Evangelism …?

Paul writes – Cheryl Lawrie, a creative and thoughtful Aussie reflects a little on evangelism.

Cheryl writes: “These are the things that I’ve been thinking about in anticipation [of being on a panel at an “evangelism forum”]. As you’ll see she didn’t make it…Read her full post here. Meantime, here are a few thoughts from her. They resonate for me…

• The story I keep hearing from people who have intentionally and deliberately not chosen Christianity is that they are treated with disdain by some who have, being spouted lines like ‘you just haven’t heard about the Christianity / god / faith that I know’. Some people actually know about Christianity and choose not to go there. How arrogant and smug of Christians to assume that they know better…
• I’ve said this before here, but my primary contact is with people who have been part of the church and have now left Christianity. Not because they’re pissed off with it, or they disagree with it, but they’ve gone another step on from it, to a place that the church can’t follow. They’re not in a bad place there, and don’t want to be talked into going back [squeezing who they are now back into a place they have chosen to leave]… but they wouldn’t mind some company where they are now.
• The only faith that makes sense to many people is one that offers a story to resonate with. Belonging to a community, and any promise of life after death [or even of a god who loves even you, you dirty rotten scoundrel], are no longer draw cards.
• I work with a tiny subsection of the community, and these things may not be true in general…

If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, related areas that might interest you are Alan Jamieson’s research on “Church Leavers” (go here for a series of articles by him); Jenny McIntosh’s excellent work with Spirited Exchanges; a series of posts  by Paul Walker reviewing Leslie Francis and Philip Richter's recent book, "Gone for Good?" . The first post in the series is here. And of course, there’s Alan’s new book – Chrysalis. More information on the book can be found, here. I’ve most recently reflected on evangelism here.

This weekly gathering sounds interesting. Read more here and here.