Bible Study

The Art of Conversational Evangelism

1.     Everyone is on a spiritual Journey.

2.     Successful witnessing is taking the power of the Holy Spirit.

4 Roles of Journeying with others: Be a role player! We’re a team, guys; we each have a role! Know your role.

Unattractive evangelism: when each member is so eager to take over. Let one member take charge/lead.

Balance, don’t be a fly on the wall either.

Oh, be genuinely joyful, but don’t be a creep.

1.     Explorer: The explorer asks questions, figures out where everyone’s at. Questions to ask are those like “Are you moving towards or away from God?”

2.     Guide: Making sure the conversation is kept appropriate. Constantly praying.

3.     Builder: Logic vs spiritual, be a good listener.

4.     Mentor: Understands the basics of Christianity: How to pray, How to read Bible,

The art of this type of evangelism is finding where their story, your story and God’s story intersect! J

·       Know your story: How did you hear about God? How has your life changed since? Know your spiritual journey. Be honest, there is absolutely no shame here: know that you are worthy to be a part of this team. Did you accept God yesterday? Today? Last year? When you were 10 years old? We are all useful. You’ve been personally handpicked by God to join this mission. Knowing your story is an essential part of evangelism because this is usually when the unbeliever identifies with your story, when he/she opens up.

·       Know God’s story: The Gospel. God created man. Fall. Man’s constant failure. Jesus sent. Jesus persecuted. Jesus Resurrected! Only get to the father through the son.

·       Get to know their story:

o   Ask genuine questions

o   Actually listen! Don’t argue. Don’t be offended.

·       Know your team and their story: This is important because this is when we know who is going to take charge.

2^nd Corinthians 4:1 God has been kind enough to trust us with this work. That’s why we never give up.

·       God trusts us with Destino! With this mission! Lets look at how Jesus evangelized. How He, perfect and blameless, came to serve people that he knew were going to betray, deny him. Awesome LOVE.

Now what?

·       Organize Evangelizing time! 3 on 3 tourney, the star speaker Brent talked about on Monday. We got opportunities; don’t let them go to waste.

Colossians 4:2-6: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Unreliable narrators in stories

            These are my thoughts of a story I read for class (Emergency by Dennis Johnson) it had an unreliable narrator... 

            Whether his name is Jesus or not, I’m referring to the narrator of the story. Maybe I should call him “the clerk.”

            Jesus the Clerk and narrator of “Emergency” is a pretty untrustworthy source for the reader. This dude is high… stoned… on pills. I don’t know how to distinguish reality versus him being on the pills. What I think is a part of reality is Jesus the clerk working with Georgie, the nurse and I think Terrence, the patient, is real too… but I’m not sure. Anyway…

            I think the decision Dennis Johnson made here was cool because you can easily find multiple ambiguities in the scenes that are occurring throughout the story. Example, Jesus the clerk thinks he was in a military graveyard on page 81 and sees angels descending… then on page 87 his friend, Hardee, is there… the dude is bald because he was drafted (military.) Was he one of the angels in the military graveyard?  

            I found many parts of the story intolerable. It’s kind of like when you start reading a story only to find out it’s a dream… it pisses you off. I was pissed reading this. I don’t think I was mad at the narrator but at the author. “I’d never before come across this cemetery. On the farther side of the field, just beyond the curtains of snow, the sky was torn away and the angels were descending out of a brilliant blue summer, their huge faces streaked with light and full of pity…” Here, we are being told what Jesus the clerk is seeing/experiencing but then Georgie influences what he is thinking when he tells him, “It’s the drive-in man!” ““I see. I thought it was something else,” I said.” This is an example of what I’m talking about when I say that you get the same effect of “And I woke up screaming full of heavy sweat” in a story. It’s irritating!

            Maybe drunks and stoners will appreciate this craft more than I do. 

ugly week

I was out all last week with a 103+ fever, chills, nausea, head and body aches.

Turns out my liver is jacked up.

I missed a couple of assignments last week.

I didn't get to enjoy my week of "relaxation" for my comic class.

I have an exam at 9:45 am over Anne Bradstreet, William Bradford, Edward Taylor and Jonathan Edwards. (I'm pretty sure Wigglesworth and some other Puritan hick is also in the exam)

I have an essay due 9:10 am on Tuesday over super boring books I don't want to read.

I'm ready to graduate.

frustration

What the heck is going on? It's almost as if I have forgotten how to write! I'm getting really angry.

Burnout?

I doubt it's burnout... but I've had trouble writing...

I think I've been overthinking everything because I was reading everything I wrote in the past and it is in desperate need of attention.

Also, I've been trying to write for a class assignment... which has a word/page count and that is also throwing me off. I had a couple of stories in mind (that I wanted to write) but they can't have a limit.

• One is "Eastern Caracals" which is a basketball drama-based novel about high school life in the RG Valley.
• Another is about a racist jerk that lives in the valley. (Will probably work for a flash fiction - under 750 words)
• Another is a novel about an ex convict, Julio Chapa, that goes on an christian expedition. While on the expedition, several people go missing and eyes start to turn to Julio Chapa.

The assignment requires me to write over 1,500 words... to 2,500, I think. So my three ideas just wont work. However, I came back home feeling defeated today and I layed in bed reading David Rice's, "Heart Shaped Cookies." That dude is awesome. His characters are believable.

Anyway, I am going to write about the "Twin Towers." Which are two really tall, athletic girls who intimidate Samuel to do things for them.

Let's get it done!

The Lazies

I need that hunger for school.
I don't ever feel like studying anymore.
I only want to read what I want to read.
I hate two of my classes now because there is so much history that is involved.

I just want to graduate.
Get a job.

Write and forget about my undergraduate years.

On a possitive note, God has been moving people's hearts through UTPA Destino.Its been so cool to see. Fall Retreat was a blast. God really showed me who was in control... He made me depend on several people this weekend whether it was money, shoes, toothpaste or a pillow.