Thoughts promoted by another blogger about how Christians communicate with Others

I found this while reading the blog HOLY SOUP.  The whole of the post makes sense to me as I have been where Mr. Schultz speaks of the church representative in his post being!  And doing both of the things in lists in his post

Some church representatives react in a couple of common but unproductive ways:

• They freeze. They seem stunned, bewildered and tongue-tied.
• They argue. They attempt to dominate the conversation with crushing apologetics.

I have been and have seen other Christian in both of the above situation!  The question is how do we as missional people avoid these two extremes and speak to a world that  is at death's door?

Mr. Schultz gives us some good advise when he blogs:

So, if we care about reaching the community, we need to befriend the community—in meaningful, truly relational ways. Here are some simple ways to start:

1. Get out of the church building, spend time with non-churched people, and form real, ongoing friendships with them.
2. Challenge (and train) your members to do the same.
3. Don’t view non-believers as your projects. Simply be friends.
4. Listen, with genuine interest, to their views. Without judgment.
5. Ask good questions. Doug Pollock, author of God Space, advocates “wondering questions,” such as, “I wonder how you came to that belief.”
6. Earn respect and trust. Then be ready to receive the honest questions from your new friends. This is your chance to share how God works in your life.

The first to are a must if we are to meet those who do not know Jesus.  We the church have been too long hanging out in our big building, "knowing" we have the cure for the eternal death of the world.  All the world needs to do is come in and we will gladly tell them how to live!  Well first they, the world, are not going to, for the most part, come and break down the doors of the church to "find" the answer and the world does not know they NEED our answer!!

Number three is the only way we will ever get a chance to share "our answer, our cure" with the world.  Be their friend; let them see us, the Body of Christ, as normal people (OK as normal as any human can be!) and sooner or later they will ask a question to which Jesus is the answer (See #6).  First though we have to be a friend!!  #4 is like unto #3;  a friend usually does not judge you; is interested in you and your views.  Again the question will come and we can in love share why we would not do or why we do not believe that way and why we do and believe the way we do. 

Back when I was doing my training in Pastoral care and counseling #5 was called active listening.  We were taught to ask open ended questions.  The question(s) posed in #5 are also question that would assist us in non-judgemental responses and that would help us gain insight in to our friends who need Jesus.

We need to be in the world; part of life so we can bring health to those who need healing.  The first healing balm may not be that some one needs a relationship with Jesus (as strange as that may sound).  The first healing balm may be meeting a need for food on the table; clothes on the back; a way out of an abusive life.  As we meet the physical needs sometimes people realize the spiritual needs on their own.


Let us get out among the world and listen to them and find ways to meet their needs.  Physical and spiritual!!