drinking coffee and green tea
I just had a great discussion with five other guys while we sat round my lounge room drinking coffee and green tea. The conversation surrounded the issue of how we can share our faith in today’s world.
We bounced ideas off each other and moved between debating the receptiveness of today’s people; to the willingness/ obedience of God’s people to be involved with matters of mission. Someone protested that the world is more cynical today; while another guy argued that more passion and zeal on behalf of Christians will encourage people closer to God. While we didn’t solve the problems of the world, I think we did draw closer to rediscovering some interesting points;
1. Effective sharing can only take place within the context of a relationship.
2. todays problem is not cynicism in the world, the NT also had plenty of cynics. And it’s not a lack of zealous followers; we also have had plenty of them. The real issue is one of reading the culture. I don’t think we’ve effectively tapped into the Aussie psyche yet. We need to read the culture and develop culturally relevant ways of being Christ to those living within that framework.
3. From within a relationship and in ways that are culturally relevant we need to love people with the heart of God.
I’m so glad I didn’t ‘bail’ on tonight as I was tempted to do. It was a great way to spend the evening. Tomorrow we’re off to Forge – really, really early start and I’m really, really looking forward to it (that is Forge, not the early start)
