Between 6:30 and 7:45 pm, to be precise. About evangelism. From the Boy Scouts.
It was my first evening as a Beaver Leader. You know, Boy Scouts for 5-7 year olds. The elder felix male turned 5 over the summer and was interested in joining Beavers. Last year I took him to the annual banquet we have at St Tim's for the Scout groups we host, and he got kind of interested. So this fall he and I joined up.
Now what I learned was this: there are 54 parents who think that an hour on a Monday evening with some kind of activity for a 5-7 year old can be a good thing. And not only that, almost all the parents stayed and hung around for the entire event, with several of them offering "hands on" help with the activities. Many others took the opportunity to chat and socialize. Quite a few had some smaller kids in tow.
So this group meets in our church. And I have got to say that for the most part, we don't interact with them very much. I mean, they come on Monday and we come on Sunday. But if there was ever an opportunity for a local Anglican congregation to meet and connect with a group of young families, this has got to be it. It is as if God sometimes simply says "Duh, here they are". I think our church has a golden opportunity to connect with these families. And I mean connect in the best sense.
So as is my routine, as I was biking home, several thoughts began to swirl around... Here we have a whole slew of young families, all of whom are supposed to be "too busy" to spare an hour or so for church, and yet they are more than willing to spare and hour or so for this group, and they are willing to help make this group work. So I think the myth that this demographic is "too busy" can be dispelled. They obviously wanted their kids here, and they valued the time spent, and they valued the opportunity to meet and converse with other parents.
Neighbourhoods are full of such opportunities for Christians to get involved and get connected with people. Maybe we, as a church, need to get out a bit more. I just met 27 families from our neighbourhood in one evening...
Good one, Joe.
Duh, indeed. Sometimes I think we get "tharned" by the idea of evangelism and all the baggage that comes with the word, when really all we have to do is make most of "ordinary" opportunities such as the one you describe. Add to that, our weddings, baptisms and funerals with all the connecting opportunities they provide.
Mind you, there'll be work involved which is why Jesus asked us to pray earnestly for workers for the harvest.
Posted by: Gene | September 27, 2008 at 07:05 AM
Yeah. Some of it is as simple as telling them you're open Sundays. Properly delivered - especially by a youngish priest - it can be quite effective and non-threatening.
Posted by: Malcolm+ | September 28, 2008 at 12:42 AM
What is:"tharned", Gene?
Posted by: Sue | October 07, 2008 at 11:44 AM