Oh say can you C?

That title will make sense later, but it still won't be funny.

Tonight (Saturday) in Omar's grupo de crecimiento, we talked about growing (crecer) in God and talked about evangelism. Then, we went and did it. We drove to the park and there was nobody there so we drove to another park and split into pairs to talk to people. Omar asked me to explain a few basics of cold-call evangelism and then we went for it. Everyone did a good job, though our conversations were very short because we couldn't stay long due to mosquito attacks and a desire to not to stay out late (yes, that was deliberate). The most encouraging part was, when we talked to the first couple, they told us that the day before, some high school students had come and done the same... Tha means there's other churches in Monterrey actively sharing their faith, which is awesome.

I think next Friday, Sheryl and i are supposed to give some kind of training on evangelism. The church here rocks at relational evangelism (i become your friend, i invite you to church, you come to church, someone else shares the gospel wth you), but many people are shy with cold-call stuff. So, what Sheryl and i are going to talk about (i think) is 3 main points:
1. straight-up how-to on the gospel
2. using your testimony
3. having salty conversations

(disclaimer: if you're going to do evangelism, pray. Pray alot...it's just a good idea. Also, everything needs to be done in love (for God first and the other person second); not for numbers, not to increasing your Christian skills, only for love... (what if i don't love people? then you pray for God to give you his heart for them and you choose to love them regardless of how you feel).)

1. The important thing to remember in this is that we are messengers. Our job is to clearly present a message. It is not our job to convict the hearts of our hearers; it is not our job to make them into Christians... that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Communication; not Conviction or Conversion [see how i did that (it's funny because "see" sounds like "C" and all of the words started with a C (if i was grading, i would give that pun a C-(not a C++?))(ok, by now someone ought to seize my computer))?]. Ok, now that we've left the sea of C's, the basics of the Gospel:

-God is perfect and loving (so perfect that nothing imperfect can be united with him)
-We are imperfect and, in reality, pretty screwed up
-That means we're separated from God (and we can't do anything to fix it (dirty can't make dirty clean))
-God, in his love, wants to be united with us, so he send Jesus to fix the problems (Jesus' death satisfies God's perfect justice by paying for all sin.. and his perfect love by doing it for us)
-Because he paid the debt, faith in Jesus is the only way to be united with God

Now the important part, you tell them the story, you have to ask the question "Do you feel like you have placed your faith in Jesus?" "Would you like to do that now?" You won't always see fruit, but you are still planting a seed. There are so many stories about people sharing the gospel and fruit coming way later that they never seed (really? seed instead of seen? mature, sam (is that another C joke?))

2. Yes, you have a testimony. No, it isn't boring. See(...), the thing is, God has done some amazing stuff in your life and taught you really cool things. Now, there are two levels of testimony; the testimony you give to your close-knit community that tells alot about why you are how you are and the testimony you share with non-believers (one is very long and heavy, one is short and lighter)... an exmple:

A. All my life i've fought against two things; pride and depression. (which make a funny-looking mix). Growing up, i took pride in the fact that i was the good kid, but was sad alot because i didn't have many friends. I always figured that i could handle being good enough for authority figures like parents, teachers and God..but never felt like anyone really liked me. As i got older, i realized God's standard was higher than i thought and that i was much worse than i thought *insert stories about lying, lusting, losing, etc...guilt guilt guilt guilt...* When i realized how desperately i needed someone to save me, to live the perfect life for me, i knew it was Jesus. I gave my soul to him and knew that he was my Lord, my Savior. However, i didn't understand that he loved me. I knew that he saved me, but (even though i never would have said it this way) i figured it was only because it was his duty as the holy God of the universe and he had to let anyone into the club if they wanted. I never thought he wanted me. *insert stories about depression, self-hate, bad relationships, self-injury, etc* When i got involved in my church in college though, i began to understand God's infinitely deep love for me and how he wanted me.. a real relationship (and not like that friend you put up with... like a brother relationship, like a husband-wife relationship (as weird as that may seem to me)). This rocked my world, and God began to heal me and use me in crazy awesome ways. I'm still far from perfect and believe a lot of lies and have a lot of pride, but God's still working on me too. (and that's the compressed version)

B. Growing up, i was always the good kid and thought i could manage being perfect. As i got older, i found that i failed every time i tried to be perfect, yet somehow i knew i was supposed to. I hurt a lot of my friends and didn't think that God could ever love me... but when i understood that Christ loved me enough to die for me and that that death gave me the perfection i knew i needed, i began to view everything differently. I'm still not perfect, but i have right standing before God and my identity is found whole in Christ instead of broken in me.

Testimonies are unspeakably powerful because they answer a different question. People are asking "does Christianity make sense?" (see 1, above) and "does Christianity work?" Seeing a real-life example is powerful... and it's easy to work into any conversation... "So, tell me about yourself.." *BOOM* "whoa"

3. "Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:6  The thing is, God is a big part of our lives. But, when we're talking about our lives with people outside the church, we talk about music, school, work, sports, etc... we have opportunities almost every day in almost every conversation to at least mention God, Jesus, the church...stuff that lets people know who we are and gives us opportunities to talk to them about something deeper than that new youtube video. If every Christian was salty in every conversation... i don't know, it'd be radical. try it.