The challenge, I\u2019ve learned after six years of campus ministry, is this path is untidy, it takes time, and Christians prefer gospel-manufacturing (streamlined programs and cookie-cutter souls) to gospel-gardening with its potential for dirt and weeds.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I appreciate Dale and Jonalyn Fincher. They aren\u2019t interested in an evangelistic easy button or the pressures of prescription. As I read their book Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, I didn\u2019t feel confined to a box or stuck with some techniques for more \u201ceffective evangelism.\u201d They show that freedom and originality, especially in everyday conversations, may be our greatest assets in going and making disciples. Not only that, they encourage us to get to know our neighbors beyond their labels, showing the beauty of getting into the mess of people\u2019s lives and wrestling with their questions.<\/p>\n At one point they say, \u201cWe hope you will customize your conversations to the unique gifts God has forged in your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n At another, \u201cFor years we thought sharing our faith meant saying the right things to get people saved. But whenever we treat our friends as problems to solve or objects to fix, we are not relating to them as people.\u201d<\/p>\n If anything, the Finchers desire to free up our unique humanness to freely love and care and tend to others in their humanness.<\/p>\n Between Sundays<\/strong><\/p>\n It happens every year. Someone will come around to our church for a month or so and then they disappear. When this person stops showing up to Sunday services or small group meetings, I amazed at how easily we lose interest in our relationship with them. We think getting them to our services is sufficient, that if they leave, they must not be interested.<\/p>\n The problem, say the Finchers, is, \u201cWe often masquerade as loving people, but behind our masks we avoid plunging headlong into the grit of each other\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sundays, we are comfortable. We know the language, and we know what to expect. But between Sundays, it\u2019s different. We spend time with people who are not following Jesus as we have been. They\u2019re spiritual designers and, \u201csince church authority and traditional church attendance no longer claim people\u2019s loyalty,\u201d they have any number of misconceptions about Christianity. We can\u2019t anticipate what will be said to us or happen to us with these people. The connections points and conversations are different. Like the other day on campus when I heard some students in our union talking about \u201cthose crazy Christian apocalyptic people.\u201d<\/p>\n Plunging into the grit of life for the Finchers starts with relational dialogue. These informal and often personal conversations, whether in line at the grocery store or over coffee at Starbucks, dominate our lives and can be infused with meaning.<\/p>\n Much of the time we find Jesus engaging people in these less formal ways, in what Eugene Peterson calls \u201cconversational give-and-take.\u201d He struck up conversations on well-traveled roads and sun-scorched beaches, with a pagan outcast at a well and with a curious IRS employee under a Sycamore tree. The examples don\u2019t stop with Jesus. \u201cMany biblical men and women listened and loved others without compromising their friendship with the God of Israel,\u201d said the Finchers, who hold to the conviction that conversations, done humbly, wisely, thoughtfully, lovingly make a difference.<\/p>\n Probably the most notable chapter in Coffee Shop Conversations is the one entitled, \u201cLoving discourse,\u201d in which they give seven manners of loving discourse.<\/p>\n These manners remind me of the \u201crules\u201d issued by the World Evangelical Alliance this summer to \u201cencourage churches, church councils, and mission agencies to reflect on their current practices \u2026 for witness.\u201d<\/p>\n With these manners, the Finchers have already given us some \u201crules\u201d to practice at home. Making the \u201crules\u201d personal helps us bring Jesus into our own neighborhoods without being pushy or close-minded and cultivates empathy and space for our neighbors to struggle and think. Like the farmer who sows seed and then steps back, we tend to the plant\u2019s needs with water, fertilizer and pruning. We don\u2019t impose our timeframe. We are patient, using these manners to \u201cpreserve friendships and allow them to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n In a Leadership Journal<\/em> interview, Peterson said he has tended to relationships in this way for two decades: \u201cI want to introduce people to Jesus. I want them to accept him. But am I willing to wait around and listen? I had some people in my congregation who hadn\u2019t accepted Christ after 20 years. I waited for them. And I didn\u2019t badger them.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond success <\/strong><\/p>\n The youth have been a problem in my hometown for years. Crime. Gangs. Drugs. The list goes on. A few years ago, the mayor called the city\u2019s spiritual leaders together to talk through the issues. A local pastor invited me along. Afterwards, I was approached a television reporter. He asked me one question, \u201cWill this succeed?\u201d The question reminded me how easily we strive for tangible things to hold up and say, \u201cLook this is working.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s no different with evangelism. We like to point to success stories. We don\u2019t like to wait 20 years. That seems like too long. That doesn\u2019t seem like successful evangelism.<\/p>\n The Finchers pack their book with countless examples of conversations they\u2019ve had over the years, some good and some bad. What\u2019s refreshing about all these stories is that they\u2019re not shared as trophies to brag about. They don\u2019t say, \u201cHey, look at how I led this person to Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n As the Finchers said, \u201cLet us tell you straightaway: both of us have made the gospel look ridiculous or paltry, either with our words or our actions. Yet Jesus still uses us, and we\u2019re learning as we go. God\u2019s work is not dependent on our \u201csuccess\u201d\u2014God isn\u2019t nervously watching from heaven, hoping we don\u2019t get it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n I hate that we treat the gospel like it is a briefcase full of important papers. We think we have to be smooth and professional. Such an approach is stale and impersonal. We feel pressured. We go through the motions.<\/p>\n Jesus said to \u201cGo and make disciples\u2026\u201d There is not much of a formula provided. We baptize and teach. But it seems like there is a lot of creative license, especially when I hear the word \u201cmake.\u201d I wonder if Jesus is calling us to be something akin to evangelistic artists. Coffee Shop Conversations gives me a taste of what this art can look like. It\u2019s the art of showing deep concern whether or not people believe. It\u2019s the art that is less interested success and more interested in answering: What does a faithful, loving witness look like?<\/p>\n Dietrich Bonhoeffer is right, \u201cThe church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren. Not the former but in the latter is the lack.\u201d The Finchers relieve the pressure of brilliant and point me in the direction of faithful. For this I am grateful.<\/p>\n Links:<\/p>\n (to WCA reference) http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2011\/juneweb-only\/evangelismrules.html<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/40\/2011\/09\/LibraryDublin-300x248.jpg\" "\\"LibraryDublin\\"")
<\/a>In today\u2019s world, as in Jesus\u2019 day, one of the most effective ways of interacting with people about the gospel is through relational dialogue \u2014 outside of the church\u2019s walls, between Sunday\u2019s, among the daily, commonplace and ordinary.<\/p>\n\n