Had a weird weekend. Do you ever have one of those moments where you get caught on the hop in a conversation? I had someone talk to me about my faith which I wasn't really prepared for. Just sitting chilling with some friends and then I get put on the spot by an evangelistic atheist who was trying to convert me to adopt his humanistic world view!!!
It always seems ok for people to have a pop at the christians, in all honesty I felt like telling him to shut up and leave me alone. Especially when I wasn't even preaching at him.
You start to get asked your views, on this and that! but no one else around the table gets asked!!!! I know faith sometimes provokes a response but it is worse when the other person is the aggressor!!!
It made me think, here I am sitting around a table and some guy I have never met before is telling me to change a belief system that I have spent the last 20 years incorporating into my life, it wasn't going to happen.
Christians are not the only evangelists, there are all sorts of people out there trying to get us to believe and adopt their philosophy!!!
2 comments:
Just doing a pastoral care course, and have read a book about listening. I am now more convinced than ever that listening rather than talking is the key to mission.
Reflecting on the whole earthly life of Jesus, he seems to have listened a lot more than he talked. Being God and doing nothing evangelistic for 30 years would get him thrown out of most churches!
Would add to Mark's comment that Jesus posed more questions than sermons to get people to think. The questions were asked when appropriate, as were the sermons and times of listening. I too beleive that listening - really listening is the key to connecting with others.
But, I did come here to say that I have had an evangelical atheist on Twitter vehemently try to convinve me on the same humanistic views that I imagine you were introduced to! I have kept this fellow as a friend and must say that it tempers my overt prosylisation seeing all his evangelical atheist comments and attacks!
Keep up the great work Brian!
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