Monday, October 19, 2009

Sunday in Amritsar



Sunday night, the 11th, I spoke at a church in Amritsar. I challenged the congregation to evangelize more, to not only live the Gospel but to actively speak it into the lives of their non-Christian friends and family. Specifically, they were admonished to find two unbelievers in their life and pray regularly for them. I'm calling this approach to evangelism "Two to Reach." My church, Cape Bible Chapel, is stressing outreach right now, and I had actually thought about suggesting this approach to them; but I soon foresaw difficulties. So many competing ideas about evangelism these days. Inevitably it would go to committee. Somebody in the second committee would point out, Why not three? and Three as Divine Perfection and Two as presumptuously low and A cord of so many strands, and so on and so forth. Back to the first committee and why not five and why not seven. How will that be answered? Why not seven indeed? For now, better to keep my approach in the testing phase than to witness asphyxiation by committee

The church asked me to sing a "special," which I dutifully performed. I was then asked to sing another "special." Ask and you shall receive. Three or four "specials" was hardly enough to satisfy them. Everyone seemed to enjoy these "specials," so much so in fact, that they even sang along. That probably shouldn't have been allowed. If you permit the congregation to sing along while you're performing your "special," something precariously akin to a regular worship song begins to happen; and, well, once begin to blur these lines, and you stand a good risk of losing the "special" altogether. Some find that unacceptable.

In the rapture, the giddiness of my triumph, I volunteered an additional "special" after the closing prayer. How could they refuse? It was too well received, and I was given an invitation to lunch with the pastor, a warm-hearted and energetic elderly man who used to be a wrestler.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)