 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Previous
article
| Next
article
For those of you who’ve heard this preamble a million times I’m truly sorry — but I have it on good authority that there are still some humans in the far flung corners of the campus who haven’t yet heard about the evangelism training course Two Ways To Live. So — 2 Ways To Live is a course which most of the college Small Groups are running this term. The idea is to provide a basic outline of a gospel presentation which you learn off by heart and then adapt when evangelising to your friends, acquaintances, college porters etc. It revolves around 6 pictures, comments and memory verses which lead on logically from creation through to the resurrection. Particularly important is the way in which it encourages the person you’re talking to consider what difference the gospel makes to them.
My personal views on the course are fairly positive. I’ve really enjoyed the sessions which are much more laid back than an average Bible Study and have appreciated the necessary kick-up-the-backside in learning Bible verses off by heart. I’d never considered that to be particularly important until I started talking to a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses who highlighted my woeful ignorance about where things are found in the Bible.
Another fun (if slightly scary) aspect of the course was attempting to ‘convert’ my small group leader, who was pretending to be a particularly stroppy non-Christian. The exercise was a brilliant start to the course — and taught me a lesson in evangelism which God’s been needing to teach me for a while: that it doesn’t matter how good your philosophical arguments on theology are, what people need to hear about is the person of Jesus and what he’s achieved for us. “I determine to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified” (see, another Bible verse learnt!!)
One other welcome slap in the face which this course has delivered was to challenge my day to day speech. A section in the course book which we’ve been working through talks about the need to incorporate ‘God Talk’ into our daily lives. It’s no wonder we never manage to bring the gospel up in conversation if we never talk about God. I’d always shied away from the typical American evangelist “Praise Ya Jesus”-every-other-sentence type of waffle, but this course states fairly clearly that if you don’t talk like that naturally, then don’t start now! Making God a part of your normal speech like “I was praying about …” or “I heard this great sermon last Sunday” is the way they suggest slipping parts of your faith into your conversations. I don’t pretend to now have the most saintly language, nor to I claim that I remember to try it all the time. In fact it seems quite a daunting task, but eventually with enough practice I guess I get the hang of letting God into my words as well as my thoughts. After that, I’m told it’s only a short step to Billy Graham-dom!
At first it seemed like the 2 Ways To Live course wouldn’t be very popular in our small group as it tends to be a bit cheesy in places! However, despite our initial negative reactions, it’s going O.K. The course is quite challenging and gives a good and simple (very simple!) teaching of the gospel. It also provides a lot of entertainment in places!
Seriously though, our small group has doubled in size and we all feel like we know each other much better because of the opportunities for prayer and discussion that 2 Ways To Live opens up. We all hope to get out of it more confidence in knowing what to say to people when they ask questions and also have more confidence in speaking to people openly about God. I don’t think it’ll turn any of us into raving evangelists but it has been a very worthwhile thing to do!
Previous
article
| Next
article
|
|
|
|
|
Last modified: 25th November 2005