"Doing" Evangelism.

I just had the most fascinating conversation with a good friend of mine.

He knows that we left the "traditional" church in search of something more. He's been following our church journey for quite some time. So I was on the phone with him just a bit ago when he asked me this question,

Friend: Hey, at Sa'kred do you guys ever go out and just have conversations with people about Jesus? How did you guys start doing that?

Me: What do you mean?

Friend: I guess I'm just feeling this need to engage culture more, like really engage people more and I just wanted to see how you guys do it. Is it a change in mindset, or how can I get people to start having conversations about Jesus with people? How do I get people to get outside the church?

Me: Well, I don't know if it's an event, really. I don't think it's something you plan, like "Hey eveyone, this weekend we're going to the mall to talk with people about Jesus, you can sign up in the back of the room." I think it is a change not in mindset, but more like an awakening. You're calling people to wake up to all that is going on around them everyday. We don't have any church offices at Sa'kred, so we spend time in the community. I don't go to Starbucks in order to have conversations with people about Jesus. I go to Starbucks to read, study, work, write, etc. I don't go with some agenda to have a Jesus conversation with someone. Conversations just happen... about all kinds of things actually.

Friend: I'm just realizing that I don't have a heart for lost people, you know what I mean. We talk about it, but if the message is really good news, am I sharing it?

Me: Maybe it's not about having a heart for "lost people," but having a heart for people regardless of what kind fo label we put on them.

The rest of the conversation was amazing as my friend is really struggling with what it means to be and live this kind of Jesus life. He really wants to "get outside of the church" as he feels that it's insular and artificial. I love what he's going through and promised to continue the conversation with him.

Between the phone call and posting this, I shared this conversation with my wife. Both of us came to a new realization. Perhaps "evangelism" is not something you do to people, nor an event. [I really struggle with that term and so many of the connotations that word conjures up for me.] The better question is who you are doing life with, who you are taking with you on your faith journey.

Jamie mentioned some other really good friends of ours and said this, "You know, we've spent almost six years with these friends and we're just now getting into some of the most amazing conversations about God. Maybe people just want to see it before they hear about it. We didn't enter into a friendship with an agenda. They're just our friends, you know."

[Yeah, she's the brilliant one. I just fake it. I was just smart enough to marry her.]