Posts
Sunday, October 25, 2009
In case you follow me...
Just in case you follow my blogs, wanted to let you know I have moved off of blogger to a personal website built on my mac. You can find my blog and subscribe to the RSS feed at www.anthonyingram.com
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ten Tips for Christian Evangelists (Courtesy of Atheists)
(I read the following on the Friendly Atheist blog http://www.friendlyatheist.com/) and thought I'd share. I agree with all but two things in this, and those two things are small, not the entire tip being given...)
SarahH began this list on the Friendly Atheist Forums and many others have contributed to it.
It’s a list of the Top Ten Tips for Christian Evangelists. The purpose is not to make the conversion of atheists easier. Rather, it’s to make the Christians who do this sort of thing more tolerable (since we have to deal with them on a regular basis).
1. Don’t start using the person’s name, as if you are a close personal friend, unless you actually are a close personal friend.
When someone has just met me, asks my name, and begins to talk to me starting their sentences with “Sarah,” it makes me want to back away slowly — certainly not keep listening.
2. Don’t start quoting from the Bible.
Most people will recognize what you’re doing even if they don’t recognize the particular book/verse, and it comes off as robotic and scripted, like a telemarketer’s call. I tune this sort of thing out, because unless someone is discussing the Bible with me on equal terms (we’ve already agreed to discuss the Bible and I already know what the conversation is about), I just assume that the person has run out of things to say and is falling back on their doctrine.
Besides, if I’m not already a Christian, why do they expect me to take their book seriously? It’s a huge turn-off.
3. Don’t bring up a topic, or try to find out what the person is interested in, just so you can bring it back around to how it’s all a metaphor for Jesus or Christianity.
It makes it seem like your interest was only a ploy to keep the attention of the listener, only to be using their cooperation for your own corny game. I don’t want to spend thirty minutes discussing The Killers with someone, only to have them steer the conversation into how all music is a gift from God and this somehow proves that he exists. It leaves the impression that they didn’t care about what I had to say at all — it was just a giant set-up for their waiting punch line.
4. Don’t use the phrase “Good News.”
The chances are extremely high (at least in westernized countries) that the person has already heard this news and judged for themselves whether it’s good or bad or boring or irrelevant or whatever. If the person’s not a Christian, they’ve clearly judged it as not good enough to act upon.
It’s also not new information, so it’s not “news,” and it’s your aim to convince people that it’s good — that’s not something that’s a priori. So telling someone that you want to share the “Good News” with them is essentially begging the question.
5. Don’t talk about Jesus like he’s part of the conversation.
The people you’re talking to don’t share your beliefs, so they’re not going to be thrilled to hear that Jesus is listening in on their thoughts and sending messages or providing inspiration to the person talking to them.
This makes you come off as either crazy or… well, mostly crazy. I get that you actually believe that Jesus is alive and God is everywhere and all-knowing, but to non-Christians, he’s just an imaginary friend of yours, and so telling us to listen for his voice in our hearts is creepy.
6. Don’t plant literature.
We’re already stuck with Bibles in hotel rooms (thanks for that, Gideons and pushover hotels!). There’s no need to hide tracts inside books at the bookstore or leave those horrible fake $20 bill pamphlets with (or instead of) the tip at a restaurant. They don’t work. They’re impersonal, often accusatory, and extremely classless. If someone isn’t already a Christian, a pamphlet isn’t going to change that.
7. Don’t hide behind a fake front.
This goes for the “I agree with [local college personality]” shirts, fliers and posters that make no mention of the fact that an event or lecture will be a Christian event, etc.
While in college, I was lured to an ice cream social, a Creationist lecture and a prayer group all under essentially false pretenses — and that was just during the first semester of my freshman year! At every event, someone was up front, telling the attendees all about sin and Jesus and praying the Sinner’s Prayer. I even attended what was supposed to be an academic lecture on abstinence (that some campus sororities even made a mandatory group activity) that was extremely offensive to women and ended with more prayer.
I didn’t attend a Christian college.
8. Don’t assume that we have “God-shaped holes in our hearts” and try to get us to admit it.
I certainly think that religion helps meet various psychological needs, and there are plenty of warm, fuzzy feelings (and deeper emotional experiences as well) that come along with it. But just because you have a proverbial hole-in-your-heart that only Jesus can fill doesn’t mean that all of us do.
Trying to convince us that our lives suck or are incomplete without God isn’t going to work. Stop insulting us and implying that we’re secretly miserable. We’re getting along just fine without any gods, so this line of strategy won’t work.
9. Don’t compare your past experiences to our present.
I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard Christians enthusiastically share their stories of horrible, sinful lives that left them feeling empty and lonely.
These “sinful” lives usually consisted of such shockers as swearing, going to R-rated movies, looking at porn, drinking, partying, smoking, and occasionally doing drugs. Oh — and having premarital sex.
The thing is, maybe these things made you feel guilty or empty; maybe you developed addictions or other problems relating to these activities, and maybe you’re much happier now that you don’t do them. That’s great. But it doesn’t mean that hearing your story is going to shock us or convince us to change our ways. There is such a thing as a healthy balance, and it can include some (or maybe all) of those “vices.”
This tactic seems especially silly when different Christians groups and denominations can’t seem to decide what’s sinful and what’s not.
10. Don’t talk down to us, as if we’re just not understanding something perfectly obvious.
Many of us have read the Bible, prayed, attended church for years, and still ended up as atheists. There’s no magic bullet that converts people to Christianity. Whatever experience led you to believe probably happened on a pretty personal level. We haven’t witnessed anything miraculous or heard any voices, and we don’t see anything self-evident about God in nature or humanity. So if you insist on trying to save us, at least familiarize yourself with our perspective before jumping in, because assuming we’re simply uninformed or dumb is only going to hurt your chances.
There’s one final piece of advice:
Don’t evangelize proactively at all.
If you belong to a group, make your events open to the public, but don’t use them to preach at non-Christians and repeat the Sinner’s Prayer.
If you’re an individual, identify yourself as a Christian, but don’t start preaching to people next to you on airplanes or on Facebook walls [or blogs -- Hemant]. Simply let any interested parties come to you. If they see something in your life they think is worth learning about, they’ll ask — and then you can share your faith with someone who genuinely wants to hear about it. Your message will likely resonate more strongly and with more respect and interest if you haven’t been trying to push it.
What would you add to the list?
SarahH began this list on the Friendly Atheist Forums and many others have contributed to it.
It’s a list of the Top Ten Tips for Christian Evangelists. The purpose is not to make the conversion of atheists easier. Rather, it’s to make the Christians who do this sort of thing more tolerable (since we have to deal with them on a regular basis).
1. Don’t start using the person’s name, as if you are a close personal friend, unless you actually are a close personal friend.
When someone has just met me, asks my name, and begins to talk to me starting their sentences with “Sarah,” it makes me want to back away slowly — certainly not keep listening.
2. Don’t start quoting from the Bible.
Most people will recognize what you’re doing even if they don’t recognize the particular book/verse, and it comes off as robotic and scripted, like a telemarketer’s call. I tune this sort of thing out, because unless someone is discussing the Bible with me on equal terms (we’ve already agreed to discuss the Bible and I already know what the conversation is about), I just assume that the person has run out of things to say and is falling back on their doctrine.
Besides, if I’m not already a Christian, why do they expect me to take their book seriously? It’s a huge turn-off.
3. Don’t bring up a topic, or try to find out what the person is interested in, just so you can bring it back around to how it’s all a metaphor for Jesus or Christianity.
It makes it seem like your interest was only a ploy to keep the attention of the listener, only to be using their cooperation for your own corny game. I don’t want to spend thirty minutes discussing The Killers with someone, only to have them steer the conversation into how all music is a gift from God and this somehow proves that he exists. It leaves the impression that they didn’t care about what I had to say at all — it was just a giant set-up for their waiting punch line.
4. Don’t use the phrase “Good News.”
The chances are extremely high (at least in westernized countries) that the person has already heard this news and judged for themselves whether it’s good or bad or boring or irrelevant or whatever. If the person’s not a Christian, they’ve clearly judged it as not good enough to act upon.
It’s also not new information, so it’s not “news,” and it’s your aim to convince people that it’s good — that’s not something that’s a priori. So telling someone that you want to share the “Good News” with them is essentially begging the question.
5. Don’t talk about Jesus like he’s part of the conversation.
The people you’re talking to don’t share your beliefs, so they’re not going to be thrilled to hear that Jesus is listening in on their thoughts and sending messages or providing inspiration to the person talking to them.
This makes you come off as either crazy or… well, mostly crazy. I get that you actually believe that Jesus is alive and God is everywhere and all-knowing, but to non-Christians, he’s just an imaginary friend of yours, and so telling us to listen for his voice in our hearts is creepy.
6. Don’t plant literature.
We’re already stuck with Bibles in hotel rooms (thanks for that, Gideons and pushover hotels!). There’s no need to hide tracts inside books at the bookstore or leave those horrible fake $20 bill pamphlets with (or instead of) the tip at a restaurant. They don’t work. They’re impersonal, often accusatory, and extremely classless. If someone isn’t already a Christian, a pamphlet isn’t going to change that.
7. Don’t hide behind a fake front.
This goes for the “I agree with [local college personality]” shirts, fliers and posters that make no mention of the fact that an event or lecture will be a Christian event, etc.
While in college, I was lured to an ice cream social, a Creationist lecture and a prayer group all under essentially false pretenses — and that was just during the first semester of my freshman year! At every event, someone was up front, telling the attendees all about sin and Jesus and praying the Sinner’s Prayer. I even attended what was supposed to be an academic lecture on abstinence (that some campus sororities even made a mandatory group activity) that was extremely offensive to women and ended with more prayer.
I didn’t attend a Christian college.
8. Don’t assume that we have “God-shaped holes in our hearts” and try to get us to admit it.
I certainly think that religion helps meet various psychological needs, and there are plenty of warm, fuzzy feelings (and deeper emotional experiences as well) that come along with it. But just because you have a proverbial hole-in-your-heart that only Jesus can fill doesn’t mean that all of us do.
Trying to convince us that our lives suck or are incomplete without God isn’t going to work. Stop insulting us and implying that we’re secretly miserable. We’re getting along just fine without any gods, so this line of strategy won’t work.
9. Don’t compare your past experiences to our present.
I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard Christians enthusiastically share their stories of horrible, sinful lives that left them feeling empty and lonely.
These “sinful” lives usually consisted of such shockers as swearing, going to R-rated movies, looking at porn, drinking, partying, smoking, and occasionally doing drugs. Oh — and having premarital sex.
The thing is, maybe these things made you feel guilty or empty; maybe you developed addictions or other problems relating to these activities, and maybe you’re much happier now that you don’t do them. That’s great. But it doesn’t mean that hearing your story is going to shock us or convince us to change our ways. There is such a thing as a healthy balance, and it can include some (or maybe all) of those “vices.”
This tactic seems especially silly when different Christians groups and denominations can’t seem to decide what’s sinful and what’s not.
10. Don’t talk down to us, as if we’re just not understanding something perfectly obvious.
Many of us have read the Bible, prayed, attended church for years, and still ended up as atheists. There’s no magic bullet that converts people to Christianity. Whatever experience led you to believe probably happened on a pretty personal level. We haven’t witnessed anything miraculous or heard any voices, and we don’t see anything self-evident about God in nature or humanity. So if you insist on trying to save us, at least familiarize yourself with our perspective before jumping in, because assuming we’re simply uninformed or dumb is only going to hurt your chances.
There’s one final piece of advice:
Don’t evangelize proactively at all.
If you belong to a group, make your events open to the public, but don’t use them to preach at non-Christians and repeat the Sinner’s Prayer.
If you’re an individual, identify yourself as a Christian, but don’t start preaching to people next to you on airplanes or on Facebook walls [or blogs -- Hemant]. Simply let any interested parties come to you. If they see something in your life they think is worth learning about, they’ll ask — and then you can share your faith with someone who genuinely wants to hear about it. Your message will likely resonate more strongly and with more respect and interest if you haven’t been trying to push it.
What would you add to the list?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Discussion Question: Evolution and Homosexuality
I have a few good posts that I haven't gotten to in a while, but that isn't happening today either.
This is something that has been on my mind the last few weeks, but no one out there in the atheist, gay rights, or evolutionary realm seems to want to address... Here is my thought, and then I want all of yours...
It seems to me that the biggest anti-religion movements out there are consistently teaming up with the gay-rights movements. This IS understandable in that according to the major religions, and Christianity especially, since it is dominant in America, homosexuality is a sin. Now, it can and should be argued from the pulpits of America that homosexuality is no worse of a sin that gossip or gluttony, but we have done a very bad job at loving these people like God loved us "in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
My problem is that no one seems to address homosexuality from an evolutionary view point. Let me begin this train of thought by using the holocaust as my example. Hitler's views were evolutionary in their basis. Now although I am not making a judgment of the Jewish people here, it is enough to say that if evolution is true, then eugenics programs are necessary for the continued betterment of the human gene pool.
What I do observe is that in the view that the goal of life in this secular view is to protect the future of human life (which is why global warming is an issue as well as curing cancer), then from this view, homosexuality must be viewed as a weakness in humanity in that it is not necessary for the procreation of life and adds to the continuing spread of deadly disease such as AIDS. Now, since there is no benefit to the human race from homosexuality, and it does contribute negatively, then why shouldn't Hitler's programs be applied to the homosexuals as well?
Now, please don't hear that I am supporting killing all the gays. To the contrary, I am Christian, and my desire is to see them made right with God and pursuing holy living through community and worship. My question is, why doesn't the atheistic, evolutionary mindset hold more hostility to the gay community since it is a weak spot in the continuation of our species?
Your thoughts, please!
This is something that has been on my mind the last few weeks, but no one out there in the atheist, gay rights, or evolutionary realm seems to want to address... Here is my thought, and then I want all of yours...
It seems to me that the biggest anti-religion movements out there are consistently teaming up with the gay-rights movements. This IS understandable in that according to the major religions, and Christianity especially, since it is dominant in America, homosexuality is a sin. Now, it can and should be argued from the pulpits of America that homosexuality is no worse of a sin that gossip or gluttony, but we have done a very bad job at loving these people like God loved us "in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
My problem is that no one seems to address homosexuality from an evolutionary view point. Let me begin this train of thought by using the holocaust as my example. Hitler's views were evolutionary in their basis. Now although I am not making a judgment of the Jewish people here, it is enough to say that if evolution is true, then eugenics programs are necessary for the continued betterment of the human gene pool.
What I do observe is that in the view that the goal of life in this secular view is to protect the future of human life (which is why global warming is an issue as well as curing cancer), then from this view, homosexuality must be viewed as a weakness in humanity in that it is not necessary for the procreation of life and adds to the continuing spread of deadly disease such as AIDS. Now, since there is no benefit to the human race from homosexuality, and it does contribute negatively, then why shouldn't Hitler's programs be applied to the homosexuals as well?
Now, please don't hear that I am supporting killing all the gays. To the contrary, I am Christian, and my desire is to see them made right with God and pursuing holy living through community and worship. My question is, why doesn't the atheistic, evolutionary mindset hold more hostility to the gay community since it is a weak spot in the continuation of our species?
Your thoughts, please!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Make Your Calling and Election Sure
As I have been preaching through the book of Second Peter, there is one verse that has stood out to me and is continually a point of meditation. I really think that you could say it is the theme of the book. If you have been listening to my series, or are familiar with the book, Second Peter is very much about standing guard against false teachers. He gives two ways to do this. The first is in chapter one where Peter urges his readers to pursue maturity in their Christian life. The second is to be aware of how false teachers will act so as to avoid them and help others avoid them as well.
The verse that I think the book hinges on is 1:10. It says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure…” We know from the ‘therefore’ that this verse hangs on the prior statements. So as to not re-write the entire chapter here, I will just tell you that the theme of this chapter is that God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… (1:3)”
Our youth pastor, Josh, said the other night that this verse means that right now you are as close to God as you want to be. Nothing is holding us back from Him if that is where we want to be. So my question then is if that is true, what does it take to make our calling and election sure?
I guess the first question is to whom are we to make it sure? I mean, are we just to prove it to ourselves? To our church? Or does it need to be shown even to the world around us? I think that possibly it is all of the above.
The next question, then, is how do we do so? I think this is the part about seeking maturity. If you want to pull out your Bible and read 2 Peter 1 in its entirety, it will definitely answer this question, but to summarize, I think the point is to draw ourselves as close to God as we can so that everything contrary to Him falls away. When Peter talks about virtue and self-control, He is saying that we have the power to live right with God and we need to act on that.
The message of the Gospel is this. Everyone on the planet has rebelled and been cut off from Him. The Bible terms for these two things are “sin” and “death.” But through God’s punishment of Jesus for our sin (bible term “propitiation”), we have been set free from sin and death, and once again have access to God. This is where making your calling and election sure comes in. Those terms very simply mean that God has called you out of your sin life and brought you to Himself through faith in Jesus Christ. To make that sure we need to understand the change that has been made in us. We were slaves to sin and it was inescapable, but God planned a rescue mission. He has set us free (Romans 6:6). If we have been set free from slavery, why should we keep acting like slaves?
Interestingly, if you know anything about American history, after the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery in the U.S., many former slaves continued in the service of their former masters because they did not know what else to do. Sadly, this remains true of too many Christians as well. We are legally free, yet we keep on living as slaves.
So how do we change? Only by drawing close to the one who can show us what living in freedom means. See, this idea of salvation and being freed from sin carries along with it the idea that we are returning to what we were before the fall of man into sin. It means a return to Genesis 1 when God looks at all of His creation and says it is “very good” meaning correct or righteous. Because after the fall the image of God in which we were created was so marred by sin, now the only way to know what we should look like after being set free is to look at Jesus and to try and look like He does. It means walking with Him, and talking with Him. Trying to live like He does and do what He says to do in order that the image of God can be stirred in us once again and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be restored to that original creation (Bible terms “regeneration” and “progressive sanctification”).
To make our calling and election sure means that we are daily pursuing Jesus and are being transformed into His likeness. If we are not doing that, then it doesn’t matter if we say we are saved, or call ourselves Christians, we are deceiving ourselves. Freedom to live a godly life is found in Christ alone. When we live close to Him, we will know He has called us, our church will be benefited as we grow in maturity, and there will be no doubt to the world around us that we are God's children. “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure…”
The verse that I think the book hinges on is 1:10. It says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure…” We know from the ‘therefore’ that this verse hangs on the prior statements. So as to not re-write the entire chapter here, I will just tell you that the theme of this chapter is that God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… (1:3)”
Our youth pastor, Josh, said the other night that this verse means that right now you are as close to God as you want to be. Nothing is holding us back from Him if that is where we want to be. So my question then is if that is true, what does it take to make our calling and election sure?
I guess the first question is to whom are we to make it sure? I mean, are we just to prove it to ourselves? To our church? Or does it need to be shown even to the world around us? I think that possibly it is all of the above.
The next question, then, is how do we do so? I think this is the part about seeking maturity. If you want to pull out your Bible and read 2 Peter 1 in its entirety, it will definitely answer this question, but to summarize, I think the point is to draw ourselves as close to God as we can so that everything contrary to Him falls away. When Peter talks about virtue and self-control, He is saying that we have the power to live right with God and we need to act on that.
The message of the Gospel is this. Everyone on the planet has rebelled and been cut off from Him. The Bible terms for these two things are “sin” and “death.” But through God’s punishment of Jesus for our sin (bible term “propitiation”), we have been set free from sin and death, and once again have access to God. This is where making your calling and election sure comes in. Those terms very simply mean that God has called you out of your sin life and brought you to Himself through faith in Jesus Christ. To make that sure we need to understand the change that has been made in us. We were slaves to sin and it was inescapable, but God planned a rescue mission. He has set us free (Romans 6:6). If we have been set free from slavery, why should we keep acting like slaves?
Interestingly, if you know anything about American history, after the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery in the U.S., many former slaves continued in the service of their former masters because they did not know what else to do. Sadly, this remains true of too many Christians as well. We are legally free, yet we keep on living as slaves.
So how do we change? Only by drawing close to the one who can show us what living in freedom means. See, this idea of salvation and being freed from sin carries along with it the idea that we are returning to what we were before the fall of man into sin. It means a return to Genesis 1 when God looks at all of His creation and says it is “very good” meaning correct or righteous. Because after the fall the image of God in which we were created was so marred by sin, now the only way to know what we should look like after being set free is to look at Jesus and to try and look like He does. It means walking with Him, and talking with Him. Trying to live like He does and do what He says to do in order that the image of God can be stirred in us once again and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be restored to that original creation (Bible terms “regeneration” and “progressive sanctification”).
To make our calling and election sure means that we are daily pursuing Jesus and are being transformed into His likeness. If we are not doing that, then it doesn’t matter if we say we are saved, or call ourselves Christians, we are deceiving ourselves. Freedom to live a godly life is found in Christ alone. When we live close to Him, we will know He has called us, our church will be benefited as we grow in maturity, and there will be no doubt to the world around us that we are God's children. “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure…”
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
I'm on iTunes
Grace Baptist Church, Odessa is on iTunes. For our Sunday Mornings search 'Grace Baptist Sermon Audio' or 'Cory Ward' and you should be able to find it. To find my Sunday night content it is called 'Scott Ingram Sermon Audio'. They are not hard to find. The picture on both of them is the purple podcast icon though... don't know how to fix that.
You can also find the RSS feeds at:
http://gracebaptistodessa.purposeware.com/podcastfeed.aspx?ChannelID=77
and
http://gracebaptistodessa.purposeware.com/podcastfeed.aspx?ChannelID=76
You can also find the RSS feeds at:
http://gracebaptistodessa.purposeware.com/podcastfeed.aspx?ChannelID=77
and
http://gracebaptistodessa.purposeware.com/podcastfeed.aspx?ChannelID=76
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