Promoting the gospel

Sometimes we encourage people to live ordinary lives loving Jesus and tell them that evangelism will just flow out of that. But I think that when we do so, we also need to remind them that we are aliens and strangers here. We do want to be humble, but it's humble ambassadors or humble aliens we want to be, emeshed in the culture 'cos we love it, but at the same time holding ourselves a bit distant because we love Christ more.

I say that because I find that if I have too high a view of living humbly, quietly and kindly, then I go into conversations and I don't notice opportunities until it's too late and even if I do, I've forgotten how to be counter-cultural. What we're asking people to do is, I think, trickier than what we used to ask, in the days when we were nearer to 'Bible bashing'. We're asking them to settle - but not too much. To work at being a dear friend - but to willingly stomp on that if it's necessary. They have to love God more. Otherwise it'll be stressful and their brains will explode.