Wednesday, March 17, 2010

No Hidden Agenda

Below is the daily Bible reading I am doing for the West Side church. Please feel free to follow along.

I just recently finished reading a new book by Vince Antonucci called Guerilla Lovers. In the book Vince relates the idea of evangelism to Guerilla Warfare. Now he realizes that we are not engaging in war with non-Christians, but does emphasize the point that our tactics should be similar to Guerilla Warfare. The book was an amazing approach to evangelism and one that is very practical. I strongly recommend reading the book.

While guerrilla warfare takes place secretively and sporadically it also requires a lot planning and tactics. That is very similar to the way our evangelism should be. There will be times when we are able to capitalize on random God given situations, but the majority of our evangelism should be planned out and targeted. One thing to remember is Paul’s concept of evangelism shown to use in today’ reading (Acts 26).

In today’s reading Paul is accused by Agrippa of trying to persuade him to be a Christian … “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” … Paul does not hide his motives but replies … “Short time or long – I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.” Paul does not hide what he is trying to do. Paul is a Guerilla Lover, but at all times he is trying to bring people far from God into a relationship with Him.

I think sometimes we can cover our motives. We hide behind a bake sale, car wash, or serving at a food pantry to do evangelism, but along the way we do no evangelism at a fear of being offensive. We must be Guerilla Lovers, people tactfully planting gospel seeds, but we must not hide our motives … to bring people far from God into a relationship with Him. So, do you hide your motives, or are you out in the open with your purpose?

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