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[john-thomas richards]

On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 03:48:18PM -0500, Fred A. Miller wrote:
[snip]
> > > And, you'll sometimes "loose" them. The same approach DOESN'T work on
> > > every non-believer.
> >
> > Lose them?  I am not sure what you mean.  Salvation is God's work.  I
> > present the Gospel; God converts.  Regardless of the manner in which I
> > present or fail to present the Gospel, salvation is God's work.  I
> > think, though, that I simply do not understand your point.  I guess I am
> > not sure what "approach" you mean.
> 
> I've turned people off, and so have THOUSANDS of other well-meaning 
> Christians, by only engaging a conversation presenting the Gospel when 
> someone wants other answers......like why Kinsey was wrong. You'll be left 
> standing there by yourself "with your bare face hanging out," and called 
> "Bible thumper" or worse. You can't always approach everyone from the same 
> "angle," and you more than likely will have many conversations over time.

Ah.  Gotcha.  You are quite right.  It seems evangelism, then, works
best in the context of relationships rather than one-on-one
confrontation.  Clearly there are times when God works through such hit
and miss confrontations but I think in general the Gospel is preached
best through relationships (verbally, not just by our actions).  Such
conversations over time that you describe must include more than
"chance" meetings.
-- 
john-thomas
------
Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults.
Antisthenes