Public Prayers, Professions of Faith, and Good Ol’ Fashioned Evangelism

March 5th, 2008 | drama

My buddy Mark D. Roberts linked to me today. What a guy! He’s just finished a series on praying in public venues. You can read the story of my brother-in-law’s chaplaincy in high school over at Mark’s post for today.

And Mark’s link got me thinking about taking our faith public.

Of course, that’s a big part of what we are trying to teach people at TheHighCalling.org. It’s what many of the bloggers at HighCallingBlogs.com are thinking about.

And it’s something that makes many of my non-Christian friends cringe. To them, all of this is less about holistic faith and more about the threat of theocracy.

So how can we take our faith to work without also cramming it down people’s throats? I don’t know the answer to this.

But I know what I do on this blog is probably much closer to throat cramming than some of my friends are comfortable with. And I hope that the way I live my life gives credibility to my faith even if it doesn’t preach without words in the way St. Augustine supposedly said.

My thoughts took a strange direction several weeks ago when I wrote a little skit about my fear of evangelism called “Devil Got Your Tongue.” It’s the story of Jonah’s visit to the dentist. Consider me Jonah. Drooling on myself and mumbling an unintelligible witness that creates more questions than answers. God help me.

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Ray Fowler 8 months ago 1 point
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Great skit, Mark. Thanks for sharing it with us. We may end up using that one some time. And will let you know when we do!

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L.L. Barkat 8 months ago 1 point
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This is why I'm excited to be reading (and blogging about) Krista Tippet's book Speaking of Faith. She wants us to bring faith into public dialog, constructively. And she herself is doing it so well (so far... we'll see where the book goes!).

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Ted M. Gossard 8 months ago 1 point
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Marcus and L.L.,

Yes, I really like the work Krista Tippett does on Speaking of Faith (see my side link to get to her NPR weekly program). You can learn so much; she's an excellent listener.

I may not be on board with all of her thinking, I don't think I am, though her thinking may be contextual in relation to the program, though I think it's more than that.

I know one person who greatly impacted her and her thinking was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. You can find "Ethics and the Will of God: the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer" on her programs you can listen to. A great program, and it's interesting that though Bonhoeffer had a clear gospel witness, he was much at home among unbelievers and seemed to have really good rapport with them, in a way that opened up the gospel for them. But that's just my take.

It is a difficult subject, Mark, and one I'm sure, we all need to keep working on together, hopefully.

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Ted M. Gossard 8 months ago 1 point
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Just read your skit, too, Marcus, and I like it. (scratch all the other stuff I just typed.)

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real live preacher 8 months ago 1 point
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For me - Live authentically. Be yourself and have integrity. This assumes that you are a serious Christian. Stand ready to talk pleasantly about your faith when asked or when it is appropriate.

People will come to you wanting to talk. They really will.

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