We've covered what the authors of Get Their Name considers elementary evangelism (sharing your faith through acts of service), and middle school evangelism (sharing faith within a small group atmosphered). There are many, many ways that I've seen elementary and middle school evangelism practiced by several at Community, from the elementary evangelism of sharing a link to our FaceBook page on individual timelines, to the middle school evangelism of sharing your faith in response to this blog.
We are now ready to talk "high school" evangelism, a way of sharing faith that takes us further out of our comfort zone, but builds upon what we've been practicing in sharing God experiences in small groups. "High school" evangelism is sharing our faith in worship - sharing our recent experiences with God for the edification of the persons with whom we are worshipping. In our tradition, as in many, this is called sharing your witness.
Although FAK lift up the power of sharing testimony in worship, they also urge a strong caution - the person sharing the testimony needs to be prepared when sharing with a larger group. Most of the issues related to unprepared testimony involve sharing a rambling story that people in worship may get lost in, and not actually hear the God experience that the speaker is wanting to share. But there are other issues of sharing content that would be inappropriate in worship. Inappropriate content could mean using language and/or situations that would cause those worshipping to stop listening to the person sharing their story becasue they are shocked by what they hear, but more often, it is the sharing of personal unresolved issues where the speaker ends up "processing" their feelings associated with those issues on the congregation.
FAK suggest a couple of methods to prepare each of us to engage in high school evangelism:
1) Allow for your small group to be an "incubator" for testimony. If you hear someone share a personal story that edifies the faith of a group, that person can be asked to share that same story in worship.
2) Recording testimonies digitally to be played in worship. In my opinion, there is a lot of power in having someone share their story live in front of the congregation. At the same time, "live in front of the congregation" is intimidating to many... that's the main reason why we haven't had many testimonies during our worship services. Recording testimonies allow for the person sharing to present their story by video, without having to speak in front of a large group. It also allows the speaker to hear their own testimony, and to make sure that it is the story they want others to hear.
Bob Farr shares that when he pastored Church of the Shepherd, he would try to have a two-minute video of a faith story aroudn offering time. Farr would tie the faith story into the offering, and explain how sharing our gifts makes faith sharing and other missions possible. I've seen other churches (First UMC in Sikeston, Granger Community Church) do this on a consistent basis at various points in their worship services.
Sharing our faith in this way is rooted deeply in our Wesleyan heritage. Whenever they preached out in the open field, John and Charles Wesley would often have other non-clergy folks share their testimony - they were called "exhorters". The Wesleys recognized the power and effectiveness of people sharing their personal experiences with God, especially for those who were new and curious about seeking a relationship with God. Preaching was important in the worship experience, but so was the sharing of one's faith.
Some questions for us to consider...
- Do you have, or do you know of someone who has, a God experience that would be powerful to share with the congregation in worship?
- What difference do you believe regular faith sharing would make to the worship experience at CUMC? In the lives of the worshippers? In the life of the congregation?
