One of my new year’s resolutions (I seem to be one of the few people who actually still makes them) includes investing more in my friends who do not yet follow Christ. My wife and I have so many wonderful and amazing friends from teeball, Caleb’s school, and our neighborhood. These relationships have been built by applying the ”party theology.” Â
I want to take our conversation one step further: Once we’ve developed friendships and gotten into meaningful relationships with seekers, how can we move our conversations with our friends from superficial to significant to spiritual? Â
If you have recently shared your faith with a friend or neighbor how did the conversation come up? I would love for us to learn from each other how we each shift conversations to the next level.Â
May this be a year of spiritual awakening for all of us and for those we know!
Eric
Jan 3rd, 2006 at 9:05 pm
I really resonate with what Erwin was saying about enjoying God. Until we can actually enjoy God we have nothing to give away. It can be a challenge when you have pictured God as the law-giver instead of a lover. That isnt a transition that takes place in a day, but I am glad to be on the journey. Great Sermon.
Jan 4th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Thank you so much for sharing this message. It is totally what I needed to hear. Once I process it some more I’ll be back to talk more about it.
Jan 4th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
God really spoke to me through this message. I am a pastor and I can really be in the hottub with all the people I know who are already Christians. I have to intentionally go out of my way to hang out with people who don’t believe in God. I recently was at a family thing for Thanksgiving and my wife and I were invited to an inlaws family thing. I didn’t want to go, because I would only know my wife and her brother and his wife. I reluctantly went and met a young man and we got into a conversation about God. I was telling him about spending a month in Africa on a miison trip and I got to share the gospel with him. It really hit me that we should go when we are invited to hang out with people we may not know well and just be open to the God-possibilities. Great message!
Jan 5th, 2006 at 10:53 am
I found this message inspiring, but also troublesome.The part about “Start enjoying your life” is the troublesome part. Perhaps this is an area in which Christian people need more nurturing. Perhaps some people are intended to suffer. Would all of David’s Psalms have been attractive to the ungodly?
Dave S.
Jan 6th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Joy depends upon Jesus while happiness follows what happens. Incredibly Jesus endured the cross “for the joy set before Him.” One of the most powerful experiences I’ve had was to walk through cancer with some close friends. As we went through months of chemo and all that goes with it there was a quality to our suffering that affected the people around us. One day I came into my friend’s room on the oncology ward and found a note posted by his wife on the bulletin board across from his bed. The heading was “Ten Good Things About Having Cancer.” It is hard to say we enjoyed cancer, but we did have joy in the midst of cancer. At least one nurse on the ward was never the same and became a lover of Jesus because Jesus was there in us.
Jan 6th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Thank God for your inspiring sermon. Yes, we should step out from our christian circle in order to outreach the needy. They can be our colleagues, school parents, neighbors, strangers, etc. I am trying to enter their life in a non-Pharisee way. Like Jesus and the Samaritan woman, we might note that Jesus’ humanity shown in his tiredness from a journey, his need of water and food, and his dependence on others for these things. Are we
willing to ask others for things or too embarrassing to admit our vulnerability? Let’s learn the
Jesus’way.
Jan 15th, 2006 at 11:40 am
The most joyful experiences I have lately are with my neighbors who are also residents of an adult foster care home. They were basically shut-ins until one fellow, Larry C., and I started reading Bible stories together on Sabbath afternoons. He was interested in the Second Coming of Christ. I am currently a Seventh-day Adventist Christian who graduate from the Andrews Universtiy Theological Seminary in 1995. I am also a single, never-married Mom who delights in serving our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
The idea of “party theology” is so like my own approach to mingling with seekers. I’m glad I found it on the internet.
Jan 16th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
What an awesome question. “How can we move our conversations with our friends from superficial to significant to spiritual?”. Wish I had an answer:)
Ive recently shared my faith w/2 people. One old friend who has never been inside a church and didnt grow up w/religion noticed that my dark cloud I carried around w/me seemed to have vanished. “you sound so happy,” is what she kept telling me. So I explained that Ive found happiness beyond what she can ever imagine in Jesus Christ. I didnt have any exciting news or gossip, no boyfriend, didnt have the great job (yet)to tell of, so she started getting convinced that this Jesus dude must be something else; so here we moved from superficial to significant at least. The other friend is a coworker. During lunch, one guy said when football season is over is over, he wont know what to do, MAYBE he’ll go to church. he walked away and i was left sitting w/one guy who said he hasnt gone to church in 30 years and that he and church just dont fit. I told him about mosaic. Here we moved from superficial to significant, still not quite spiritual.
I find that its hard to have a 2 way spiritual conversation with anyone who hasnt been born again. being spiritual lasts all of 20 seconds (I do try to make the 20 seconds meaningful:) or else its just me talking, and im terribly afraid of sounding preachy/self-righteous/convicting which is the sort of behaviour that caused me to stay longer in my agnostic state many years ago.
I hope you get some good anwers to your quetion eric.
Jan 30th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
I missed getting this on my PodCast - does anyone have the MP3’s they can send me? jmeiss@yahoo.com
Feb 6th, 2006 at 10:12 am
jeremy,
we hope to launch an online store in a couple of weeks where the podcast archives will be available for sale.
Feb 22nd, 2006 at 7:22 pm
how can we move our conversations with our
friends from superficial to significant to
spiritual? may i offer a couple of ideas?
1. Pray for the people that you will be talking to. eph 1:16-18; 6:19, 2 cor 4:3-4, heb 1:14
2. build trust,be yourself and let the love
of God flow.
3. transition to spiritual, being led by the
Holy Spirit.
4. Ask the question -”have you made the wonderful
discovery of knowing Jesus Christ in a personal way?
5. “may i share something with you that has
impacted my life?”
6. “let me share with you a powerful decision that i i recently made?
7. “have you heard the truth?”