Has "In Christ" Become Cliche?

Well, it has for me.

One of the major questions I have been wrestling with over the last few months is "what does it mean for my identity to be 'in Christ'?" Perhaps I'm over thinking it. Perhaps I care enough to gain more than complacent understanding.

Since coming on project, I have been growing in this area with the Lord. Growth has come about through understanding myself and my ways of thinking. I have been identifying some of the lies I commonly believe about my identity. I have been lead to verses that speak about our new-found righteousness in Christ. My discipler and I have talked for quite a while together on the subject, particularly my identity as a man. I do not want to prematurely conclude on some of the lessons I have been learning, for I feel as though I have much of a ways to still travel. By the end of the summer, Lord willing, I will be able to post about this subject in a more in-depth manor.

For now, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the evangelism we do here on project. I had been getting a few questions about what exactly it is that we do.

Well, there are a number of strategies that we have used to engage the community. Before I mention them, I wanted to give everyone a firm foundation. You know missionaries who go to Africa and build an Christian orphanage, which leads to both the example and the preaching of the gospel? Well that's not what we do.

A good foundation perhaps is to go read Acts. You see how Paul simply walks into the market and begins preaching? That's a little more along our lines. Let me explain some of the differences first, though.

Firstly, we don't really just pick a random barrel and start preaching. Rather, most of our evangelism begins through normal conversation. The general way we share the gospel in Clearwater is by engaging people in conversation that is initiated by us students. There are a number of ways we do this, all focusing on allowing the people we meet to share their thoughts before we ever start talking.

1. Spiritual Surveys: Cru collects data each year through these quick spiritual surveys. We will take these out to the beach and engage people to see if they would be interested in taking it. We are trained to transition these surveys to an opportunity to share the gospel.

2. Soularium: This is similar to the surveys mentioned above, but we use picture cards to and ask people to pick cards that represent their answers. (A lot of people think this is kind of fun, whether or not they wanted to talk about the gospel afterwards).

3. Question Boards: Sometimes, we will take massive wooden boards out to the beach/pier with a simple question written on them. For instance, the board I worked with last weekend said "Who is God?" We then invite people to write their answer on the board. After they have finished, we try and engage them about their answer.

These are just a few of the methods we have used so far, and they have been awesome to experience! I have lost track of how many people have come to Christ since being down here.

Please continue to pray for my team and I. We are expecting God to do big things!