resonance in many of them.
As a person who believes Conversations are most often Holy experiences, I thoroughly enjoyed the three hours of to-and-fro engaged debate and dialogue on religion and faith, and in fact could have continued throughout the night into the hours of dawn. I was strongly aware of the strange beauty of the engagement between us during our conversation, a beauty pointing to the presence of God dancing in the confusing muck of these humans tackling these issues of the spirit.
I left the conversation having a strong desire for further engagement and the chance to wrestle alongside this person in their quest for faith. I believe I'm rediscovering an excitement of sharing the Gospel of Christ, and am on the edge of my seat to see where God may lead in the particularities of my hopeful future conversations with this fellow seeker.
posted by Sharon at 9:54 PM
1 Comments:
Sharon, I just discovered your blog! This post sounds a lot like some of the conversations I have with some of my musical friends here in Edmonton. Very exciting to see the Holy Spirit working through these holy moments.
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