Today was the first session of Journeys, a Christian course for people exploring spirituality, which I am being trusted to run on my own. The whole process of advertising and promoting the course has been an interesting learning experience for me. I finally understand Rebecca Manley Pippert's comment that evangelism felt like something you wouldn't do to a dog, let alone someone you liked(!). I know and like a lot of people here who wouldn't describe themselves as Christians, and I would love to discuss spiritual things with them in an open, relaxed and non-threatening way. The Journeys course is excellent in that it is designed to be informal, low-key and accessible for people with a whole range of beliefs. However, I really hate the thought that my friends here will think I am only nice to them because I secretly want to 'evangelize' them. Yesterday, with 24 hours to go, I had to force myself to start inviting people directly (and I call myself an evangelist!). This morning I prayed "Lord, if one person comes, great. If five people come, great. If no one comes, great - I'll just have to think of something else."
In the end, five people came - which was more than I was expecting - and we had a great time chatting and a fantastic discussion after the DVD. We covered other religions, the trinity, the cross, the Holy Spirit, life after death... Actually no one talked about the DVD at all, but this is something I have found in the past when running The Alpha Course. The presentation, whether a talk or a DVD, works as a stimulus for discussion but people rarely stay on the topic. I went into Alpha mode today, only giving my own opinion when I was asked for it, and in fact the conversation flowed easily with very little input from me. I told everyone it was over at 3.30, so that they could go if they needed to, but people stayed for ages afterwards, until I had to throw the remaining two out of the building when it closed at 5pm.
Thankfully we have a God who works in spite of us!
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