An intersection is a place of connection. In terms of people seeking God or Christians making an impact around them, an intersection is any time people on two separate paths cross. It might be a conversation. It might be bumping into that person at work or Starbucks. It might be someone encountering God while at a quite moment in his day reading the Bible or praying. An intersection for some could be that vague sense that God is out there and somehow watching out for me.

Intersections happen all the time. Christians see more than just “chance encounter’ as the explanation. Somehow every intersection that takes place has God’s fingerprints on it. A person just so happens to run into someone at a point in their day when they really need a conversation. An unexpected event takes place and it just so happens that a friend is there to experience it with them. Another example could be someone whispers a desperate prayer a moment of need, then later realizes that very prayer was answered.

Evangelism always involves three people in some form of intersection: God, Myself, and Someone else. Great outreach is never accidental, yet never a matter of “sales technique”. If God loves people, we can safely assume he’s already hard at work trying to prove that point to them. Our job is to join God and be available to how he want’s to reach someone.

Suppose we’re the person not interested in reaching others, but in need of God ourselves? That same intersection shows us that God does care. He’s watching our life. He can bring people into our life we need to meet and get to know.

If you want to see how intersections work, give Acts chapter 8:4-40 a read. God is the orchestrator. Philip is the instrument. And a spiritually curious Ethiopian is the victim of God’s loving pursuit.

As a seeker – you might be that Ethiopian. As a Christ follower – you could be a Philip.

Watch out for the intersections! They’ll get you every time.

Evangelism isn’t about technique, it’s all about intersections. As we launch out to Double our Impact here at CCC, we’re wanting to grow in how effectively we reach others with the Gospel. That’s why we’re offering Intersections – a 6 week learning experience designed to move people through the basics of befriending others and communicating the message.

Often what holds people back is the familiar excuse “I just don’t know enough to lead others to Christ.” If we could just get people using the right tool, evangelism would be fast acting and pain-free, right? Kind of like a new piece of exercise equipment! Not really.

The best place to turn to see great outreach in action is the life of Jesus himself! He did outreach as a comprehensive way of life! No one technique dominated his style. It wasn’t all that easy. He was very effective! We’d do well to pay attention and learn. And that’s what Intersections is all about.

It’s not too late to jump in on this fall’s class. We meet in EC 178 (the Fireside Room) at either 9:00am or 10:45 am on Sunday mornings at the Old Mill campus of Christ Community Church.

So if the best way for people to get introduced to Jesus is to let him speak for himself, what does that mean for people seeking spiritual truth? At a minimum it means getting Jesus himself in front of us as the subject. It means setting aside our theories about him and investigating the evidence for him. It means getting as close as we can humanly speaking to his words and actions. What did he tell people? What was their reaction? What decisions did he make about where he went, how he spent his time?

If Christians could show people THAT Jesus, we’d be so much more interesting to people curious about his life. People wouldn’t hear our spin on Jesus. They’d hear Jesus himself! No hype. No exaggeration. Everything about him, not what us Christians think others would find interesting. You’d be surprised at how interesting it gets when people actually encounter the Jesus the reporters of his day wrote stories about.

That’s what the power of a live story does! The biography of Jesus is nothing less than a running travelogue trying to keep up with the worlds most brilliant spiritual authority. That’s what we’re trying to capture with the Jesus Class that starts this week at CCC.

Tim,

Thanks for chatting yesterday. Here is a little of my experience in my evangelism/seeker small groups. Thanks for reading and giving me the opportunity to verbalize a journey that has been so significant for me. God is teaching me in my heart and experiences, not just in my head. He’s teaching me about who he is and that he truly does love me! The depth of this is what seems to be hard for me to describe.

I have always known that evangelism is very important, there is no getting around it, but to be frank, it terrified me. If it is so important that means I could really mess it up! Yikes, that is a lot of pressure! What if I don’t know an answer? What if someone just says, “No, I don’t believe that, go away and stop pushing your beliefs on me.” And the ultimate fear, the one, I am not really wanting to admit, I know I cannot do it myself and what if God doesn’t show up?

So I came to the Lord with my fears and said, “I am willing, terrified, but willing – show me what to do next”. My first step was Spiritual Intersections – the evangelism training put on at CCC. It seemed pretty safe, and as it turned out, I was delighted to have my perspective on evangelism change.

I always felt that to “do” evangelism I had to knock on doors, hand out tracks on the street, or engage people the second I meet them in deep conversations about faith, asking them to make a decision. Not being an extrovert or a great conversationalist this sounded like torture. After taking the class I realized I had some misconceptions about the whole event.

I learned that evangelism is about being intentional, relational and caring for others. It is more about asking questions, learning about them, their interests, favorite foods, their family, etc. It is about sharing life, helping others and allowing them to help you. Naturally, questions may deepen, what they think about the world, their pains, their joys…hmm…this started to sound familiar…it started to sound a whole lot like friendship and love. So, was I willing to initiate friendships and genuinely love others? Was I willing to allow it to not be about me, but about God? Absolutely!

I have now started to lead a seeker small group and I am loving it. The pressure is off, my goal is not to get someone to see my view, to accept my truth, to get a decision made, but to reach out, to love genuinely, to engage with people, to ask questions and allow God to bring up the opportunities to answer questions about Him. What a delight it has been to see God lead. In the process I have grown deeper as I realize I don’t have all the answers. It can be so exciting to search and to end up being blessed myself as God’s truths sink deeper into my heart and mind. Even as I write this I think, you know, my deepest fear has been my greatest encouragement. Thank you, LORD, what could bring my heart deeper joy than seeing you move, You continually “show up”!

Thanks again!
Carrie