CHOCOLATE EVANGELISM

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As always, thank you so much for your time. Last time I spoke about the concept of Wishes and Destinations within “CHOCOLATE EVANGELISM, Outreach in your Comfort Zone”.

To read these Blogs from the beginning (and so it all makes sense!) please click on the Categories menu at the right. They are arranged alphabetically and the Posts they lead to should be read from the bottom up as the more recent is on the top.

We now have our basic Cacao Bean (hopefully ground into a fine powder). This is a great start, but still really not Chocolate. It needs butter for it to work.

Likewise, we now have our Plan in place and need to do something about it. That something is a Vehicle. A Vehicle is our ‘Shopfront’. In regard to Evangelism, this is the point we connect with outsiders.

God’s greatest Vehicle in modern times is His written Word – the Bible.

Vehicles come in as many flavours as there are Human Beings. A crucial point to remember is that the nature of the Vehicle is derived from the people God has called us to engage with, NOT US. If we base our Vehicles on us, usually we will fail to achieve our Destinations.

We may have a great Wish, such as ‘Introduce local men to Christ’, with some good Destinations such as ‘Use the ‘State of Origin’ Rugby League Game to engage meaningfully with Men outside the Church’’, only to be let down by the wrong Vehicle.

Please compare this. Our Church ran a ‘State of Origin’ evangelism evening. ‘State of Origin’ is a major televised community football event on the East Coast of Australia. Several people spent quite a bit of time making sure the activity happened. Food had to be prepared; the projector paid for, picked up and returned, advertisement had to go out and the church building set up. Lots of little things had to be done. Our most well intentioned congregation were told to bring their (I feel, mostly non-existent) non-Christian friends. After all this passion and energy was expended, few (if any) non-Christians came.

The Vehicle in this case was the evening at Church.

On that same evening, a few of us did something different. I have many non-Christian biker friends, some of whom invited me to their football evening at their Clubhouse. I took up the invite and went with some other Christian brothers who shared my friendship with this particular group. Our preparation time was NIL. Our non-Christian friends organised the whole thing. This freed us up to interact, by helping with tasks or simply sitting back enjoying each other’s company and the game on a big screen. This led to heaps of quality interactions, setting the stage for much more ministry in the future. An example of this was we were asked to baptize one of the biker’s babies, as the family had no contact with any church, but believed in God.

The Vehicle in this case was the evening at our friend’s motorcycle Clubhouse.

Which Vehicle do you think impacted the most on others outside the church? Which event channelled the most Time, Energy and Money into achieving the aforementioned Destinations?

I’m not suggesting everything has to be done outside the Church building or members houses. I’m also not suggesting everything done in a Church building or members houses is necessarily bad. In this instance, I’m contrasting what I felt were two similar Vehicles with two vastly different outcomes.

I would love you to Comment (and read other’s Posts) by ‘clicking’ HERE.

Next week I’ll be talking about ‘Sugary Tools’ and how they enhance our Vehicles, equipping us to more effectively achieve God’s Destinations for us

May God bless you in all your endeavours for Him
Captain Andrew CARTER

As always, thank you so much for your time. Last time I spoke about the concept of Cacao Plans within “CHOCOLATE EVANGELISM, Outreach in your Comfort Zone”.

There is a significant difference between Wishes and Destinations. These two things are very different indeed. Wishes are something we would love to see happen, but have NO control over. Destinations are things we DO HAVE control over and are usually thought of in terms of being specific, time limited, measurable and achievable.

One Wish might be to “Bring golfers in my local Golf Club to the Lord”. This is a great Wish, but it still is a Wish (not a Destination) because you don’t have control of the outcome. It is God who brings people into His Kingdom, not us (thank God!). We also have no control over other’s responses to what the Holy Spirit prompts us to say and do. A Destination might be “I (or our group) will attend six open golf days at our local club over the next twelve months”. Specific? Yep, a defined activity. Time limited? Yep, twelve months. Measurable? Yep, did we actually go! Achievable? Yep, we didn’t overburden ourselves with something we couldn’t do. See the difference?

From our Wishes come our Destinations. I find it so amazing that time after time, when I implement evangelism Wishes (things I HAVE control over) so many of my Destinations (things I have NO control over) come about. As God call us to do things we can do (mostly through His strength!), He does things only He can do. What an awesome God we have!

What we need to know before we start formulating a plan is what we actually want to do. In other words, what are our ‘Wishes’? These must come about through prayer and the particular burdens God is placing on our hearts. Now we can start brainstorming all our Wishes for the particular situation concerned. I find a very helpful way is for the team (or handpicked representatives) to put forward ideas while one person writes everything said on a whiteboard. From this we can establish our initial evangelism Destinations. Remember the previous example? The desire was “Bring golfers in my local Golf Club to the Lord”. Maybe during the brainstorming somebody mentioned the open golf days. From this Wish and brainstorm came the evangelism Destination of “attending six open golf days at our local club over the next twelve months”.

Once Destinations are identified, ‘Backward Step’ them. Always start at the FINISH. Write what you want to achieve, and then write the step just before it. Keep repeating this until the first step is arrived.

I would love you to Comment (and read other’s Posts) by ‘clicking’ HERE.

Next week I’ll be talking about Buttery Vehicles and connection ‘Shopfronts’ and how these are the outworking of our Plans.

May God bless you in all your endeavours for Him
Captain Andrew CARTER

As always, thank you so much for your time. Let’s continue the concept of “CHOCOLATE EVANGELISM, Outreach in your Comfort Zone”.

I want us now to think about “Cocoa Plans” and the vital importance of having a Plan.

The first basic ingredient in Chocolate is the Cocoa Bean. Without it, you just have sugary butter. Nice, but not chocolate. This fruit must be our starting point.

Pro-actively giving a relevant word is often a very complicated procedure in itself, but not with a Plan.

Remember, even God laid out a plan spanning thousands of years incorporating creation to redemption to restoration and wrote it down (the Bible)!

What is the most important part of a jigsaw? I think the crucial component is the Box lid! How hard is it to complete a complex puzzle without the picture? I would venture to say even the success or failure to complete a jigsaw can rest with having this picture.

I would love you to Comment (and read other’s Posts) by ‘clicking’ HERE.

Next week I’ll be talking about Cocoa Plans and the significant difference between Wishes and Destinations.

May God bless you in all your endeavours for Him
Captain Andrew CARTER