LEMONADE REVISITED

A few nights ago, I was reading from the Ragamuffin Gospel before I went to bed. It dropped behind my desk after I fell asleep. (I sleep in a lofted bed above my desk - it dropped through the crack between my bed and the wall.) As I was cleaning today, I pulled it out from behind my desk and while flipping through the pages, I ran across a passage that described Brennan's thoughts on evangelism:

"The ministry of evangelization is an extraordinary opportunity of showing gratitude to Jesus by passing on His gospel of grace to others. However, the 'conversion by concussion' method with one sledgehammer blow of the Bible after another betrays a basic disrespect for the dignity of the other and is utterly alien to the gospel imperative to bear witness. To evangelize a person is to say to him or her: you, too, are loved by God in the Lord Jesus. And not only to say it but to really think it and relate it to the man or woman so they can sense it. This is what it means to announce the Good News. But that becomes possible only by offering the person your friendship; a friendship that is real, unselfish, without condescension, full of confidence, and profound esteem." (pg. 121, The Ragamuffin Gospel)

That's some winsome stuff - like a breath of fresh air. See you soon.