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Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
Missional Living
What is a Christian?
I remember that magazine, circa 80-81, from Keith Green. At about the same time, Randy Stonehill had a song with this lyric, “Well he poked me with his Bible like it was a loaded gun and I said, ‘Whatever it is your selling man, I don’t want none!'”
I just found this blog. The discussions remind me of when I was in Campus Crusade for Christ at Cal Poly Pomona. I hated going out and sharing my faith. But it did show me the shallowness of my faith at the time and it made me really think and evaluate who I was in Christ. Looking forward to reading more.
Donn
Another unique book containing a defense of our faith is Letters from a Skeptic by Greg Boyd. I think Boyd has other apologetic books as well, but this one is extremely accessible and has a very personal context.
For those who enjoy reading or for those intellectual friends of yours who question faith, I recommend, “The Case for…” series of books written by Lee Strobel. For example: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, etc. In regards to evangelism: street evangelism, proclaiming the Gospel from a soapbox, and passing out tracts are, I believe, an old 19th century revivalist mentality that really doesn’t work for today’s post-modern culture. Besides, it has a singular focus, namely salvation only. There is so much more to the Gospel than just being saved.
As an evangelist both in the US, and now as a missionary living in a foreign country, I have found developing relationships to be the most genuine and effective way to tell people about the Good News of Jesus Christ. When you develop a long term relationship with someone and invest in their life, it becomes more personal and genuine. Otherwise, evangelism becomes superficial, non-relational, and impersonal. And, people can that. It’s important to befriend those you care about seeing come into a relationship with our King.
The best book that I can recommend about this topic is “Lifestyle Evangelism” by Joseph Aldrich. It tells about excellent ways to be a salt in the earth and to those around you in a non-intimidating and genuine way.
I am curious to know what you think is the difference between the tracts used in the print age verses the tweets or short stories people use on the FB & blogs to share how God has changed their life…I know Josh McDowell actually has a newer coffee house series that he uses to help young people converse more and it models very nicely that it’s ok to ask questions to God or others…He sets the tone that we all are learning. I look forward to reading what the post is about in Missio Dei..I know of very few people who have shared Christ with anyone in the last year much less this week so I wouldn’t say “one that doesn’t work terribly well in our day”(about tracts) as in my mind at least they are thinking of others future and making an attempt…just a thought
Arlene: Not sure where you got this idea. The point of the first sentence — which isn’t the point of the post by the way — is what the photo depicts. It doesn’t depict the idea that tracts or pamphlets in themselves are bad. The photo is brilliant and comical.
Feel free to share what you think of the rest of the post which contains the main point of the article.
Hi Frank,
Have you delved into this from an online perspective? It seems a lot of the same caricatures in the cartoon above have translated to the digital world, with people posting (way too frequently) their Jesus Saves! posters and other things.
I don’t believe I’ve seen those.
I’ve met that guy once or twice. And it looks like he shops at a locally owned Christian book store near where I live…