Facing Fears

My church has small groups on a semester system. They run for 12 weeks three times a year and provide a start and stop point for people to jump in and out which is helpful with the large college age population that attends the church.

This spring semester I have been leading a small group using curriculum written by my pastor, Mark Batterson. It's called "Chase the Lion" and is based on his book "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day". We have covered topics related to Taking Risks and Seizing Opportunities. This week we covered Facing Fears and I like to incorporate a practical application to the lesson that we are studying.

This week, I challenged the small group to step out and face their fear of talking about religion and faith with people. I provided each person with a questionnaire and we headed out to Union Station (train station and major tourist destination in Washington, DC near the Capitol building). Each person had to talk to two people and ask them the following questions:

What is your faith/religious background (if you have one)?
What words come to mind when you think about Jesus?
What comes to mind when you think about Christians?
How often do you attend church?
What is the reason you go / don't go?
What would it take for a church to reach you / others?
In your opinion, what do you think it takes for a person to go to Heaven when they die?

It was such a great experience for all of us as we found a way to approach a topic that can be scary in a non-threatening way. Most of us found that we wanted to continue the conversations and ask more probing questions. It was a great introduction to evangelism and a great way to see that we can initiate a conversation about faith in a simple and easy way.

Here's to more conversations!