GTCC Outreach Report 9-7-2011

INTRODUCTION:  Today was a beautiful day for evangelism on the campus of Guilford Technical Community College.  I was thankful to have brother Steve from our church join me in this outreach.  To my knowledge, Steve had never really done anything like this before, but, because he knew his faith so well, he was able to immediately help out and have conversations with folks like he'd been doing it for years.  Praise the Lord for this brother, he is an answered prayer!

He and I had several enjoyable conversations with professing Christians and unbelievers.  We had the opportunity to present the gospel to many, but we had one conversation that stood out above them all.

Cultural Relativism gone to seed

Steve and I approached two young men who were hanging out at the edge of the Administration building sitting on a bench and listening to music and we handed them our Shepherd's Fellowship ministry cards, explained our purpose for being there, and asked them the $64 million dollar question:  What do you think it takes for a person to get to heaven?

They both said that you have to be a good person.  I asked them the usual questions ("Do you think you're a good person?) and that led into a discussion revealing their cultural relativism.  One of them asked "What do you mean by good?"  I said "Excellent question!"  Then I told them that my fundamental presupposition was that the Bible is the word of God and that God defines what good is.  I asked them how they determined what the difference between good and evil is and they said, "our parents, our society", etc.  Thus, they argued that morality is culturally relative.  We discussed this for about 15-20 minutes and Steve and I asked questions like this:

• If society determines what good is how can you condemn the actions of Nazi Germany?
• If society determines what good is what basis would you have to say that my punching you in the face is an unacceptable way to greet you if our society deemed it acceptable?
• If society determines what good is what basis would have to condemn torturing little girls for fun?  What about if it was your daughter?

As usual, their cultural relativism quickly imploded in on itself.  At this point one young man had to leave and we thanked him for his time and we then spent the next hour talking to his friend Chris.  I then took Chris through a modified form of the "good person test".  He admitted that if a righteous, holy, and just God was fair with him, he'd get what he deserved and go to Hell.  I then asked, "Do you know what God did so that people don't have to go to Hell?" he said, "No, I don't go to church."  I told him that going to church doesn't make someone a Christian anymore than going to MacDonald's makes someone a hamburger.  I then tried to explain the gospel to him with an emphasis on the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement and justification.  Both Chris and his friend that left earlier were courteous, patient, listened well, and asked great questions in light of what we already said.  Here's some great questions that Chris asked that we were able to answer and give follow-up literature about:

• What is faith?
• What about science and faith? (i.e., Chris assumed the false dichotomy of faith vs. reason).
• What about aliens and UFOs? (How does this fit in with the Christian worldview.  I was able to give him an excellent little booklet about this from Creation Ministries International).
• What about fossils and evolution?

We were not only prepared to answer these questions from the foundation of the Biblical worldview, but we also were ready to give Chris follow-up material from Creation Ministries International and our own church.  I recommend this outreach pack to provide follow-up material for questions regarding creation/evolution issues.  Chris was grateful for the time we spent with him and joyfully the materials.  I have noted that when I do three simple things, God provides plenty of opportunities for productive discussions like this: (1) pray, (2) know the Bible, (3) be nice. 

IN CONCLUSION, we will continue to pray that God will water this huge seed that we planted in Chris today.  We gave him much literature, explained the gospel to him, told him to read the gospel of John, and told him if he had any follow-up questions just to give me a call.  May the Lord present you with similar opportunities as you live your life day-to-day for the glory of God!