I spent almost 15 years doing weekly street evangelism in Utah (minus Winter). It matured in two ways: 1) I became more committed to the local church. 2) Weekly evangelism became an event for the joyful gathering of believers, overflowing with the gospel and friendship.
In the following videos I aim to encourage you on the why and and how of doing “evangelistic fellowships.”
Addendum (Oct 29, 2021). This is a video my Utah friends put together.
Garry Shafovaloff, Outstanding Airman of the Year, 1980.
Personality is like handwriting: It’s hard to change late in life. But it’s worth improving.
If someone can’t read your handwriting, you ought not say, “That’s just how I write.” No. You slow down and work hard at writing legibly.
If you’re being inhospitable, or unwelcoming, or unkind, or rude, or too agreeable (weak), or caustic (cranky), or joyless (not thankful), or inconsiderate (thoughtless), you ought not say, “That’s just my personality.”
Personality is not exempt from correction and sanctification. God is beginning a metamorphosis of your personality. At the resurrection it will be transformed.
Decades ago! We mostly played StarCraft.
One of my LDS critics writes,
“Why should we care who would win an arm wrestling match between cosmic deities? There is no reason to compare them and pit them against each other. They are all “most high.””
Answer:
“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:3)
“For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” (Psalm 97:9)
Mainstream Mormonism (SLC-based sect) can’t say that about its god.
She also writes,
“If you say that there isn’t good and evil outside of God, then you are acknowledging that God is the author of evil.”
Answer: In the mainstream LDS framework none of the gods are the author of good or evil. They just re-arrange stuff from the universal sandbox.
In the classical Christian view, everything God created was good, and then it was perverted to be evil.
Evil is a perversion of goodness, and goodness is grounded in God.
We live in a universe where:
A giant black hole sucks the equivalent of a star every day.
Humans argue morality and the meaning of existence.
The news showcases great injustices.
Men courageously die in battle.
Lovers romance each other.
Parents conceive new life.
Mothers carry little people in their wombs.
Mountains tower over us with majestic beauty.
People dream.
Christians sing to the Creator who spoke everything into existence.
We already live in Narnia.
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” – C.S. Lewis
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Angels peer into our world and are enthralled by it.
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My friend Luke shares:
“Nusery tales only echo an almost prenatal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we discovered that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water!” (Quote from the essay “The Ethics of Elfland,” which is chapter 4 in “Orthodoxy.”)
“No one ever spoke the way this man does.” (John 7:46)
The relative inaccuracies of Bible transmission and translation are like:
… that a bright beam of daylight encounters when bursting through a window.
The room is still visible. The objects in the room are discernible. You can still walk around. You can still see.
You would never say: I’m blind, I’m blind! Oh, the dust mites!
I Am Aaron Shafovaloff 