Skip to main content

Knock, knock, knocking...

Tomorrow (Sat) my church, St David's, is conducting an outreach day. It's part of our HEAT week (Heightened Evangelistic Activity Time). We're going knocking on doors in Homebush & trying to chat with people about Jesus. Our opening line is: "we were wondering what we have to do to live forever. Do you have any thoughts?" We're using that line because the passage for Sunday's sermon is Luke 18, the rich young ruler, who asks Jesus "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Door knocking isn't usually much fun. Or productive. Makes me think of another kinds of knocking:









Why do we bother?
Because we want them to hear about the one who died that we could live. Surely it's worthwhile putting our egos at risk for that...?
Rev 3:20: "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me".

Comments

jeltzz said…
hmm, kamal you worry me:

1) That opening question makes me feel sick. It is so unnatural. Nobody knocks on people's doors and says, "We were wondering what the secret of eternal life is, do you know?". It's troubling - you know the answer, you're not wondering at all. You're not inviting people to share their thoughts, you're inviting people to bait themselves for your own answer.

2) I don't think that verse from revelation means what you think it means!

Popular posts from this blog

The different distractions of secularity and spirituality

There has been a lot of discussion about the recent 'vibe shift' away from radical atheism back towards an openness to the supernatural. I don't think this new spirituality is necessarily an openness to the unique claims of Christ. It will more probably replace one set of commonly-accepted misunderstandings about Jesus with another.  Under radical atheism, people dismissed the Biblical claims about Jesus' resurrection because they 'knew' that it was impossible. Jesus hadn't really died. He just passed out (after being beaten and whipped and crucified) and then woke up in the tomb (and rolled away the stone himself and overcame several guards). Or the disciples hallucinated that they saw him (even though Jewish beliefs of the time didn't expect one person to rise possessing eternal life himself; they expected a general resurrection at the end of time - see John 11:24 ). Or something else.  The so-called 'explanations' of Jesus' non-resurrectio...

A better understanding of nonbelief

The Nones Project is an ongoing study into the belief systems of people who call themselves non-religious. A few weeks ago one of the project leaders,  Ryan Burge  of Washington University,  posted some really interesting preliminary results  on his Substack.  1. We've probably heard of people who are spiritual but not religious (SBNRs). SBNRs were "the largest group of nones" in the sample. They believe in the supernatural realm but not necessarily in "a God." They are "deeply skeptical of religion but highly interested in spirituality," therefore individualistic and anti-institutional.  2. But this study differentiated SBNRs from people they called Nones In Name Only, NiNos. They different to SBNRs by being religious about their spiritual. They believe not just in the supernatural but in "God." And they tend to engage in traditional communal religious practices while SBNRs practice individualised eclectic bespoke spiritual practices. The s...

Wax and Wright on the definition of "mission"

Trevin Wax has written a clear, simple, and charitable introduction to a debate about the nature and boundaries of the kinds of Christian activities that validly should be called "mission." In brief:  Should we use a broad definition, where "mission" encompasses all the various purposes which God calls Christians and the church in general to perform, e.g. being ethical at work; general acts of care and charity; standing against systematic oppression and working towards justice instead? If so, "evangelism" is only one part of the church's mission - a central, necessary, and irreplaceable part, but only one part nonetheless. The latter kinds of activities don't save anyone for eternity, but they do genuine good in this world which please God. And that kind of good makes a real difference in many parts of the world which have not benefited from the kind of Christian moral transformation which the West benefited from - the kind of moral transformation...