Mid High Faith Sharing

Whew!  It's been a while, but no time like the last day of 2013 to talk more on sharing our faith.

The last post dealt with elementary school evanglism, or "relational evanglism through service".  In this process, not only do we serve others, but we add the Good Word with our good deeds.  This post is about middle school evangelism, where we learn to share our faith in safe places with people we already know - through small groups, Bible studies, and/or Sunday school classes.  Middle school evanglism is about identity, communication, and relationships, all of which are key to rediscovering our faith stories.

One trend in small group/Bible study/Sunday school ministry processes that Farr/Anderson/Kotan have noticed is that a great deal of the time, people within these groups spend a great deal of time talking about what we think about God, what we understand about God, what we believe about God, what we think of the Bible, and what we understand to be true about the Bible.  These are wonderful and important things to talk about.  But do you see what's missing?  Talking about our own experiences with God.

To talk about our life experiences in relationship with Jesus Christ was foundational to the small group process in Methodism.  Methodists were a people who not only shared their understading of God, but also their experiences with God.  Within the earliest Methodist class meetings, members were asked questions of accountable discipleship that would enable sharing of their faith; questions like "How goes it with your soul?" (or "How have you experienced God recently in your life?").  These questions and others were shared so that people could not only talk about what God did for them in the past, but also what God is doing for them now in their lives.

Methodists were able to widely connect with disconnected person because they shared their faith regularly in calls meetings.  In this way, they were able to practice sharing their faith, the underlying idea being that if you want to share your faith outside of church, you need to be able to share your faith inside the church.

FAK lift up three vital benefits to sharing our fiath with other persons of faith within a small group:

1) Sharing your faith can reorient each each of our lives with God's presence in the very center.  In responding to questions about your faith regularly, you consistently are looking for God is involved in your life, and.. you begin to see life differently, surrounded by the grace-filled presence of God.

2) Sharing your faith may help others within your group to deepen their faith, and perhaps even come to faith.  Hearing how God is present in your life opens their eyes to consider how God is present in theirs, and opens a channel for God's prevenient grace to do its work.

3) Sharing our faith regularly and consistently within our small groups allows us to share our faith beyond the group through the network of relationships that we have.

Not everyone in a small group/Bible study/Sunday school class is going to be ready to share their experiences of God within a group.  The invitation, however, can always be extended, and with other members of the group sharing, trust develops so that people can begin to share what God is doing in their lives.

Something to lift up... middle school evangelism doesn't just happen within the walls of the church.  Many of us live within a small group everyday, and that's the small group of our families.  Sharing our faith within our familes is really (Kevin's opinion) the best and most effective way to instill faith in our children.

Many of you may be in groups where you have experienced the type of faith sharing that is middle school evangelism, and if so, you've been blessed.  These are groups where people talk about bonding and growing closer and growing spiritually and...  In fact, the faith sharing done, via email, in response to my previous post about elementary evangelism is a wonderful example of sharing your faith in a small group environment where trust has developed. 

Next post in a brand new year (2014) will find us graduating to high school evangelism - sharing our faith in worship!