How Do You Share Your Faith With Others?

Last Sunday I was paid to go to church. I was invited by a pastor to promote Abbotsford Community Services (ACS) and invite their congregation to volunteer with our agency.

Part of my job is chairing an Inter-Faith planning committee, which meets bi-weekly to learn from one another and plan interfaith events for the community. I was invited to present to the congregation that one of our members pastors. The pastor that invited me to speak made it clear that though he was committed to presenting on Christianity at our upcoming interfaith event he was not prepared to promote the event to his congregation. I agreed to go, partly because my time there would count as work hours, but mainly because I believe that the Christian community should be involved in community interfaith events.

Near the beginning of the church service I was invited to the front and was given two minutes to speak. I read the ACS vision and the diversity statement (see Occupy Vancouver has Found Love). I invited the congregation to our interfaith event, at which their pastor was presenting, as well as to volunteer in other capacities.

I stayed for the whole service so that I was available to talk to congregants afterwards. I listened to the sermon, which was delivered by a lay member of the congregation. The title was Kingdom Courage. It took all of my self-control to keep my disgruntled growls to a low decibel, to refrain from interrupting the preacher and to stay in my seat rather than storm out of the building. Using an abundance of Christian lingo, this preacher encouraged congregants to muster the courage to share their faith with those that do not know Christ in their neighbourhood, workplace, and family. He suggested they do this by calling people up and telling them that they are praying for them and that God has a plan for their life. He went on with an appeal to emotional guilt by inferring that if we did not share Christianity with others TODAY that we were not living to our potential or building the kingdom.

I was shocked by the way that this kind of relation-less evangelism was encouraged. If I were called by someone of another faith, by a pagan believer for example, and told that they were going to center them selves in front of the elements: earth, air, water, spirit and fire and send positive energies my way because mother nature is concerned, I would hang up and block the number.

In my opinion and experience, this type of evangelism does not invite conversation or any sort of meaningful relationship but builds barriers.

I found this message entirely one-sided. Not once did the speaker suggest that those who do not know Christ might have something to offer or to share or to teach the evangelist. This idea that Christians are right and others need what we have disgusts me because it puts downs all others.

I thought it was ironic that I invited the congregation to participate in a community event where they would have to opportunity to meet and engage in philosophical dialogue with Pagans, Muslims, Hindus, Sihks, Buddhists, Baha’i followers, Catholics, Greek Orthodox members, Aboriginal people, Jah Rastafari and people that belong to no specific faith group but love their community, yet received no interested participants. We all sat back and took in this idea that it is up to Christians to proselytize.

The goal of our interfaith meetings and events are to break down stereotypes and debunk myths to help create a more inclusive community. Though I was disappointed with the sermon, and knew that my invitation was not well received I am glad that I was able to represent this goal.

To build on this, two days before our big interfaith event, my colleagues and I met with our Bridges of Faith Planning committee, which is made up of people from many of the faith groups listed above, to train them as dialogue hosts in preparation to lead discussions at the event. We practiced active listening and conversation guiding principles in small groups. We discussed two topics in our groups: something that we find beautiful about our faith and what motivates us to learn about other religions and other people. I shared that the most beautiful part about following Christ is that there is room for lament and a place for the suffering. My friend, who is pagan, went on to share that her motivation for learning about others resulted from loosing her son to suicide. Together our group shared a powerful moment of united lament. I left this meeting encouraged and excited about what I have to learn from others, and especially from this new friend. I felt 10 times more alive, more understood, more welcomed and more full of love than I when I left church on Sunday.

The next day I was feeling a little emotional and I ran into a friend who noticed that I was not doing well. He offered to do anything he could to help. He sent me a message to follow up later, letting me know that he cared and that he was available to spend time with me. He followed up again and said for what it was worth he was praying, whatever that meant to me. I found this incredibly meaningful because it was done in the context of relationship. Not only did he pray, but also he offered to spend time with me to and offered to listen. He was doing this not because he believes my theology is off the rocker but because he cares about me.

I believe that we need to care about people more than their beliefs. I believe that we need the courage to put our beliefs and ourselves aside as we seek to understand and learn from our neighbours. This is why I love my job and am excited about every upcoming interfaith meeting and community event.