May 21st "Community in Action Series"

Thanks again to Paul Patterson for bringing us our message this past weekend. He took our "Community in Action" Series one step further. We had talked about the Participants, our Motivator, our Cause, our Suffering, our Obedience to the Motivator and even about taking the cause of the cross to our families, but Paul took us into our world. After a long, but really good, day on Saturday, it was nice to sit with my family and listen to the word preached about taking the cause of the cross to the coffee shop. Here are a few brief notes from Paul's talk on Sunday. Thanks again Paul for coming and sharing.

THE COFFEE SHOP
Colossians 4:2-6

“There is a very, very serious conversation going on in our culture, in Western culture at the end of the 20th century, about God. And the church is not a part of it. We’re not invited to the conversation most of the time, and for the most part we’re not even aware that its happening.”

“Conversation about God is increasingly found outside the church as well as within it. One of the chief venues for such conversation is the movie theatre with its adjacent coffee shops. With attendance at church stagnating and with movie viewing in theatres at an all time high, Christians find themselves wanting to get back into the conversation but often are not able to do so effectively.”

DEVOTE YOURSELVES TO PRAYER
l The APOSTLE PAUL IS NOT SAYING: Effective evangelism depends on our proclamation skills.
l The APOSTLE PAUL IS SAYING: Effective evangelism depends on God’s open doors.
l God’s message will be spread whether we do it our not. Our job is to partner with what He is already at work doing.
BE WISE
l PAUL IS NOT SAYING: Make the gospel easy.
l PAUL IS SAYING: Make the gospel relevant.
l The world is asking important questions (DaVinci Code is asking “who is this Jesus?”) and we need to make sure we are ready with the answers.
LET YOUR CONVO BE FULL OF GRACE
l PAUL IS NOT SAYING: Learn how to argue people into the kingdom.
l PAUL IS SAYING: Enter into loving relationships and let God open the door.
l We don’t enter into relationships with the soul purpose of winning them to Jesus. We enter into relationships intentionally simply to love them the best ways we possibly can.

RECOGNIZE: A community in action is a neighboring community.