Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

evangelism

Becoming Fluent in the Gospel

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Three months…

It was going to be three months of doing my own laundry. Three months of cooking my own meals. Three months of working a real job. And three months in French…

It was the summer before my senior year in university, and I had signed up for a three-month mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was called Montreal Project.

The idea is that we would learn how to see life as mission and mission as life.

During the day, we would work a real job. During the evenings, we would be discipled, disciple others, and evangelize. On the weekends, we would do outreach and bless the community.

It was a missional missions trip before missional was cool.

Do you see life as mission and mission as life?

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Instead of just seeing the mission field as “over there,” we learnt how to see it as also “being here.” After all, the nations had come to us, and I was living in one of the most unreached cities in the Western world.

However, it wasn’t until the end of the third month that I began to understand the importance of fluency.

No I’m not talking about French—as important as that was for the mission’s trip. I’m talking about fluency as my friend, Jeff Vanderstelt, defines it in his latest book, Gospel Fluency.

I believe such fluency is what God wants his people to experience with the gospel. He wants them to be able to translate the world around them and the world inside of them through the lens of the gospel—the truths of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus. Gospel-fluent people think, feel, and perceive everything in light of what has been accomplished in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

They see the world differently. They think differently. They feel differently.

When they are listening to people, they are thinking, “How is this in line with the truths of the gospel? What about Jesus and his work might be good news to this person today? How can I bring the hope of the gospel to bear on this life or situation so this person might experience salvation and Jesus will be glorified?” (41-42)

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5 Ways to Find Your Way Back to God

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What happens when you search for God with all your heart?

According to Scripture and personal experience, you find God.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13 CSB)

Is there a pattern for this journey back to God? Or is everyone’s journey unique?

The answer is a resounding, yes. Yes there is a pattern, but everyone’s journey is also unique.

In Finding Your Way Back to God, Dave and Jon Ferguson have uncovered five universal awakenings that humans journey though as they find their way back to God. And as you’ll see through the stories that I’ll share from the book here, everyone’s journey is truly unique. So buckle up and get ready. These stories will help you see that as much as we need to find our way back to God, “God wants to be found even more than you want to find him.” [1]

God wants to be found even more than you want to find him.

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1. Awakening to Longing: “There’s got to be more.”

Each of the five awakenings are summarized with a prayer. Here’s the prayer for this first awakening,

“God, if you are real, make yourself real to me. Awaken in me the ability to see that you are what’s missing from my life.” [2]

Let me share with you one of the stories from the book that perfectly illustrate the way that we can find our way back to God through this awakening to longing.

Several years ago I had dinner with my friend and mentor Bob Buford. For much of his life, Bob ran a successful cable television company. After his son, Ross, tragically died, Bob came to a point in his life he called “Halftime.” He wrote a book by that title that tells how he moved from focusing on success to focusing on significance. What Bob said at dinner has stayed with me ever since: “One of people’s great fears is running out of money, but that’s not their greatest fear. Another significant fear people have is the fear of dying, but that’s not people’s greatest fear either.” He paused and said, “Deep down, our single greatest fear is to live a life of insignificance, to come to the end of our life and feel like we never really did anything that mattered. That is our greatest fear.”

Are you feeling like you are stuck in the same old, same old? Do you have a gut feeling that there’s got to be more? Author and theologian Frederick Buechner points us in the right direction when he says, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” [3]

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

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2. Awakening to Regret: “I wish I could start over.”

“God if you are real, make yourself real to me. Awaken in me the possibility that with you I could start over again.” [4]

In this second section of the book, there is a compelling story about Scott and Kirsten, and the changes they chose to make after awakening to regret.

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5 Steps to Being Missional

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Last post, I covered some important concepts on serving as a group, but today, I want to go a bit more in detail on being a group that extends and lives out the love of God–a group that is, as Jesus puts it–salt and light.

Evangelism is best done out of the context of a gospel community whose corporate life demonstrates the reality of the word that gave her life. – Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church

In this day and age, how do we tangibly tell others about the good news that has so shaped our lives? Out of love, we want to tell others about Jesus, but how do we do this in a way that doesn’t feel like we are shoving something down someone else’s throat? How do we appropriately engage others with the truth of the Gospel?

Here are five steps that will help us to better share about the wonderful hope that we have in Jesus Christ with our family, coworkers, neighbours, and friends.

1. Developing Trust

This is all about developing trusting relationships. After all, people don’t care what we have to say, unless they know that we care. This isn’t about trying to fake a trusting relationship, this is all about genuinely loving and caring for those around us so that trust is built up between us. This isn’t a bait and switch thing either, it’s simply about being a great friend. Doesn’t everyone need great friends whom they can trust and rely on? That’s what we need to do–be the best friend, coworker, neighbour, and family member that you can be. Why? Because that’s what Jesus would do, wouldn’t he?

2. Having Conversations and Living Life Together

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conversation with a Korean taxi driver

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Sitting in an airport just outside of Seoul, South Korea, I can’t help but reflect on the conversation I just had with the cab driver who drove me to the airport.

I was initially going to take the bus to the airport, but as I was waiting, a taxi driver approached me and asked if I wanted a ride to the airport.  I was initially hesitant, but he seemed like a nice guy and he said he would only charge me the cost of the airport bus fare – 15000 won, so I went with him.

Entering the car, I began a conversation with him that began with why I was in Korea in the first place and progresed to faith issues and how cab drivers are paid in Korea.

The most interesting part of the conversation was when we talked about matters of faith.  He seemed to view faith very much as a crutch that help people live their lives.  He was commenting on the way that he came from a Buddhist family and that he just couldn’t understand why one of his sisters was such a strong Christian.  To him, everyone needs faith in something in order to get through this difficult life. 

Difficult?

When he mentioned the word difficult, I sensed that perhaps he saw Christianity as something that only gives hope to the poor.

Hoping to enter into a deeper faith conversation, I proceeded to ask him why rich people are also Christian.  His answer was basically that rich people’s prayers are different than the prayers of people   “like us.”  “We pray for daily life, making enough money so that we can eat, etc, while rich people probably pray for other issues..” 

I was hoping to comment on his faith and the way that he expresed himself to be a nominal Catholic who just goes to church to feel better in hopes that it would help his life…however, I didn’t sense that it was necessarily my place to tell him that.  Neither did I sense that it was right for me to say it (for cultural and spirtual reasons).  What I did do was love him by listening to him, encourage him as a human being, and silently pray for him that he would enter into a deeper and true relationship with Christ.

Does that mean that I never confront strangers on faith issues?  If God leads me to do that, then I will.  However, aren’t there enough people that breathe criticism and hate towards others who don’t believe in the exact same way that they do?  Wasn’t it enough that he knew I was a pastor and that I showed love and care for him?

True and lasting life transformation comes through relationships…not criticism.

I know that it wasn’t a mistake that I met him, and I pray that he does eventually realize that Christianity is not a crutch nor a religion…

Christianity is a way of life.