Previous page | Main ALOVE site Archive   Breath of Life ... : back to god page    What do you think of this article? - share here Rob Bell, bible teacher, presenter of the Nooma series of DVDs and author of the awe-inspiring and challenging book, Velvet Elvis has just finished a speaking tour of the US entitled ‘Everything is Spiritual’. Some friends of ALOVE caught up with him on one of the final dates to ask about evangelism and how it should/could look today. If you’re not a Christian and you hear the word ‘Evangelism’ what do you think? I imagine you conjure images of some kind of horrible disease – it’s a cumbersome and bulky word. And you know, the thing is that humans have a natural tendency – an in-built function – whereby they love to talk about the things they love. You don’t have to spend much time with proud parents or grandparents before they break out a photograph of their beloved child. It’s something common and basic to humanity that we talk about the things we love and care for. So then it follows that if you have met God and the risen Christ and your life is being transformed by following him then that love and excitement and transformation will come out of you in the most natural and free-flowing of ways. You don’t ever think when talking to somebody: “Oh I don’t know if I should tell this person that I’m married -they might find that offensive…”. You just naturally and without inhibition talk about the person that you love. It comes out of you as easily and naturally as your breath. I think that there’s an impulse within us to tell our stories – those great anecdotes about things that changed us, or made us think or made us fall in love. And when someone says: “Isn’t that great!” after they’ve finished telling their story they’re actually inviting you in to share in their adoration and excitement of the subject. So when Christians talk about evangelism – all they are really doing is just talking about the things they love and, in doing so, inviting others to share in those things that excite them and are happening in their lives. So as soon as you have evangelism training courses or seminars or booklets and pamphlets and tracts about evangelism ‘technique’ I would say that something has gone seriously wrong. Now, obviously you can talk about theology, philosophy, apologetics and science and get training in these things but when you are having to convince Christians that they have to share the message because if it’s worth sharing rather than that being their natural response to what is happening in their lives then something is broken. The excitement of Christianity is not something that you need to structure or train or box into memorable techniques – it’s something that pours out of the experience of living in communion with God. At our church we’ve never advertised or had a ‘bring your friend Sunday’ and we have no sign at the front. My assumption from the start with our church was: “If people are meeting Christ and are learning that they can be the flesh and blood of Christ to change the world then they would naturally tell others and that is how the Church would grow in a very organic and natural, but at the same time counter-cultural, way.” I’m all for evangelism – the word comes from the announcement that God is putting the world back together in Jesus – which is, of course, what we are all about as Christians. But I just think that as soon as it becomes a mechanical process or a set of rules to follow such as: ‘Here are the three questions that you need to ask your friend’ I think you are so far from this natural free flowing organic life that it be comes dangerous, stagnant and unreal. I’m at the tail end of a speaking tour in America at the moment and I’ve found that at the venues we’ve been to, my interactions with the bartenders, the managers, the staff and promoters have been unimaginably awesome. But my approach hasn’t been one “I’ve got to figure out a way to talk to this bartender…”. Rather I’m just living my life and these things flow out of that naturally… : back to top : back to god page Youthwork - The Partnership ... ALOVE, Youthwork Magazine, Youth For Christ, Spring Harvest and Oasis are working together to equip and resource the Church for effective youth work and ministry.