You wouldn't believe how many students we meet that have been told, by their pastors and youth pastors not to ask "those types of questions." You'd be shocked to hear of how many students we meet that were kicked out of youth group because of how they dressed. A lot of these students genuinely wanted to know about Jesus but have been told by the very people whose job is to lead them to Christ that they really shouldn't investigate. I think a lot of that comes from leaders being insecure about their own apologetical abilities. Who cares if you have all the answers? This generation is contemplating relevant life issues and questions and desperately searching for real answers from authentic people. The worst thing you can do is shut them down. God Himself desires that we genuinely seek Him (Jer.29:13) and what a tragedy when we stop people from that. This picture is a picture from last night here at our house. We had over 50 students over for dinner (we do this every Thursday) and spent close to 2 hours afterwards having an open and honest discussion about the reliability of the Bible and what it says about marijuana, homosexuality, eternity and many other issues. Believe me, there were people here that most likely wouldn't go to a conventional church. The whole point of our Thursday dinners is to provide an open, accepting and friendly atmosphere where anyone can come and investigate the claims of Jesus Christ. My encouragement to you today is to allow those in your sphere of influence to make you a little uncomfortable, to be O.K with them asking questions, questions you might not know the answers to and to create a context conducive to exploring who Jesus is and what He says. So here's the idea: invite a bunch of people to a pot luck at your house and let them ask anything they want and do your best to point to Jesus. You'll be surprised how far this vulnerability goes in establishing credibility with them and sharing the Good News.
How do you invite them? Do you tell them its a dinner with a Q/A about God after?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking! First we try to meet tons of new people. Here are some ideas on that:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sermon.net/eternityimpact/sermonid/2500516
Once you have a group of people (it doesn't need to be large), invite them over for dinner, fun, hanging out and an open discussion. We put a box on the table with notecards so they can ask questions anonymously so no one feels weird asking what they're really thinking. Every week we change up the meal, we always have dessert and we try to make it a special dinner - not just cheap food. Most of them love it because they've never had that kind of opportunity before. Let me know if you have any other questions. Hope that helps.