Late in commenting, so I'll try this...

From Brent's Blog in Holland, July 16...

"I admit it: I wasn't expecting much from the sermon at church yesterday. Not because of the reality that I listen to Tim Stevenson every Sunday and most everything else is a "notch below" (brazen, but true, suck-up mention of the boss) but rather the dynamics of going to church in another country. There's a translator and I struggle with that. So, I'd resigned myself to the hope of just paying attention.Well, the speaker got my attention, alright. Early on he says, "Evangelism isn't about us doing the right thing, it's about allowing the other person to experience God." I was IN. I wrote it on a folded up post-it note and scrambled to find more scrap paper. Even with a translator I was already provoked.The speaker was a Dutch missionary to Spain. He shared about how Western Europe as moved from a "post-Christian" world to a "post-modern" world and is now in a "multi-cultural" state...the latter meaning that all religions are mixed and regarded as equal, morals & values are derived from anything that isn't the Bible, and there's no "status-quo" anymore. Sounds an awful lot like the training we gave our teens before they came here.He talked about how if Jesus ran into Zaccheus, a wee little man was he, in Europe, how would he evangelize to him? So, in Luke 10 he pointed out how Jesus saw him as a man with needs, built a relationship with him and then gave him the information he needed to know. Sounds an awful lot like the training we gave our teens before they came here.His applications?Love people as they are, where they are. See the unsaved as humans, not evangelical targets.Every conversation doesn't have to devolve into "God-talk." If someone says how beautiful a flower is, sometimes just agree with them. Don't take it into how amazing our God is unless the Spirit so leads.Begin from where that person is in their life. We tend to want to change the behavior of non-Christians rather than build the relationship over time and allow the Holy Spirit to work.Good stuff, translator or not."

Also wondering about a recent Brent quote regarding evangelism - "not much has been successful in the last 40 years."

Now my thoughts:

Who HAS had success recently? Who is effectively doing God's will regarding "creating disciples"? I want to read what they are doing. I want to see several people at work and in my family in heaven who aren't going to be there if Christ came back today. And I AM close to these people, I AM their friends, they all respect me, and see a difference in my "lifestyle", but all think my FAITH is what's WRONG with me...they want no part of it...and it breaks my heart. So I back off and continue the relationship on their terms...like the Dutch guy says above. Now what?