Friendship Evangelism

Reaching the Un-churched

There is a fairly new phenomenon hitting the church that makes a mockery of much of our previous attempts at evangelism. Friendship Evangelism is the name of a movement that does exactly what it says on the label – it develops friendships as a pathway to evangelism and  suitable church. The most important aspect is that it is completely non-denominational with no agenda other than to get the lost saved.

The Church is frequently described politically as ‘middle of the road’. Anything in the middle of the road is, to me, a road block – it’s in the way of everyone’s progress. The house church movement has, to a large extent caused the church to rethink some of it’s policies and ways of approaching it’s main tasks. The church, historically, has been the community centre for an area. The house churches have, to a large extent, usurped that role. The church’s main role in seeking the lost for salvation and the spreading of the Gospel so as to make “disciples of all men” has also been usurped, but this time to a great extent. As the Gospel is hardly ever preached in so many churches, the house church has become the de facto place for sharing the Gospel.

The trouble is that, like the traditional Church of old, the Church of today has always catered for the “already saved” thus making it a bit of a social club for those in general agreement about God and religion. Perhaps the house church movement has moved away from that towards more serious discipleship, but it is still primarily for those who are saved.

This is where the Friendship Evangelism fills a large gap. By not concentrating on ‘in your face’ evangelism and focussing on a demonstration of Christ’s love through friendship, shared experiences, coming alongside in times of trouble, and so on, this ‘church’ shows its love first then broaches the subject of faith later on – usually when the person you are talking to has seen the love, experienced the friendship, and maybe even been prayed for a few times. The last thing any new person coming to the group gets is a series of questions about church, Jesus, and God.

It’s a lot more complex than that of course and, when starting a new group, there is an element of “flying by the seat of your pants” – playing almost every meeting by ear until a rhythm establishes itself.

A very dear friend epitomised this new church movement with this prophecy in January 2012. He wrote this :-

New wine is dripping from Heaven, God is calling in His scattered sheep. He is gathering the sheep shunned by pastors and scared by clergy. God is doing a new work, a different work, a wide work and an unseen work. God is establishing cells of worship, cells of grace and cells of harmony. These cells exist for His body, not their glory. These cells are seasonal and bear the fruit of more new cells. These cells are maligned and dishonoured yet they are connected to The Vine - they are the fruit of The Vine and will also bear fruit from The Vine.  This new wine knows no flavour or colour but is the sweetest of all to savour.

Do I think this new movement is from God?

Oh yes – it is of God.