Sundays, 9:45 am, Facilitator: Pastor Britta Carlson
Many of us get sweaty palms when we think about evangelism. Perhaps we imagine ourselves trying to start a conversation with a complete stranger about something as personal as our faith. Maybe we roll our eyes thinking of shallow church marketing campaigns. We might even get upset imagining that we are being asked to force our religion on someone who never asked for it. In this four-week study, we will reimagine evangelism as the church’s faithful practice of Christian discipleship. We are called as the body of Christ to bear witness to God’s reign through our words and actions. The course will explore theological tools and everyday practices to help us live out this calling more confidently and faithfully.
Conversation Schedule
July 10 – Evangelism, Witness, and Conversion: Unpacking the Terminology
July 17 – Evangelism and the Cross: A Lutheran Perspective
July 24 – The Church as Witness to the Reign of God
July 31 – Sharing Our Stories
Evangelism, Witness, and Conversion: Unpacking the Terminology
July 10, 2022
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Isaiah 52:7
Evangelism and the Cross: A Lutheran Perspective
July 17, 2022
“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:21-25
The Church as Witness to the Reign of God
July 24, 2022
“He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”
Luke 11:1-4
Sharing Our Stories
July 31, 2022
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.”
John 15:26-27