| That was his closing comment in our conversation. He had to leave as soon as he said that so I just dropped it. Then I realized later he really didn’t understand what Relational Evangelism is all about. He thought it was just a method to use in following up on visitors to their services IF they could get into their homes and offer the people the studies. While the four lessons of It’s All About Relationship are sure useful with visitors if you can get in their homes, that is a SMALL PART of the reason for being trained in how to use RE/IAAR.
Let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt that they can’t get into hardly any of the homes of the people who visit them. I thought it would be interesting to investigate the reasons for that but I wasn’t asked to do so. The reason given was that people are so busy these days.
I think there can be more to it than that BUT, moving on.
Here is what the preacher didn’t understand.
RE/IAAR is basically designed to show Christians how to start a conversation with someone they have known a long time or someone they just met and guide them in a simple conversation to the point of seeing if they would be interested in sitting down and hearing the four lessons of IAAR. Most Christians don’t know how to start a pleasant conversation with someone that could lead to their sitting down with them and sharing the Good News. That is really what it is all about.
The congregation the preacher I was talking with was running about 2000 people at the time. The youth and adults in that group would have several thousand family members, friends, work associates, class mates, neighbors etc between them who aren’t going to ‘go to church’ with them but hundreds would be open to sitting down with them and listen to the four IAAR lessons if approached right.
So if you would like to train the members of your congregation how to actually win other people to Jesus in a polite, respectful, non-pushy way you need to learn how to use RE/IAAR and then start training them in it.
And by the way. This congregation wasn’t and to my knowledge still isn’t doing any ongoing training in effective personal evangelism. Deciding not to use RE/IAAR is fine. That is really not the point.
To not be using something to equip Christians in how to effectively reach out to those they know and meet in life with the Good News is NOT FINE.
You don’t have to use IAAR. But what are you going to use? To go on ignoring the issue is unacceptable in light of the command Jesus gave all Christians.
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