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Don't invite them to a Bible study.
Don't say, "Would you come to a Bible study on Jesus?" The word Bible
makes non-Christians nervous. Say, "We're having a four-week study on
what Jesus is like as a person and how he relates to people as a way of
seeing what love is. Would you be interested in coming?" Even better,
if you have been through one of the Person of Jesus Training Seminars
or the Person of Jesus study in a small group at church you can say: "I
have been through this study on what Jesus is like as a person, and it's
given me a whole different appreciation for him and what he is like as
a person. The study looks at him as a model for what love is and how to
relate to people."
Many people are hurting and lonely, and we don't
even know it.
We assume their lives are okay because everything seems normal on
the surface. A Muslim woman is coming to a study in northern Virginia
because someone put a flyer in her mailbox. She told the women at the
study that she was so lonely she would have responded to anything. A Jewish
woman in Philadelphia was willing to study about Jesus for almost twenty
weeks because she was separated from her husband.
The commitment is only for four weeks even though
there are 48 lessons.
At the end of four weeks, ask them if they want to go on for another
four weeks. By that time, commitment has usually become a non-issue because
they are enjoying not only the study of Jesus but also the fellowship
of Christians. The Jewish woman mentioned above wouldn't even commit to
four weeks--only to coming once. But she kept doing that for almost five
months, each week committing herself to only one more week.
People are intrigued with Jesus.
Even Norman Mailer has gotten into the act by writing a book about
Jesus. On an airplane, I started chatting with my seatmate, a chemical
engineer from Canada. I asked her if she would give me some feedback on
a course I was writing. She was game, so I asked her if she would be interested
in studying the person of Jesus as a way of understanding what love is.
She said, "Yes, the person of Jesus is intriguing to most people". Later
I found out that she had no particular religious faith and her husband,
a refugee from Czechoslovakia, was an atheist. I asked her, "With your
background, why would you want to study about Jesus?" She said, "I make
a distinction between faith and religion, and Jesus is outside of organized
religion".
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