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- Coffee With An Atheist
I recently had coffee with an atheist.
Here's what happened.
As you may know we use Facebook ads for outreach and evangelism at my church.
We were running an ad called "where's God?" on the topic of suffering and pain.
The ad starts like this, "Have you ever asked this question when you're going through suffering or a painful experience - where's God?"
Then I go on to share a short, encouraging message of hope in Jesus. That He's with us in our pain and He Himself suffered for us...
Well, that ad stirred up a fair bit of discussion in the comments section with some people supporting it and a few others reacting against it. One of the people reacting against it said he was an atheist and didn't believe in God, etc. But he said something interesting that prompted me to reach out in a private message.
He said, "I don't believe in God but I really miss having a community..." Those weren't his exact words but a close summary. Basically he indicated that he used to go to church and missed the fellowship. When I reached out to him in a private message I said, "I saw your comment and I'd love to hang out with you!"
He agreed to meet me and that's how I found myself in a Starbucks having a cup of coffee and a good conversation with an atheist.
He shared the common story of being "hurt" by religion...nothing extreme. Just super strict parents that forced him to go to church where people were mean to him. Then when he "escaped" he went to college and quickly embraced secular naturalism and abandoned his nominal Christian heritage.
This isn't a Christian hero story...he didn't become a Christian after our conversation! And he didn't come to church...
But he did provide some invaluable lessons for us as pastors and church leaders to take to heart.
1) People long for community...even those that reject God. It's hardwired into us as humans. Use that in your evangelism and create a relational culture at your church. Jesus said the world would know we're His disciples by our love for one another! Could your church use a relationship upgrade? The answer is always YES!
2) Belief is impacted by relationship. This young man wasn't given a good example of Christ's love. He was just force fed "truth." Like Paul says in Ephesians 4, we must "speak the truth in love."
As leaders we can create a culture of relationship where we absolutely speak truth and preach sound doctrine in a loving way. We can prioritize truth and love people. They're not mutually exclusive.
Furthermore, this conversation and others like it show me that people (even atheists) are willing to talk and connect. I hope for a future meeting with this gentleman. And using the tools available to us like Facebook ads are a great way to get conversations started.
But the takeaway today is about leading our churches to be full of truth AND love!
What about the practical side of it?
The "how" to the "what" that I'm talking about.
For that I've created a great low-cost bundle of resources that teaches 20 ways to grow your church.
- Pastor Jake