Crowd Talk
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Transcript of Crowd Talk
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8/9/2019 Crowd Talk
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How is Crowd
Different?
8/4/10
Crowd Evangel is a way to plant seeds. Its a way of clearly
explaining the washing of regeneration and the power of
following Christ.
We plant seeds. And we do that by imitating the Apostle
Paul and the Apostle John and borrowing their wording. The
wording we borrow is eternal life and regeneration.
Paul treated regeneration as the very beginning of salvation. He
treated regeneration as the leading edge of salvation. If salvation
were an exacto-knife, regeneration would be the little slanty
strip you cut with. And when he spoke of regeneration he was on
the same page that John was on.
Eternal lifeis very beautifullyofferedinJohn3:16. But
sometimes we think of eternal life as a John thing, and salvation
and justification as a Paul thing. Butheres the connection
between the two apostles: when explaining how people become
saved, that initial experience that begins salvation, that
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leading edge, Paul preferred the John 3:16 concept of life: life or
regeneration!
In fact, even in Romans he uses an interesting phrase. He
writes of the justification of life, as if the Father saw the brand
new life of Christ in us and in response counted us righteous.
And in 2 Timothy he writes that [Jesus] has abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. In
Ephesians Paul said that God has made us alive together with
Christ. On their first missionary journey we know Barnabas and
Paul preached eternal life because they told those who rejected
their message that they had judged themselves unworthy of
eternal life. In 1 Timothy Paul says the way he himself was
saved by Jesus was a pattern for others, for those who are going
to believe on Him for eternal life. And in Titus Paul said we
are saved by the washing of regeneration. So it isnt just Johns
Gospel that focuses on getting saved through regeneration, Paul
used the same wording. He treated eternal life as the leading
edge of salvation.
This is why this matters when were planting seeds.
It frees us up to rely on the Bible. The Apostle John and the
Apostle Paul werent just subtly on the same page, they actually
used the same words and expression. So we can quote John 3:16
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without feeling like we are being simplistic. We can plant seeds
and trust God for the increase.
But we can also do the opposite. Jesus didnt always tellpeople about eternal life. People are not always ready for that
component of the message. Like Jesus, we also can stress the
cost of disciple ship component of the Gospel and the
repentance component of the Gospel. Again, we can plant
seeds and trust God for the increase.
In addition:
Crowd defers apologetics. With Crowd we have the option of
deferring apologetics by sending an email after the fact.
In Crowd Evangel we read from a handbook. While reading
the handbook, we dontcommunicate with eye contact. It gives
the person some space to listen and tends to encourage some
very, very positive conversations with people from very diverse
points of view. So all we do is focus on reading in a way that
helps the person follow along.
Crowd also is about careful listening. If the person has any
sort of an objection or question, stop reading. Listen. Objections
are sometimes due to spiritual warfare. So, it is important to
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listen carefully and let God guide a gracious response that may
resolve that objection permanently.
If you are wondering how to do that, Crowd uses a technique
Greg Koukl has developed. It is a very effective tactic. He uses
two simple questions in dealing with objections. He calls them
the Columbo questionsafter the TV detective who steered the
guilty party toward confession with his gentle but clever
questioning.
When the person has an objection we use the first Columbo
question, which is Could you elaborate on that? Just get them
talking and committing themselves about the problem they see
with what youre saying. And thenWhat are your biggest
reasons, or evidence, for believing that is a problem or issue? In
other words, as nicely as possible, get the unbeliever to flesh out
his or her ideas. Your gentle questioning will keep you in control
of the conversation and help unbelievers rethink how solid their
objections and assumptions are.
Also when using Crowd we dont apply pressure at the close.
This is a way of doing what we learn intuitively when sharing
our faith in our personal lives. Applying pressure can be
counterproductive and disorienting.
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With Crowd, as is always the case, the engine of evangelism is
prayer. Pray for planting seeds and for harvesting fields.
Network with other people who are serious about prayer.
Crowd Evangel is a way to plant seeds. We dontfully explain the
Gospel narrative but we do something equally biblical, we plant
seeds that if the Lord wills will germinate to eternal life.