As part of the 23rd Missionary Conference of the Community of Good Shepherd Church, two seminars on the ministry of evangelism were held at the same time.
The seminar Breaking the Shackles teaches how to communicate with the non-Christian people we meet more and more often in the Ukrainian and European cities. They come to study or work, get married with local girls or do business in our country. Now we do not need to go to the end of the world in order to find people from other culture and tell them about Jesus, they come to us. How do we testify them? What should we tell them? Where do we start? What do they believe in? How not to build a wall but to break shackles?
The second seminar was How to Bring the Gospel In the Religious Environments? Frequently, people who call themselves Christians have no understanding of the essence of the Gospel. They need to be reached in the same way as pagans or atheists. But here we have certain peculiarities. The one sharing the Good News should be very careful to what God is already doing in people’s life; he should be able to recognize sons of the world and not to impose faith on those who resist. It is important to learn how to establish relations and not to talk “from the doorstep”, to be truthful and have a good example of life. The seminar participants have learned how to avoid being disdainful, hypocritical, and critical, how to show Christ and not ourselves.
Interest in religion is devil’s treacherous charm, false religion is flattering by nature. But we have to preach the Gospel of grace and the main method is to explain the Bible. It should be always remembered that salvation comes to all people in the same way, which is through God’s sovereign grace.
Tetiana Arterchuk
