The company I work for has many people in the city in that was at the center of the earthquake. I received word that no one from their group was injured. Keep them in your prayers as they are continuing their work there and are joined by about 12 students this summer one from UAH.

Mark Dever has an excellent editorial on the Christianity Today web web site musing over what evangelism isn’t. This is apparently an extract from his book, From The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever copyright © 2007, adapted from pages 69-82. I think he’s right that we need to stop mistaking other Christian activities for the spreading of the gospel. I’ve enclosed the complete text of the article in case the link goes down.

What Evangelism Isn’t
We need to stop mistaking other Christian activities for the spreading of the gospel.
Mark Dever, excerpted and adapted from The Gospel and Personal Evangelism

I remember as a little child hugging my father’s leg at a gas station only to realize it wasn’t his leg I was hugging. I was embarrassed! It was a case of mistaken identity.

There’s a great article on the Christianity Today web site that asserts crusades and personal witnessing are no longer the cutting edge of evangelism - it’s church planting. I’ve enclosed the article in entirety in case the link goes down. Good stuff.

Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum

Go and Plant Churches of All Peoples

Check it out.

Bob
Fides Qauerens Intellectum

There are many ways to share the story of Christ. We tend to overgeneralize a method that fits our personality. Read the following blog from Ed Stetzer entitled, “Beginning a Conversation about Christ.” Rock on, Ed!

Here is an excerpt:

“Many seem to have lost confidence in that gospel. It is easier to tell people to come to church and live a good life, but that is not the gospel. The gospel is about words that can make us uncomfortable: creation, Jesus, sin, repentance, forgiveness, and transformation, to name just a few. Hard words, but harder still to forget them. To share Christ, we have to go beyond formulas that fit on napkins. The Gospel is not a doodle. Isn’t God’s story of redemption and reconciliation for His creation bigger than what can fit on a napkin? People are searching-but they are searching for something more than fire insurance or “five steps to financial freedom.”

This is a great article that I think also applies to our culture in contemporary America and Huntsville. Remarkable comments from a secular anthropologist acknowledging the modern failure of man to solve his problems on his own. It’s clear that he’s not yet a full-blown disciple. But he’s heading in the right direction.

Cassandra Zinchini wonders if we in the West sometimes focus on the wrong things. She learns a vaulable lesson from Africa what is means to be missional … and teaches me along the way.

Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum