Sharing Christ in our modern age can feel like an overwhelming task. Where do we start? How do we remove prejudice? Where do we find common ground? This seminar is designed to share proven ways in which you can engage modern thinkers and introduce them to Christ.

ASI Scandinavia 2014: Sharing Christ His Way

<p>Sharing Christ in our modern age can feel like an overwhelming task. Where do we start? How do we remove prejudice? Where do we find common ground? This seminar is designed to share proven ways in which you can engage modern thinkers and introduce them to Christ.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

ASI Scandinavia

Daniel Pel

How to Engage People In Our Modern Age With Our Unique Message

I'm happy that you've decided to join this workshop, this seminar, How to Engage People in Our Modern Age with Our Unique Message.

I know there's a lot of good choices when it comes to seminars, and sometimes it's hard to decide, but it's good that these recordings are being made available so you can go back and listen to other seminars as well later.

Actually, I had this seminar first on Thursday.

So if you were here Thursday, you will get the same.

But I think we all have new faces here, so that's good.

Yeah, we have 1 hour, so I'm going to get just right straight into it, because we will need our time to get through the material that we have.

I've been blessed in the preparation of this seminar.

And what I'll be doing is basically sharing with you some practical tips that I have found effective in my own witnessing.

The theme of this convention, this ASI convention, is sharing Christ His way and so I was asked to do a seminar on how to engage people in our modern age with our unique message.

Because we have a unique message of Christ and sometimes we look at the modern age that we are living in, the culture we're living in, and yeah, we see a lot of challenges.

We wonder how can we get in contact with people, especially here in this part of the world, Scandinavia, the western world, people seem to be so irreligious, they're so not interested in the Bible, in Christ, so how do we start that conversation Or what do we actually address that can help us to get into some deep spiritual conversations?

Actually, I'm going to have just 3 points.

So it's going to be quite simple to follow along with.

First when I was preparing, I had a lot more, but I thought, you know what?

Effective communication, simple and short is much better.

So I thought, okay, I reduced it down to 3 simple points.

So when you leave this room after this hour, I think you'll all be able to remember these 3 points.

And hopefully when you come into situations, which we all do, where we are able to share Christ or where an opportunity is opened, then I hope that these 3 pointers can be helpful for you.

So let's have a word of prayer and then we'll get right into it.

Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this ASI convention.

Thank you, Lord, that we've had an amazing time together.

We're about to leave, but Lord, we want to be equipped as we go out.

And we thank you for all the seminars that are taking place.

And I pray now that you'll bless us and our time together as we look at ways in which we can share Christ, ways in which we can reach out to people with the most important message that this universe contains.

And so Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit.

We realize that we are dependent upon you, that we can do nothing in and of our own strength, but through your Holy Spirit all things are possible.

So Lord, help us just to be empty of self so that your Spirit may fill us.

And I pray that you'll guide My words as a communicator and that you'll be with every single person in this room that you'll give them listening ears and an open heart to hear what you have to say to them this morning.

So bless us now we pray in your precious name.

Before we get into the 3 points that I mentioned, before we go to our first point, I want to share this quote with you here.

And by the way, I'm going to have quite a number of quotes, not only from the Spirit of Prophecy, but also from some other sources that which I believe many of you will find very interesting.

I think it's great that you're taking notes and I encourage always that for when I'm doing seminars or teaching or preaching, so that's wonderful.

But if you would like these slides, that will also be made available for you.

You just give me your email address, and I'll use a program called WeTransfer, because it's a little bit big to send on an email, this PowerPoint presentation, but I'm willing to send that through WeTransfer.

You just follow the link and then you can download it.

If it's going a bit quick and you're not able to get all the references, just come to me afterwards and give your email address.

So I would like to start with this quote, Evangelism page 59.

It says the following, there are those who think it is their duty to preach the truth, but they dare not venture from the shore and they catch no fish.

And it's interesting this analogy is used of fishing.

Well, you get a gut into the open waters.

And what many times happens is that's not where we are.

And it goes on to say, they will choose to go among the churches over and over the same ground.

They report a good time, a pleasant visit, but we look in vain for the souls that are converted to the truth through their instrumentality.

These ministers hug the shore too closely.

Let them launch out into the deep and cast their net where the fish are.

There could be hundreds employed in the vineyard of the Lord where there is now one." That's quite a quote.

There could be hundreds employed in the vineyard of the Lord where there is now 1.

If you have a big, huge lake, right, and all the fish boats are just off the shore, well, then there's not enough room for hundreds to be employed, you see.

And if you really get out there into the big lake, into the world, then indeed there are hundreds of opportunities if not thousands of opportunities for us all to be employed without bumping into each other.

You know if it's all about preaching in the established churches, okay, you'll have a limited amount of people that will preach in a limited amount of Seventh-day Adventist churches in a specific country.

So if preaching in an Adventist church is the end goal of ministry, you'll have a very limited amount of people that can be employed in God's work.

But if we look at the field of God's work as this huge ocean, let's go beyond the lake now, let's say it's an ocean, then there's place for hundreds, for thousands to get out there, not to hug the shore, but to get out into the open, to meet people where they are.

That's really been the thrust of this entire convention so far.

We need to meet their, you know, where are they at in their journey and meet them there and lead them then to Christ.

We've been hearing this wonderful quotation, how to mingle with people desiring their good, showing sympathy and asking them to follow Christ.

I think first of all we need to just set the stage here and say, okay, how do we create an opportunity for this quote to actually realize, and that is by not staying close to the shore but getting out there into the world Getting out there to where the people are So let's look then at these 3 pointers that I mentioned that I think is going to be helpful in reaching Modern people with our unique message and number 1 And again, I just want to say before we get into this, I'm not giving you like an exhaustive list.

I only chose 3 things and I believe any seminar that you would attend right now would give you some pointer that can be helpful for you in engaging other people with our unique message.

So yesterday I went to a seminar on forgiveness, I went to a seminar on creation, and these are also ways, talking with people about forgiveness, what that means, talking with people about creation.

These are all ways in which we engage modern people.

But these are just 3 that I put down that can be very helpful.

And I have not heard them so much, and therefore I've also chosen to present them.

And the first 1 is this, acknowledge the problems within Christianity.

What I mean by that is simple, that when you go out to witness about Christ, you are witnessing in Christ in a specific context of Christianity, and that is 1 that is quite unique, because when the early disciples in the book of Acts went out to share Christ, it was very different because there were no Christian churches.

And so when they talked about Jesus, it was an unknown name for the people that they met.

When Paul went out to these heathen nations and countries and cities, He talked about Jesus, they'd never heard about Jesus, so he started from level 1, so to speak.

We are about 2, 000 years separated from the first time that the gospel was proclaimed by the early apostles, disciples after Christ's ascension to heaven.

And so here we are, and we have a lot of issues that we have to deal with today, because if I say to someone that I'm a Christian, what are they actually thinking when I say that I'm a Christian?

I want to share with you a quote that I just find, yeah, very succinct, that really pinpoints, I think, the problem that we're facing within Christianity.

He says, Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship.

It moved to Greece and became a philosophy.

It moved to Italy and became an institution.

It came to America and became an enterprise.

How to Engage People In Our Modern Age With Our Unique Message

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