Acts 15:28-29

It's amazing that they could boil down all of the Levitical law down to these four things. They didn't say, we have to do all of these things, and you should too. They didn't say, this is how it's always been. They embraced people who had embraced Jesus.
This is the most difficult step for the church. We expect all Christians to look alike. To live in suburbia. To dress nice. To not struggle with sin. But that's not real. And I don't think Jesus likes it. JM

Acts 14:8-18

Everybody has something in common with you. The more that we can tap into that and use it, the more we can effectively minister. When I speak to middle school students, I always try to find the commonality. But I need to try to do that with everybody I meet. Finding the commonality is the key to relational evangelism. JM

Acts 13:40-52

Any time we present the gospel we kind of have this expectation that the person will commit their life to Christ and if they don't, then we obviously failed. We leave no room for the Holy Spirit to invade someone's life. We want to see the results immediately.
I think that makes God feel like some guy who's doing tricks. We say the magic words, and then BOOM, the person gets saved. I'd rather take that conversation and build on it while I share life with somebody. To me, that seems like the better way to make disciples, to really care about them. The other way seems more like all I care about is myself and getting another tick mark on my salvation wall. JM

Acts 13:14-39

We don't like to wait. We're impatient people. We're an impatient society. The drive-thru lane at McDonald's isn't fast enough for us to get our food.
Then we translate this impatience over to our relationships. We don't want to wait. We want to get out of it what we're going to get out of it right then and there. Even if we want to help, we want to do it right then and there. We don't want to have to stick around. We will stay around, but only if it's by our choice, not by necessity.
But the biblical example seems to be to wait for the opportunity to share. To wait until we're asked. And you can't be asked to share if you don't wait around for people to do the asking. You have to wait for the awkward pause. For the tension to mount. For people to desire to have the spiritual conversation. But it's the waiting part that is so hard. JM

Acts 13:4-13

In every spiritual conversation there is something pulling people away from truth. Whether it be their own selfish desires, the lies that they've been told, an emotional attachment to or detachment from something, etc. It's kind of the evangelist's (Christian's) job to call it like it is and make sure that the person sees the lies as lies and the truth as truth. We may not have to blind somebody to do it, but I bet Paul enjoyed dishing out what he had to endure. JM

Acts 10:24-29

Man, people back in Peter's day had a messed up view of the Gospel.  I'm glad that got changed.  Like before Peter went to visit Cornelius, he thought he shouldn't associate with non-Jews.  It was against the Jewish law.  They were seen as unholy or unclean.  But Peter said God told him that he shouldn't call any person unholy or unclean.

Luckily we're way past that now.  The church accepts everyone.  I know as a Baptist that when we see people of other denominations and other religions and homosexuals and the homeless and people who drink that we don't see them as unholy or unclean.  (Paragraph 2 is sarcastic).

How sad is that.  The lesson Peter learned 2000 years ago we have completely forgotten.  How dare I look at someone as unholy or unclean.  I think only God can do that.  JM

Acts 9:20-21

It's awesome when God transforms a life. What's so incredible about it is that it is such a catalytic event for God to minister through that person to transform other lives. When there is a dramatic storyline, and really every redemption story is, it's exciting to hear about. It's exciting to watch the change. It's exciting to be a part of.
And that excitement rubs off. The most exciting ministries to me are the ones that are reaching people for Jesus. I'm not trying to discount the necessity of creating disciples, but the actual redemption event is the most exciting thing in the world. I hope I never lose the desire to be around it. JM

Acts 8:32-40

I love how Philip used that passage to transition into presenting the gospel to this guy. And what's really incredible is that he talked about more than just salvation, he talked about baptism, too. A lot of people like to use this verse as proof that baptism is part of salvation. I don't really see it that way. The guy just wanted to be baptized because he so passionately wanted to show that he was a follower of Jesus.
I think it's important for us to be able to think on our feet. So many people have certain methods of presenting the gospel that require the person to ask a certain question and sit through a 5 minute presentation. That seems lame to me. I think if we're familiar with it and truly understand it, then we should be able to communicate that truth however we feel we need to. JM

Acts 8:5-6

People don't care about my message. At all. No matter how well I present it or how I package it, it doesn't really matter to them. That is, until I back it up with actions.
We were talking about how to publicize an upcoming event at our church today and several different ideas came out: newspaper, radio, direct mail, door-to-door flyers, etc. All of these will see very little return. They're all just spam because the information is outside of the context of relationship.
I suggested just creating really nice invite cards and giving them to our people to invite their friends and neighbors. Blank stares.
The point is that any message we try to communicate will have very little retention if it is outside of the context of relationship. I guess the old cliche is right: you have to earn the right to be heard. JM

Acts 8:4

What would it look like if evangelism was really a part of our lives? If we didn't compartmentalize everything and get all nervous about having a spiritual conversation. I'm guessing that it would be a lot different. It's like we have our lives and then we have the part of our life that we let God rule. And we don't want the two to mix. We love God and we're committed to him, but we refuse to let him invade every part of our life.
I think it's because we're too busy. We're too busy to be available to people and really listen to them. We don't want to spend time with people. Evangelism is work when you do it right. When it flows naturally out of relationship. I think that's why God asks for laborers and not managers. JM

Acts 4:23-31

Talk about fervent prayer. I guess we don't pray with passion anymore because we don't live lives that need it. Or at least we don't think we need it. We don't really see our lives as a battle. Now granted, I'm totally against battle/war imagery in student ministry. But I do think it is sad that we don't feel like we are doing anything for God, at least not anything that requires passionate prayer.
What if we prayed that we would be brave and that God would provide us with signs to show that God was real. I think our lives and our evangelism would be massively different.
We have neighbors down the street that we have become close friends with. They don't go to church anywhere and have no real relationship with God. But I don't pray for them with any sense of passion. And I definitely have never prayed that God would give me the ability to heal as a sign that he is real. Maybe that's not literally the answer (praying for the gift of healing), but prayer has to be more than just selfish requests and passionless intercession. JM

Acts 4:5-14

If God really gets hold of your life, and you fall passionately in love with Him, it is apparent to everyone. You don't even have to say anything. So many times people can only guess that you're a Christian by what you don't do - get drunk, cuss, sleep around, etc. But I think it's much more powerful when people can tell you're a Christian by what you do - display love, show unselfishness, etc. Then when you talk about your faith, it means more because they see the impact it has on your life, not just on your social interaction. JM

Acts 4:1-4

Peter and John got in trouble because they were teaching the people. They took the message that God had given them and took it directly to the people. Typically teachers would just teach in the temple to the other religious leaders. But Peter and John went straight to the people.
The thing is we've gone back to how the pharisees wanted it. We don't take the message straight to the people anymore. We hide our message up in our own little Christian circles. We shy away from any kind of spiritual conversation outside the walls of the church. Church is where we talk about God, but we don't bring it home, or to our neighbor's house. JM

Atheists In Church

Here's an interesting article out of Seattle. They sent 31 atheists to local churches to see what it was like. While most of them were closed off way before they walked in the door, it's interesting to see how intimidated they were by the simple act of going to church and how much they desired to go unnoticed.

I slept badly the night before church: I was scared because I had never been before, and everything I know about Sunday services comes from David Lodge novels and Garth Ennis's Preacher series. "Are they gonna make me confess my sins?" I asked my boyfriend. He promised me they would not. "Can I eat beforehand? Can I get up to pee?" I was sure I would stick out.

We do it everyday, but if you haven't done it in a long time, or have never done it, you don't know what to expect or how to act or even what to wear. If the church is ever going to truly reach out, we have to discover new ways to make them feel comfortable, or at least as uncomfortable as possible.
It's also interesting to note what the visitor thought of the "health and wealth" church

If you're thinking of attending a church, I beg you not to attend the CFC—find one that understands humility and grace and charity. I'm an atheist, but the CFC brings Bible imagery to my mind. Standing in all the gaudy sound and tacky fury, all I can think of is the perverted temple that Jesus Christ ripped to pieces with his bare (expletive) hands.

JM

Acts 3:12-17

Why do we hold everyone to the standards of Christianity when only God can do that? We look at our neighbors and friends and judge them by rules that have no meaning for them. Our illegitimately pregnant neighbor, our partying co-worker, our cousin addicted to pornography. But without Christ, why would they have any reason to abstain from these things. Sure they are unproductive and unfulfilling, but in the momentary, they're fun. All sin is.
We should certainly hold other Christians to these standards, but we step into some messy territory when we take those standards elsewhere. We need to let God do that and relegate ourselves to helping them simply find God. JM

Acts 2:42-47

This is community. The people were eating together, sharing what they had, rejoicing together, and God added to their numbers daily. I notice two things about this:
1. Community is attractive to outsiders. People want to belong. They want to connect with something larger than themselves. I think that's part of the draw of attending sporting events, concerts, helping causes, etc. When people see people living in community, they desire to be a part of it, at least on some level (certainly there are some things that people would just think are freaks).
2. The church didn't cloister itself. We've created our own little Christian subculture. You can go to a Christian gym, Christian bookstore, Christian school, Christian employer, etc. All this as well as worship in a church that is not welcoming to outsiders. But that's not how the early church did it, evidently. They went to the temple everyday (which was a Jewish temple) and lived among everybody else.
What would it look like if we really lived in community among everybody else? I think a whole lot more people would be attracted to Jesus. JM

Acts 2:37-41

When the Holy Spirit is truly guiding your life, other people find it irresistible. 3,000 people got saved in one day because they saw the work of the Holy Spirit. It's like visual evidence that God is alive. When we see products like this in the Bible, I wonder why we so often diminish what we believe the Holy Spirit can accomplish now. I'm not talking about charismatic things, to me there's not anything really compelling about someone speaking in a language that nobody on the face of this planet can understand. But what if we believed the Holy Spirit was a real part of our lives and that he really did give us power like the Bible says, not so that our lives could be better, but for the advancement of the Kingdom? I know my life would be immensely different. JM

Acts 2:14-36

There is always an opportunity to transition every conversation into a spiritual one. Even if people think you're drunk. The problem we have is recognizing that opportunity and comfortably making that transition. It's tough to do it comfortably. But in the context of relationships, it's much easier because a relationship will listen. If we really care about people, and don't just see them as some spiritual conquest, that transition can be the most natural thing in the world because you're talking about something you love with someone you love. JM

Relational Evangelism

Ben Arment has a great post about relational evangelism. People don't care about what the Bible has to do with their life and what you know about it outside of relationships. Click through to read the whole thing, but here's his main point:

In these cases, the Word has to first become flesh.
The flesh of a friendship. The flesh of some humble questions. The flesh of shared interests in music and movies. The flesh of dinner together. The flesh of an embrace during a difficult time...

JM

Soul-Winning And Battle

Eric Geiger has a great post on why he gave up on what he terms heathen-hunting. It's a great look into why he uses relational evangelism and why he sees himself as an ambassador for Christ and not a soldier for Christ.
Here's a piece:

I viewed myself as a hunter. God viewed me as his ambassador (II Cor 5) and
as salt and light (Matthew 5). Once I understood how God views me, I left my
heathen hunting days behind. I embraced being his ambassador, representing him
in a world in which I do not belong.

It's definitely worth the clickthrough, though. JM