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Thursday, March 16, 2006

The Primary Venue for Evangelism

I am reading (slowly, and reflectively because I cannot read it otherwise it is THAT profound) Eugene Peterson's book, "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Place." Wow...

Peterson makes the statement that meals were perhaps the primary venue for evangelism in Jesus' life (after all, Jesus was associated as a friend of gluttons and drunkards - and is commonly found around the dinner "table")
Peterson comments, "By marginalizing meals of hospitality in our daily lives have we inadvertently diminished the work of evangelism?" (p. 215)

Peterson continues, "We take the meal with as much gospel seriousness as we take our Scriptures: we take the kitchen to be as essential in the work of salvation as is the sanctuary. Meals are front-line strategies countering the inexorable deconstruction of hospitality that is running amuck in our Western world today" (p. 220).

So - what if everyone in our church body committed to having one meal a month with neighbors, co-workers, the elderly or homeless?

In the book of Acts we see that when the early church did this, many saw and were astonished and were added to the church.

Naturally, it would be something so simple...



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