Sharing Jesus Without Fear

In our application with a missions sending agency, one of the things we lacked was some sort of formal evangelism training. After much calling around and begging, we finally found a local church willing to let us sit in on their Share Jesus Without Fear class this fall. We have been to one session, and have found the class enjoyable and engaging, and have been encouraged by the host church.

I sympathize with the author, Bill Fay. It's a tragedy how many Christians do not share their faith with anyone outside their church. And I have certainly been guilty of staying put, staying silent when I know we are surrounded by the lost.

But... I keep thinking it's not that simple. I mean, first of all, I don't come into contact with that many non-church people. Most of my friends are Christians, and most of those who aren't live out of town and I seldom see them. I spend most of my time at Church or at school, where everyone claims the name "Christian." I know my neighbors, but not well, since I'm rarely at home. And most of them go to church already.

So if I'm to share Jesus with someone who doesn't know Him, I have to do it with someone who doesn't know me that well, either. How do I do that effectively? (Maybe that's in a later class session, and we'll learn how this week) Do I just walk up to someone I see on the street and say, "Hey buddy, got Jesus?" I know my reaction when someone I don't know tries to force a personal conversation: not good.

Maybe I need to broaden my circle of friends and acquaintances first. I want to make an effort to spend more time with my neighbors, but it's hard right now. Maybe when school's done I'll be able to, but isn't that always an excuse? That we don't have time?

I think that's part of the reason I'm so anxious to go, to get out of the Bible Belt. It seems a lot easier to spend time with non-Christians, and to speak openly of Christ, when I'm surrounded by them - at least that's my memory of college. It just feels like, where I am right now, I have to force opportunities to share Christ, and I'm not comfortable doing that.

Can anybody back that up? Will it get easier, or is this something I need to work out now?

Our target audience

I came to understand in a new way last week that Jesus didn't come for people like me.

I mean, I know He came for everyone, but rich, white-bread church folk like me weren't precisely his target audience. He came for sinners - you know, adulterous women, embezzling tax collectors, bi-racial multiple divorcees, panhandlers. The kinds of people that never come into my church.

I have known for a while that His target audience should be my target audience, but I didn't know how. We seem to have so little in common that I honestly didn't know where to start. Or maybe it's just that I didn't have enough practice, speanding so much time among my own kind...

So when my class schedule demanded that I fulfill the practicum element of my Master of Divinity not with church ministry, but with a unit of CPE, I was glad. CPE stands for Clinical Pastoral Education. In my case, I will be a chaplain at a local hospital for three months. I will have regular visitation rounds to make, as well as six 24-hour on-call shifts, during which I will be The Guy at the hospital, praying with dying people, calling spouses and parents to tell them their loved ones are in the trauma ward, leading prayer in the Chapel for the families of the sick and injured.

Last Wednesday I followed an on-call chaplain for two and a half hours. In that time I met a young woman crying alone in a neck brace, recovering from a motorcycle accident. I saw a Mexican construction worker with no ID brought into the trauma room following a major head injury caused by a fall. I saw the doctor declare him dead. I met his wife and infant daughter, saw the translator try to explain what had happened, and why the chaplain was there.

This was nothing like the ministry I was used to. I don't want to completely denigrate everything I've done in my church, because I've seen God move there too. Indeed, He called me from there. But this was new. This was real. These are the people Jesus came to save, the wounds He came to heal.

My first on-call shift is Thursday. I feel unprepared, but at the same time I'm eager to spend time with my target audience - with Jesus' target audience. Regular people, regular in their irregularity. People with strange ideas of faith and religion, or with no faith at all. People whose illusions of security were shattered by unforeseen tragedy, or who already know heartache intimately.

I'm not sure what God will do to me, and through me, in the next three months. But it's plain as day that He's at work, that He's got me right where He wants me.

I'll keep you posted.

Why I Haven't Posted

Hello again. To both of you out there, my apologies for being gone so long.

I was admonished by a good friend the other day for not posting. So here ya go, big guy.

See, the problem is that I had been using this as a journal to write about what I'm learning, what I see God doing in and around me. I have a dozen "draft" posts ready to go, just... unfinished. But recently, I have been deep in the application process with a missions organization we all know well. And it's not easy. Not the paperwork, but negotiating and building a relationship between two parties (the organization and my family) who may not fully agree on everything. Most issues on which my wife and/or I hold differing views are nonessential, and are correctly viewed as nonessential by both parties. But some issues, apparently, are more essential than I thought.

Forgive me if I am less than forthcoming. I don't want to complain about this organization or my experiences with them, because for the most part my experiences are positive. God is doing some amazing things through this group, and I am confident that I am doing the right thing now. But politics runs deep here, and I don't want to jeopardize my relationship with this organization by blogging. Especially by blogging.

So essentially, I haven't been posting because I have been censoring myself. I'll try to find ways to stay active that are less controversial. Until then... peace.


SDG