Communicating our Faith according to Internet
Question on Internet: I'm interested in discussing how do you
really communicate your faith, because many people are confused
in what they should do in this area. I know, however, that
listening is an important ingredient in this context.
THE RESPONSES COME FROM 3 CHRISTIAN WEBSITES
1) Gary says: Communicating one's faith is obviously at the core
of being a follower of Christ. I think that God expects us to
take advantage of opportunities He provides all of the time to
share with others our experiences of faith in Christ. Some of
these encounters will be casual, one-time meetings, while on
other occasions we have the opportunity to cultivate a
friendship with another person and share with him/her over the
course of several encounters about the hope we have in Christ.
Both types of opportunities are God-given and should be acted
upon, always being careful to be sensitive to the leadership of
the Holy Spirit in how we share and communicate our faith with
others.
2) Corbin says: Speaking about communicating your Christian
faith, the most impressive book I've ever read about
communication has been Plato and his story about Socrates. It
was not the content in the book that impressed, but the method
that Socraates used in presenting his points. The Socratic
Method entails one to ask many leading sequential questions to
those who are adversaries of the questioner, until eventually
the questions tend to persuade the adversaries to agree with the
questioner and to become his or her allies. I've only used the
Socratic Method successfully twice in my 71 years of life since
I read Plato during my university days. But when it works, you
feel you did something to perfection. You just really feel great.
Some of the comments received from some of the other
contributors over Internet are:
That we have instructions from Jesus as Christians that we
should speak out and act on behalf of the helpless, the hungry,
the homeless, the lonely, etc. In other words, you communicate
your faith in the way you behave, treat others, and live your
life. This is love. And as someone said at one time " Love is
like walking on water, just don't stumble over the waves. But as
St Francis of Assisi also said: "Go ye into the world and preach
(communicate) the Gospel. If necessary, use words". In fact to
complete the task in communicating our faith, another
contributor added, words have to used to explain to others what
motivates us to accomplish our good deeds, and we have to wait
for opportunities to express this, which if we have faith in
God, God will provide for us.
Many people are turned-off by coercive and aggressive
proselytizing. Many Christians and their organizations have a
pre-programmed way of communicating their faith, and this tends
to frighten people. Actually there is something to the idea of
communicating our faith in as many different ways as the
different people you're communicating with. Another way in
putting it is that there are as many layers in faith sharing as
there are in an onion, probably more, but when it is done well,
it can bring some of the greatest joy that one can ever
experience. And suffering should not be a deterrent in
communicating our faith, because suffering throughout the world
is a part of life, and God is not going to change that. He's
actually going to suffer with us and give us the strength to
endure it. We also should live beyond our vision, live our deeds
by the great commandments, to do justice, love mercy, and to
walk humbly with God.
These are the gist of the comments I received on this topic over
Internet.
14) Corbin says: I took a course entitled "How to Become a
Contagious Christian" by Mark Mittelberg, Lee Strobel, and Bill
Hybels. This course shows how you can actually communicate our
faith in a style that really fits your personality. And with
this, you would learn how you could always find an opportunity,
comfortably, to ask someone the question "Would you like to
receive Jesus Christ?", after explaining to them that Jesus had
done everything for them so that they could receive His
salvation. They didn't have to do anything themselvess, but only
to accept this and ask for His forgiveness in not being perfect
in their behavior. This is what I would call becoming a true
Evangelist.
Corbin also says: In not feeling embarrassed by asking the
question "Would you like to receive Jesus Christ?", you first of
all would have to ask yourself this question, "Have I really
received Jesus Christ?". Some have received Jesus Christ most
dramatically like Paul in Scripture, but most, I suspect, have
received Jesus Christ thru a very slow process, especially if
you've been a church-goer all your life. I started going to
church on a regular basis in 1958 at the age of 27, although I
didn't realize it at the time, but somewhere early in this
process I must have received Jesus Christ, although I don't
recall the exact momeent. What attracted me mostly was Christian
education, so somewhere down the line, I must have received Him.
I know I have Him today. And in knowing this helps me in feeling
more comfortable in asking this question, if the context on any
discussion leads naturally to asking such a question.
Corbin finally says: In my experieence, two important events
occurred in my life after starting to attend church, including a
Bible class, on a regular basis which purportedly was
accompanied by my receiving Jesus Christ. These events corrected
two basic problems I had while growing up which greatly hindered
my ability to socialize with others. One of these was getting a
migraine headache most everytime I desired to go out in a social
situation, which either prevented me from going out or cut short
my enjoyment of such a gathering. Instead I had to lie down and
sleep for about two hours to get rid of the headache. No
medication helped. After starting church regularly, I had
occasion to visit a psychologist (my parents never thought of
this earlier) and he suggested I do some positive thought
recitations, which worked like a charm. This eventially
eliminated this problem. The other problem I had, which was
closely related to the first in that both greatly hindered my
social relationships, was that I was overly obsessed with sex
with the opposite sex, which interferred greatly with many of
the other positive elements I needed in growing up. This was
dealt with, after my starting my regular attendance at church,
by a series of events introducing me to a 3 year nudist camp
experience. And this greatly relieved me of this problem. This
in my mind were 2 miracles, because in one approach, it just
seemed too simplistic in that I had to ask myself the question
"why didn't I ever think of this before?", and in the other
approach, it was just too unorthodox for a Christian ever to
engage in an activity such as this. And these events occurred
after, I believe, I received Jesus Christ, but others probably
would say that these events would have occurred anyway. I
DON'T,after thinking about this, because I believe God has
blessed me in so many other ways too numerous to mention here,
that I believe these were the beginnings of the many blessings
God had in store for me. So as you can see you really have to
compare your life before and after this momentous event of
receiving Jesus Christ, to see at whar point your life was
better off.