And JA, I like buying your book and giving it to parents. You really did well with it.

in HIS love,
nick

I’m a little biased, but I think the book is pretty good.

Oh, and we just finished a small group guide for it.

In America, people “know” Christianity — it is the religion that supports Republicans.

Our missional efforts in America must recognize that people will have serious trust issues to overcome with Christianity. We won’t be able just to say, “That’s them. We’re different.”

Missions in areas where Christianity has a bad reputation often need time to earn the trust of their neighbors.

Our obsession with work and play significantly detracts from the availability of volunteer hours.
…
In the US, parents obsess over whether their children will be popular or accepted by those who hold very non-Christian values.

You’ve put your finger on the problem. The weeds are growing up and choking out the wheat. We’re far too much like the world around us to change that world. Instead, it is changing us, and not for the better. We should be living by a much different set of values.

Eugelion is greek for good news and it also the word for evangelsim. Before Christianity ever started using it it was used by the Romans to tell the "good news" that Ceasar was doing expanding the Roman empire. After Christ died and the church began early Christians began to use it to describe the great things God was doing.

Our ethnocentric assumption about evangelsim is getting someone to sit down to Bible and show them the verses to lead them to Bapstism, or having a "gospel meeting" where all the finer points of doctrine will be outlined and at the very end a little bit of good news about what God is doing will mentioned with the invitation.