Evangelism has moved in the last 20 years from being a monologue (one-sided conversation) to a dialog (two-way conversation.) Last week I suggest two ways to increase your spiritual conversations: 1) Make it a priority by counting your conversations and practicing the 3 by 5 rule. 2) Pray for opportunities. A prayerful attitude is key to putting oneself into the redemptive flow of God’s mission.
Here are a two more ideas:
3) Get out and into your community
All to often we are so isolated from the world in which you live. Look at your calendar and see what fills your week. I encourage church planters to think about tithing their time to community service and interaction. As a planter I put in 60 plus hours a week. This meant about six hours a week out in the community like playing in a noon basketball league on Tuesdays and Thursdays or coaching my children’s baseball and football teams. My week could be filled with serving on various community committees within the school district or through the Chamber of Commerce. It could also involve attending community events or joining professional groups like Toastmasters International. I could easily fill up my six hours a week. Opportunities abound when we get out into our communities. Jon Cawston, a church planter in Plainfield, IL., joined a local entrepreneurial networking group. After a couple of months of being in this group, he was wondering why he was there and was feeling out of place. Then a crisis took place within the group and he discovered that he instantly become "the chaplain" of the group which led to spiritual conversations.
Can you imagine all the spiritual conversations that could take place if your staff and leaders were encouraged to tithe their time to community service and interaction?
4) Establish routines and cultivate relationships
Beyond the tithe of your time in your community I encourage leaders to establish routines and patterns so that you build relational presence with business owners and servers. Think strategically about all your interactions and pray that you can be a redemptive influence within that social network. A couple of tell tale signs of this is, “Do people know your name?” or “Do you know peoples names?” Reggie McNeal loves to ask his servers, “I am going to pray for my meal and I always pray for my server. Is there anything I can pray for you specifically?” I can see this really working as you cultivate relationships and move them from the mundane to the spiritual.
What places do you frequent in your community?
Jesus, Paul and James used the analogy of the farmer when it comes to spiritual leaders patiently sowing, working and cultivating the work of the gospel. When it comes to engaging in spiritual conversations you need to have an attitude of a farmer, faithfully working and cultivating your community. The first two suggestions deal with the leader’s attitude, the next two suggestions deal with putting leaders in a position for engagement. I learned a simple lesson over twenty-five years ago from an old missionary who said these words to me, “Gary you can’t serve God where you an not!” That statement helped me move away from dreaming about future ministry to engaging myself in the daily personal ministry right in front of me every day.
Next week we will take look at creating spiritual thirst in our conversations.
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