Dear Christ Church,
We are pleased to again offer the excellent “Evangelism and Outreach Training Cohort” by Fr. Herb Bailey, our Evangelist in Residence. Beginning Monday evening, February 5, this 5 part class brings Fr. Herb’s expertise to parishioners with practical advice for engaging with others and sharing the love of Jesus. You are invited to register here. Amber Hennigan wrote about her experience in a previous cohort:
Peace,
Cliff
What are your goals for 2024? With the recent turn to the New Year, this image has been floating around social media:
While I LOVE the way this list justifies my love of naps AND boat rides (and upsetting religious people—cue the confrontational evangelism style), the list got me thinking, what does it mean to “hang out with ‘sinners’”? And do I really want to CHOOSE unpopular friends? Let’s be honest—it’s easy to be kind, loving and merciful to my friends and family *most of the time* (remember, honesty!), but I’m pretty sure that Jesus made friends with the societal rejects, too.
“Do you mean that person in my life that makes me feel uncomfortable, Lord?” Maybe Jesus isn’t so concerned with my comfort, so neither should I be. Ouch.
But, how can I, as a white mother of 3, practically connect to the people I come in contact with, when their situation can be so different than mine?
Enter the Foundations for Evangelism & Outreach class.
At first, the name of the class took me back to a time in my youth where large groups of young people were taught how to door-to-door evangelize in the mornings, and then in the afternoons we would actually go door-to-door. Thankfully, that’s not what this class was.
What I found was that the Foundations for Evangelism & Outreach class was more of a “how to connect/engage with others in a way that leaves them marked by the Kingdom of God” class, which very much interested me.
How can I love the way the Father loves, give as Jesus gave? When the homeless are at my doorstep? When my neighbor is in need? When my sister is struggling? Practically and realistically, how am I engaging with those around me, and when they leave my presence, have they encountered heaven?
This year, I want to be aware and intentional with the time I am allotted to steward and with the people God has put in my path. I want to utilize the tools I learned in the Foundations for Evangelism & Outreach class to think more accurately, to ask better questions that go deeper and foster transparency and connection, to judge less and love more, to be more like Jesus.
And I can take more naps, too—but maybe I can just ride in the boat.
Peace,
Amber Hennigan