New.old evangelism....

[Stan]

Men are needed who pray to God for wisdom, and who, under the guidance

of God, can put new life into the old methods of labor and can invent new

plans and new methods of awakening the interest of church members and

reaching the men and women of the world. Evangelism, p. 105

[Stan]

This only works of course, if someone has something they enjoy enough that they would want to share.

[Stan]

QUESTION is this,..

What can we do on the 'net ??

[Woody]

First of all ... I would like to point out that this is a 'sexist' remark ....

Quote:

"Men are needed"

FOR

Quote:

"reaching the men and women"

ON that basis ... I would have to object. OR ... Do we need to check the original Greek to see what the first "men" meant?

[aldona]

That was my first thought too, on reading the paragraph.

My next thought was, "that's easy then - I'm off the hook, because I'm not a man."

aldona

[Stan]

Read things in the context of time and place..

[Woody]

Perhaps we need a history book to read along-side it. I just don't know enough about that time and place to know what it means. .... Where is that old history book of mine? It's around here somewhere.

[Bravus]

/me slaps Redwood upside the head for being obtuse: read any book from the 1970s, let alone the 1870s, and you'll be amazed at the uninclusive language and routine use of the masculine pronoun to represent everyone. This just looks like sophistry to avoid the thrust of the issue Stan raised.

My response to the original issue is that just updating old evangelism in terms of media and presentation is unlikely to work. Old evangelism was based on debate about Biblical texts, largely, and on 'sheepstealing' people who already had a Christian background to our particular brand. For a postmodern generation, you need to step way back and look at 'why trust the Bible and God?', and also talk relationally rather than argue logical propositions based on texts. It's a whole new ball game - and the ball is a completely different shape, so it bounces funny.

[olger]

Sheep will go where there's pasture.

[Bravus]

Perhaps our church needs to take another look at how well it's pasture-ised.

[David Koot]

Bravus, I must agree with you when it comes to evangelism. While there are some who still appreciate the proof-text approach, so many people out there now simply do not accept the Bible, or our belief in God, the way they used to way back when. It is, indeed, a whole new ballgame.

Dave

[lazarus]

My response to the original issue is that just updating old evangelism in terms of media and presentation is unlikely to work. Old evangelism was based on debate about Biblical texts, largely, and on 'sheepstealing' people who already had a Christian background to our particular brand. For a postmodern generation, you need to step way back and look at 'why trust the Bible and God?', and also talk relationally rather than argue logical propositions based on texts. It's a whole new ball game - and the ball is a completely different shape, so it bounces funny.

I agree.

I find it hard to find SDA Bible study material that is not proof text based. It seems that in terms of evangelism we are still in the mode of "winning the argument" rather than winning the soul.

[Gail]

Quote:

I find it hard to find SDA Bible study material that is not proof text based. It seems that in terms of evangelism we are still in the mode of "winning the argument" rather than winning the soul.

Does this make us view others as "targets" rather than real people?

[aldona]

Quote:

I find it hard to find SDA Bible study material that is not proof text based. It seems that in terms of evangelism we are still in the mode of "winning the argument" rather than winning the soul.

Does this make us view others as "targets" rather than real people?

Absolutely. Except most of the time we do not even give them the dignity of being referred to as "targets". The most common word I've seen is "interests".

As in: "We are holding a social evening and games night in the church hall. We encourage you to bring along your family, friends and interests."

Or: "The letterboxing campaign was very successful, and we now have 25 interests having Bible studies with the Pastor."

I see sentences like this regularly in all kinds of denominational literature and church reports.

My "interests" are classical music, reading, comparative religion, activism and gardening.

The people who may (from time to time) express their interest in my religion have names, and I like to use their names when referring to them. e.g. Bill, Mary, Fred etc.

aldona