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07552 September 5, 2007
Shaking comfort zones and a few hands
That's the formula for strong evangelism that brings people to Christ
by Evan Silverstein Presbyterian News Service
NASHVILLE - Like Jesus asking the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink of water, good evangelism starts with simple conversation, according to the Rev. Martha Sadongei.
"Evangelism is inviting another individual into conversation, to share what God has done in one's life," said the Arizona pastor, who preached during Sunday worship at the National Presbyterian Evangelism Conference Sept. 2.
The story from the 4th chapter of John's Gospel about the Samaritan woman, who was a Gentile, and Jesus, a Jewish man, "gives us a signal about how we are to position ourselves if we are to do evangelism," especially when sharing faith across cultural boundaries, Sadongei said.
Christ's evangelism began when he put aside his own cultural understandings and assumptions, acknowledged the stranger's presence and initiated a conversation, she said. Then an "unbelievable dialogue" flourished that eventually brought home the gospel to the Samaritan.
"Jesus and the woman were willing to risk trying something different, willing to be open to a person who was much different than them, and possibly learn something from them," said Sadongei, a member of the Kiowa and Tohono O'odham tribes and full-time stated supply pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Phoenix.
But all too often church members fail to speak the important first words that spark conversation, spur relationships and bring newcomers to Christ and into the pews.
"How many [of our congregations] will generally make the effort to that first-time visitor so that they will feel comfortable in coming back? Sadongei asked. "Or will it be easier to just observe them from a distance, notice that they did come and then wonder why they didn't come back?"
Although congregations typically describe themselves as "warm and friendly," Sadongei told those present that "we must get out of our comfort zones and experience the other" to practice true evangelism.
That means talking to newcomers, shaking their hands and exchanging hugs, she said. That's how visitors are greeted at her small Native American congregation, which averages between 40-50 worshippers each Sunday.
"We understand culturally the importance of acknowledging the presence of another human being," the pastor said of her Phoenix congregation. "We acknowledge that presence with a handshake" even at routine meetings.
She said that acknowledgement has become part of the passing of the peace at Central church, where she feels like a "salmon swimming up stream" some Sundays as everyone takes to the aisle making certain they greet one another with a handshake or a hug.
"We don't describe ourselves as warm and friendly," Sadongei said. "We describe ourselves as a Native American congregation and a church tribal community of faith. But it is our visitors who tell us that we are a warm and friendly congregation."
Sadongei said that good evangelism is not just about having a message, but how we go about sharing that message.
"It comes through our actions," she said. "A church that is wanting to evangelize to a surrounding Hispanic neighborhood should not have the only sign in Spanish reading 'No trespassing, violators will be prosecuted.' True story. How inviting is that to the neighborhood?"
In another example of message meltdown, Sadongei recalled making a church visit while serving on a transformation team of Grand Canyon Presbytery.
The team was invited to worship and afterward joined the congregation as it focused on its own transformation. As members started describing the church, she repeatedly heard about how "warm and friendly" the congregation was.
"But the reality was that as I entered their worship space, I was greeted with a 'Good morning,' [handed] a book and bulletin, and that was the only conversation initiated by any church member" until she was introduced as a pastor and member of the presbytery transition team.
Only then did gestures of hospitality come from the churchgoers, Sadongei said.
"I don't think we realize how important that acknowledgement of presence and initiation of a conversation can be," she said.
Sadongei, a self-confessed "one knife, one fork, one spoon, one mug or glass kind of gal," compared the uncertainty that many have with evangelism to her discomfort at formal dining settings where there are a dizzying array of forks and spoons, and unfamiliar food.
"Unfortunately, for most of us we're all afraid to go beyond our own comfort zones because we really don't want to ask 'How do you eat it?' It is almost a sense of embarrassment because somehow we think we know everything," she said.
But the text of John with the woman at the well instructs on how to share the good news of the gospel, Sadongei said, by simply inviting another to join in a conversation.
"It is the same kind of invitation that Jesus offers each of us and invites us to come to this table," she said. "It is an invitation to share in a meal where we don't have to ask 'What is it'? For we know that when we come to this meal we will be offered the bread of life and the cup of salvation.
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