Sharing Your Faith

So I was online the other night and ran across a web site that was pretty interesting. On this site there are several interviews with people who are not Christ followers yet and they begin sharing their stories and opinions about how they feel about born again Christians. I kept hearing this reoccuring theme they said that all of the Christians that they knew always tried to convince them that they were wrong and the Christian was right without ever dialoging with them. So let me share with you my experience. This past Friday night I was speaking at another church to their singles and after the service we all went out to dinner at a local Mexican Restarunt. Well as we were leaving two girls approached us and asked if we knew we were going to heaven. We said yes and she continued with the how did we know to which we responded that we had invited Christ into our lives. Well that did not seem like a good enough answer for her so she continued to probe further and I began to get offended and I am a Christ-follower. So I said well I may not be a Christian because I am a pastor in Ybor City. One of them said oh Ybor that is the best place to go and tell people about Jesus. I wanted to tell her that if that is gong to be her approach the I would prefer if she never came down to Ybor. You see we are down here everyday of the week developing relationships with the people of Ybor we are not rolling in on a Friday night when people are heading out to the clubs telling them they are going to hell for walking into a club. Because last I checked that is where Jesus hung out in the gospels building relationships and sharing good news. Not beating people up with self righteous religion. Here is what one of the people who was not a follower of Christ said about how we label them "LOST". She said "I really do not feel lost, I have direction and purpose, mostly I feel confused". After hearing her comments I thought to myself why do we call people who do not know Christ lost because the term lost assumes that the person had a map or directions and somehow lost their way. But people who do not know Christ for the most part just do not know that there is another way. I think that it is not our job to be the person who convinces people of their need for Christ but to just share with them what having Christ as a part of our lives has done for us. God is the one who draws people.
So here is my final thoughts. All of us want someone to listen to us. So why not begin developing some relationships with people who do not have a relationship with Christ yet and just share with them your story as you listen to theirs. Remember your story includes His story.