What Would You Say? Part 2

So the conversation didn’t really do what I hoped it would but here’s my reply now. I wrote it a little over a week ago but wanted to wait. Here it is:

Anonymous, I've started replying to your comment twice but life kept happening... sorry about that.

I think this is an interesting question but one I don't think I really have an answer for because I don't believe that I can convince anyone to turn to Christ at least, not with words. The truth is, cliché though it may be, talk is cheap. I certainly believe that people can and are motivated through the written (and spoken) word and God uses a variety of tools to draw people to Him but I don’t believe it’s my job to convince anyone to believe anything but rather what the Spirit does in a person that draws them to Christ. The dangers that surround trying to convince someone to turn to Christ is that our tone can easily become arrogant and condescending, lacking in love and who wants that?

My desire would be to have a relationship with this person if it was someone I could have a relationship with- which would of course require more contact than one post could facilitate. But here’s the thing, I reject the idea of “friendship evangelism” even after all my years of being indoctrinated with this method of evangelism. If I began a relationship with this person there would be something other than me wanting to convince them of anything, we would have to share life on some level. My faith would never be a secret, but I wouldn’t be trying to manipulate conversations to not-so-subtly point out how they need God. I would seek to be in genuine relationship with this person, no hidden agenda. I do however believe in "worship evangelism" and always be striving to live a life of worship- no apologies.

If, hypothetically speaking, I could only make one post to this person and not knowing the context of the post or how I even came to this person’s blog, I would do my best to avoid clichés and “preaching” and instead try to be open to them and not act like I have all the answers (because I certainly don’t), speaking with love and genuine concern. As for anything beyond hoping to develop a relationship, I’ll leave that to God.