What does it mean for us to “reach out” to others with the love of Jesus? There are so many ways that we can look at the Christian life to try and evaluate what it’s all about, but none more compelling to me than a simple question: “Am I sharing my faith?”
In many ways this simple question cuts through much of the politics and posturing that can happen in Christian community and gets to the heart of God’s mission in the world—transformation—a mission that he invites us to join him in, for ourselves and with others.
Yes, “sharing my faith” will look a little different from one situation to the next. It may be that in our workplace our honesty and integrity as a Christian will speak volumes, or that a warm response or friendly care might be essential in our relationship to friends. However I want to suggest today that all the good works and great intentions are not enough for us to say that we are fully sharing our faith.
Social action and care alongside “friendship evangelism” are great—and important, but not enough. Our actions need to be backed up with words. We need to share our faith by what we say as well as what we do—to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
This means that we need to have integrity enough to let our actions and our words speak together. It is said that “actions speak louder than words”, but words that back up and support good actions are essential to truly sharing our faith—let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water.
So how do we do this? Work on your communication skills; work on your evangelism skills; remember to tell people why you do what you do; and live a consistent life of actions and words.
Blessings,
Pastor David Auty
In many ways this simple question cuts through much of the politics and posturing that can happen in Christian community and gets to the heart of God’s mission in the world—transformation—a mission that he invites us to join him in, for ourselves and with others.
Yes, “sharing my faith” will look a little different from one situation to the next. It may be that in our workplace our honesty and integrity as a Christian will speak volumes, or that a warm response or friendly care might be essential in our relationship to friends. However I want to suggest today that all the good works and great intentions are not enough for us to say that we are fully sharing our faith.
Social action and care alongside “friendship evangelism” are great—and important, but not enough. Our actions need to be backed up with words. We need to share our faith by what we say as well as what we do—to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
This means that we need to have integrity enough to let our actions and our words speak together. It is said that “actions speak louder than words”, but words that back up and support good actions are essential to truly sharing our faith—let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water.
So how do we do this? Work on your communication skills; work on your evangelism skills; remember to tell people why you do what you do; and live a consistent life of actions and words.
Blessings,
Pastor David Auty
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