Evangelism: What’s after being a good, trusted friend?
I was so happy to get feedback from someone that is doing the missional challenges! But one of the things she commented was that her friends that she is praying for and showing love to, just aren’t interested in faith or spiritual things. This makes her feel stuck. Have you been there?
So the question is what do we do to make people curious about faith. Intervarsity (which has pioneered the idea that people walk through 5 thresholds from non-faith to faith) says that the next step is to learn to ask good questions (just like Jesus!)
Here is how they describe it:
Growing in the 2nd Threshold
In the First Threshold, our friends grow to trust us, but they may not care at all about our faith. There is a myth that if we are a nice Christian, they will eagerly ask us questions about our faith or spiritual topics. This is seldom the case.
The Second Threshold begins with our friends often being indifferent toward our faith. Every threshold has a barrier to overcome. In the second threshold the barrier we overcome is usually indifference. How does Jesus arouse the interest of the indifferent? Great questions, of course. We get to imitate Jesus and ask our friends good questions…and the Holy Spirit increases their curiosity!
Here is the good news: Intervarsity has a free, interactive, online learning course on how to grow in asking good questions: https://rise.articulate.com/share/y0e2gfVMv0KleozcMz9nu4sEBWuWkeOq#/
If this is where you are stuck in bringing your friends, co-workers and family to faith, check it out…. it is worth your time!
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