Do our people know how to have spiritual conversations?

[James Nored]

This Sunday I am speaking from John 4 and the story of the woman at the well. In this story, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman who is ostracized from her community, going to draw water in the heat of the day.

 

Jesus is able to engage this woman in a spiritual conversation that so impacted her that she went back and told her whole village about Jesus. And they came to believe that Jesus was the Savior of the World because of this woman's testimony--which is ironic, for as a Samaritan woman who had had five husbands and was living with someone who was not her husband, she would not have had any social standing or standing in court to make a credible "testimony."

 

But her powerful encounter caused her village to forget who she was and be impacted by Jesus.

 

Now, none of us are Jesus. He was the master at everything, including spiritual conversations. But I wonder if most Christians can have any type of spiritual conversation at all. Our people generally speak nothing about their fait

h to their co-workers, friends, or neighbors. Even within Christian families, these conversations are often missing (and left to Bible class teachers). Why is this? I would give three reasons:

1.  Our culture encourages people to keep their faith private. This is not what polite people talk about in public.
2. Our people have very little daily experience of God. The result of this lack of spirituality is that people have little personal faith to talk about. Since their faith has so little impact on their lives, they have nothing very much to share with others.
3. Our people are not trained how to have spiritual conversations. Think about how people generally know how to talk at dinner, when meeting someone, when at a ballgame, etc. They see this modeled and on TV, etc. But where do people see spiritual conversations? If they do not happen at home or in the larger culture, people don't know what to say or how to talk about their faith. We need to teach people the importance of spiritual conversations and how to have them.

Here is a decent resource on how to have Spiritual Conversations. 

Why do you think people have so few spiritual conversations? How can we change this?

[James Nored]

Bill, yes, there are a lot of bad models out there on this subject. Hopefully, we can do a better job in starting these conversations.

[James Nored]

Bill, caring around a spiritually-themed book like you mention is a great way to get into spiritual conversations. Many people are curious about these types of books, and the fact that you are reading one can make you a person that they will go to on spiritual issues.

[William Lloyd Cain]

I agree with the reasons you have listed and would add one more. For many of us our experience watching others "model" beginning a spiritual discussion was that these folks (for the most part) acted like real fanatics and were a pain in the neck. There is no way any of us want to be placed in the same category. The title of the book you recommend seems to flow along this track as well.  Sounds like a good resource!

[Bill Bowman]

This is a great topic.  I find it most easy to talk about my faith in places like the Prison.  I know the guys who show up where I have a class are crying for answers and are seeking.

But in places like work, many are content with their places in life and have no interest in improving their status with God.  What I have done at work is to take a book like The Case For Christ by Strobel to help guide the conversation into the spiritual realm.

I love the prayer song that starts : Lead Me To Some Soul Today.  Lord, teach me just what to say...