This week’s interview is with Randy Siever of Doable Evangelism fame. Randy is quite a fun guy, truly a kid at heart, and an amazing conversationalist. It’s always engaging and entertaining to talk with him. I hope you get a chance to talk with him at The Born Again Church Tour 2008 in Seattle or Denver.

Elizabeth: Why do you care what outsiders think about Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Randy: It’s hard to get about the business of helping outsiders connect with Jesus when we insiders have made such a mess of ourselves.  We are, after all, the primary means by which outsiders can see Jesus today (especially our relationships with each other, per Jn. 17).  I suppose the easiest way out would be simply to abandon the word Christian (and Christianity) and abandon the church and just talk about Jesus, and I suppose it could be argued that Jesus wouldn’t have much to do with either if he were to show up today anyway.  But at the very least, if outsiders are our “customer” then we have some kind of responsibility to know our market and how we are doing at connecting with them.  To not care about their opinion of how we’re doing seems reckless and irresponsible to me.  Plus it sort of implies their opinions don’t count or matter, which I have a real problem with from not only a marketing/evangelism vantage point, but also a biblical one.

If there is something we can do as a family (the Christian one) or a community (the Church) to reduce the size of the obstacles between outsiders and Jesus, well, it would seem imperative that we do something.  It’s challenging enough these days to get people to consider following Jesus without creating barriers ourselves.

Elizabeth: If you have a MySpace or Facebook account, how many not-yet-Christians would I find in your group of friends compared to Christians? (Obviously this number will be skewed by the number of people who ask to be your friend because you are a public figure, but this ratio is still of interest.) (more…)

Much of modern evangelism in the 20th century was structured around presenting the “gospel in a nutshell” to strangers on the street, asking leading questions about whether that person thinks they will go to heaven when they die and then presenting a formula to answer that question for them; as if the gospel is only about what happens when we die! The gospel is a far more robust message than can be communicated in a few moments using a small tract. The Gospels - the New Testament stories telling the Good News of Jesus offer a variety of examples of how Jesus called people to a life of faith and following Him. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find the use of “gospel tracts.” This modern invention may have done more damage than we can even begin to discern today. As we the church think about ways we need to be Born Again, one thing we can do is to focus our energies on more holistic representations of the Good News offered in the context of relationship with the expectation of God meeting people individually and uniquely, not according to some formula of our design.

As we get ready to launch the The Born Again Church Tour 2008 in less than a month, here are some questions for discussion: (more…)

We will be posting a series of interviews with the speakers for The Born Again Church Tour 2008 beginning this week. Our first speaker featured is Rose Swetman, Pastor and Missional Entrepreneur in the Pacific Northwest. I have had the privilege of attending her local congregation on a Sunday after visiting the location for a few Off the Map events. Rose impresses me as a bright, passionate, and generous woman. She will be speaking in both Seattle and Los Angeles.

Elizabeth: Rose, what inspires you to participate in the Born Again Church Tour 2008?

Rose: First off, I don’t know that I have missed many OTM Live Events. The events are not only a ton of fun but stretch my thinking. The good thing about being stretched is you end up somewhere you haven’t been before and that’s a good thing. I think this particular Tour is going to do just that–stretch our thinking about the things we (the church) focus on, and how to look at the issues we face as followers of Christ at the dawn of the 21st Century both here in the U.S. and globally. I am constantly challenged to reflect on the state of Christianity in the context of our world and ask the question, “what does it mean to be faithful during this time?”

Elizabeth: Why do you care what outsiders think about Christianity, Christians, The Church? (more…)

by Jim Henderson

This article was originally sent out as an email to our mailing list. Some of the comments below were received as email responses to our mailing.

Young Pastor Fakes Cancer Hides Porn Addiction

The disgraced, former pastor of one of Australia’s biggest youth churches, Planetshakers, inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians around the world as he performed with an oxygen tube in his nose.

The father of pastor Michael Guglielmucci has revealed his son has been addicted to pornography since the age of 12. Danny Guglielmucci – whose high-profile, preacher son, Michael last week admitted his two-year battle with cancer was fake – said the “severe addiction to pornography” was part of a bizarre double life his son had been leading.

Young Nationally Known Healer Admits Emotional Affair

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