Evangelism intersections

Quick thoughts on evangelism, unprocessed but stimulated through several great encounters in the last 36 hours.

Jim Henderson of Off the Map is working on a spirituality of the service of listening. Had a great conversation with Jim about how as Christians we think that our primary communication strategy with "outsiders" or "non-believers" is telling. What if, instead, we were to understand our primary mission as listening? Jim also is working on an initiative for churches who would benefit from an "insultant" rather than a consultant. Check out church rater. Jim will be one of our main speakers at Plant Generously, Reap Bountifully May 20 - 22 (info and registration up SOON!).

Then today Pastor Jeremy Ashworth of the Covington Community Church of the Brethren gave me a networking, emerging pastor's tour of Seattle. We did a lot of "real-estate" sightseeing and Jeremy filled me in on some intense relational research he's been doing about Seattle area emerging ministries. We checked out Mars Hill Graduate School, Mars Hill church campus in Ballard, Quest, CODA, a refugee resettlement program, China town for fantastic lunch, and of course Covington Community CoB. My favorite was a very gracious tour by Pastor Paul Olver of the Rainier Avenue Church. When you check out their website, note how multicultural the church is, how their leadership is structured, and their commitment to their community.


Tonight the Christian Churches Together in the USA meetings started. Here are tidbits. Dr. Mel Robek (Fuller Seminary) chastised us for lacking "ecumenical imagination" and then challenged us to 1) trust one another 2) set aside our desire to receive credit 3) agree on what constitutes evangelism 4) no proselytising [taking people away from their current faith family].

Guest Michael Kinnamon, executive director of the National Council of Churches USA brought greetings and urged us to remember that unity in Christ supercedes our differences. Kinnamon made strong overtures for collaboration and cooperation between NCC and CCT, asserting that we cannot afford (at multiple levels) to have "competing" ecumenical organizations.

Preacher Aimee Moiso reminded us that many of the stumbling blocks Christians have to sharing the gospel are of our own making. Our own shortcomings along with our historical sins serve as barriers to the sharing and receiving of the gospel.

Much to think about at the end of an exhausting day, and two full days of engagment with CCT still to follow.