I have been involved with Activate for five years and when people ask me who we are and what we are trying to acheive this is the simplest two word answer – friendship evangelism. We know there are other great organisations, networks and charities that are out there doing street missions, pamphlet printing, crusades, tv adverts, media campaigns and other attention grabbing activities. We are different because our emphasis is relational. We believe that reaching out with God’s love and the story of Jesus is best done through friendships and natural connections.
You won’t find us printing a pamplet that you could hand out to strangers on a street corner, nor will we be paying for adverts on the sides of buses. For the last 40 (and hopefully the next 40) years we have been encouraging relationship building within our communities, neighbourhoods, workplaces, school gates, book groups, gyms, golf clubs…wherever you are.
Since we started our new website we have been adding polls for our supporters to add their opinions. Usually only a handful actually vote. Last month we had our most popular poll by far when we asked ‘How did you become a Christian? How did your faith journey begin?’ The answers were really interesting –
60% started their faith journey in a Christian home. How great that so many of us have had the privilege of a faith filled background. This shows how important the family unit is and reminds us of the importance of supporting and praying for Christian families.
The next highest score was 13% – ‘a friend introduced me to Jesus’.That is why we are a friendship orientated network. Our relationships are crucial if we are to earn the right to share the reason for the faith that we have and the peace that we have found. What a privilige and a responsibility to carry on!! The only score with zero votes was the one referring to ‘a conversation with a stranger’.
Let’s not be a stranger in our neighbourhoods and communities -let’s continue being involved, friendly and real with the love of God.
And we would love to hear more details of your faith journeys, who were the friends that introduced you to Jesus? How did they do it?
For the 13% that ticked ‘some other way’, tell us more. We want to hear your stories…