The Men's Room Articles

New Ways of Making Jesus Know

This month, the Saturday Morning Men’s Group begins a study to help us understand and embrace the back half of our new mission statement: Making Jesus Known. The study, Ordinary Attempts at Just Being You is based on a couple resources from our evangelism team: the book Evangelism without Additives by Jim Henderson and The Outsider Interviews, a set of video interviews of people considered "outside" the Church.

In this study, we will learn why sharing your faith is so important and discover some easy ways to connect with others so they can experience God’s love. These ways do not include preaching the Gospel in a confrontational or rehearsed approach with the goal of converting someone. Rather, it simply means connecting with others using ordinary attempts: being yourself, paying close attention to the situations in your neighborhood, workplace, circle of friends and family.

One way is the use of what Jim Henderson’s wife, Barbara calls momentology (she defines as the study of the moment) and the spiritual practice of noticing. She suggests we start making a big deal out of the important moments of life and notice when God appears in them. She says that when we practice momentology, it becomes so natural that we begin to notice the circumstances of others and connect with them on a deeper level of relationship that allows them to see the impact Jesus has on your lives.

In fact, this approach to make Jesus known simply requires practicing the art of notice, pray, listen:

You may recall this practice was the theme of the Doable Evangelism workshop held last year at River Glen in which Randy Sievers told us that our ordinary attempts actually is doing evangelism; whether we liked it or not!

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was the master of noticing and He made a big deal out of doing it then showing His love to others. We also know that Christ left us with The Great Commission ("Go and make disciples of all nations," Matthew 28:18) which is a very daunting task. However, Matthew 10:42 reminds us that "if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward."

Since this reward is the love and mercy of God and our eventual place in heaven, come learn to connect with others with ordinary attempts that are never ordinary when done in the name of Jesus.

Rich Gorecki