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Exactly! That is where mass evangelism falls apart - it's not the evangelist's fault or the denomination's fault. Newcomers see all this fellowship and love and "glitter" during the series; and then the local churches (which means us individuals) fail to pick up the ball! Then there are those who feel they must "educate" new members in the ways of the church - warning them of jewelry and make-up and women in pants and bringing chicken to a pot luck. Plus, the affluent and the gregarious are "adopted" more easily than the shabby, quiet, and shy people. In my way of personal evangelism, I usually become friends first by doing little things for people and taking time to develop some sort of relationship. Then I discretely work in witnessing. Some people could care less; but many are eager to discuss spiritual matters once the subject is breached. I even had a "Book" (aka Bible) Club here at work for a few years. My goal is to bring people to Jesus - not necessarily Adventism. I do invite them to church; but if they don't want to go or go and don't like it, I don't press the issue (except maybe to go to church with them sometimes; putting on the pressure to reciprocate). Bottom line is, most people aren't that interested in what you have to say until you show them how interested you are in them as people. That way, religious conversations tend to stay conversations between friends instead of arguments between strangers.

As to Campmeeting: * The old style of 10-day campmeeting is expensive. Further, the people attending typically do not represent the membership of the sponsoring Conference. Typically they may be retired people for all over the U.S. who travel in their Camper from place to place attending multiple Campmeetings. * New week-end type of Campmeeting is often simply just a social-get-together on Sabbath.

Conversations About God (5:6) But what about all the translations? There are about two thousand languages on earth, and there are at least parts of the Bible in almost every one of those languages. And hundreds of translations in English! The story behind each of them is long and colorful. Beginning in 1382, the “Morning […] The post Can We Trust the Translations? appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

Conversations About God (5:5) That brings us to the question, “Do we have the right words?” That’s a huge subject. There are people who devote all their lives to this question. First of all, I am sure you are aware that the Bible was not written in English, but in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Not […] The post Do We Have the Right Words? appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

Conversations About God (5:4) The sixty-six books of our current Bible are not the only books that have ever claimed to be biblical. There may be more such books outside the Bible than inside it. Many of them were written during the time between the Testaments, and some bear a striking resemblance to the books […] The post What Got Left Out of the Bible and Why appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article