Epicenter Conversations

I just wanted to post a thought in response to Carmen, regarding "one to one" study verses public evangelism.   I think relationships is key to any form of evangelism that is done. In public evangelism, if the audience doesn't connect with a church members, or if Bible Studies are not personally delivered and a relationship started with the student, neither if very effective. This, I believe, is why many people say that public evangelism doesn't work. Relationships are not being formed, and few members invite friends. DBS wasn't very effective until we began hand delivering them and getting to know the students. However the idea of relationships is easier to talk about than to do. How many people are really willing to go out and invest their time and energy in facilitating relationships? How many of us even really know our neighbors well enough to share with them? Luke and I have been cultivating our relationships with our DBS students going on 2 years, and we are just beginning to see them exploring these truths in a more in depth and committed way. We are so happy, but it's a long haul! We've spent most every Sabbath afternoon for 2 years (unless we go out of town), hosted the Shawn Boonstra series in our home (which included coming up with children's programing for 1 1/2 hours, 5 nights a week, for 4 weeks), stopped by to visit, and  invited them over. We even had a cook out especially for one of our students to prove to that you can be a meat eating Adventist! (the chicken was very tasty!) I don't regret any of it, but I don't think I realised the personal investment of time and energy it would take! Of course with these relationships we start from scratch so it does takes longer, but fortunately we start off on spiritual footing so there isn't the difficulty of transitioning into spiritual things. I have more difficulty in moving my friends into spiritual conversation. I don't think I come across as having "all the truth" but when I study with anyone my direction of thought will be that what I've learned up to this point is truth. I think people are looking for solid answers. Although post moderns might say "what's good for you is good for you, and what's good for me is good for me," and may really believe there is no absolute truth, I think most people respect someone who believes in absolute truth even if they don't agree. Hopefully my belief in the absolute truth of the Bible, lovingly and humbly expressed, will unsettle them enough to at least consider the possibility of an absolute truth and begin to ask question which may lead to exploring God's word.