A Word of Love

[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

I did the math. The most successful FTTT trainees at bringing gospel contacts brought less than 1% of those they preached the gospel to meetings. That % was also true of DC in Houston prior to the FTTT.

I've never liked or used the word 'contact' when referring to someone I shared the gospel with.

I'm not a sales person but I know the the word 'contact' is often used to refer to someone who is a potential client in SALES. The LC used that word 'contact' to refer to people who they thought were good enough to bring into the LR. They wanted to 'capture' people for the 'church'. The church seems to be more important to Christ. (not only in the LC but through out the Christian institution. Everyone wants to build 'mega churches'.)

That's why I don't like using the word- contact-. I always refer to the person I shared the gospel with as "someone". "I talked to -someone- today about the Lord." "I met a person who was very hungry for the Truth and I got to share with him/her how Jesus IS the Way, the TRUTH and the Life."

I also don't like inviting people to go to 'church'. If I'm having or going to a fellowship / prayer meeting/gathering, I may invite the person I met to attend the gathering.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by countmeworthy

They wanted to 'capture' people for the 'church'..

I remember in the C. in Fort Lauderdale the elders had us all form into groups of 6. The purpose of the groups was to work together on any new ones that showed in the church meetings, especially at the Love Feast meetings. We were to lurch on them like vultures.

And yes, the purpose of this method, as stated, of forming smaller groups was, to bring them into the local church. Of course ....

And we didn't think there was anything wrong with it ... tho deep down I thought there was something repugnant about it ... as it struck me as manhandling and not Spirithandling ....

[ZNPaaneah]

Originally Posted by awareness

I remember in the C. in Fort Lauderdale the elders had us all form into groups of 6. The purpose of the groups was to work together on any new ones that showed in the church meetings, especially at the Love Feast meetings. We were to lurch on them like vultures.

And yes, the purpose of this method, as stated, of forming smaller groups was, to bring them into the local church. Of course ....

And we didn't think there was anything wrong with it ... tho deep down I thought there was something repugnant about it ... as it struck me as manhandling and not Spirithandling ....

"Lurch on them" is a strange practice that I have never heard of.

As for your C in Ft. Lauderdale practice I will hazard a guess, based on my experience, that it was not very successful.

Let me share an experience that was very helpful to me. As a kid I was in the boy scouts. My first patrol leader lived a block from my house. Once a week I would go to his house, the patrol would play games in his backyard and he would work with us in small groups helping us to get Tenderfoot, and other badges. It was fun, I learned something, and his patrol was the "premier patrol" in the troop. The next patrol I was in, the patrol leader met everyone in his basement and schemed how his patrol would be "the number 1 patrol". He then broke into his little click with his two friends and the patrol was a joke.

So when I became a patrol leader I fashioned my patrol after the first leader. We never discussed the awards, just focused on having fun and helping the kids that needed help. The first two terms we won the premier patrol at the end of the year, but it was not an award that I took seriously. The next year my father was roped into being the Troop Leader. My best friend was made Senior Patrol leader of the troop. I decided to stay as a Patrol leader since I felt it would help my dad the most. Before our first troop meeting my dad called a meeting of the patrol leaders. (Unbeknownst to me parents had been complaining that the whole thing was rigged for me to win again). He sat us in a circle and asked the first patrol leader to list two kids in his patrol he didn't want, he did that with the next and the next, he skipped me and went back to the first and asked him to choose two kids from my patrol, and he did that with the next and the next. The 8 kids he had written down were my patrol.

What bothered me about this was that one of the patrol leaders, his younger brother was one of the rejects. (This was idiotic, this kid had been in my patrol and had won the premier scout award, now his younger brother is a reject? By the way, these were the two kids whose father had parkinson's disease.) So I knew that this kid would go home and tell his younger brother he was a reject. To top it off, my mom was burnt out with boyscouts and she told me her only request is that there were to be no patrol meetings at my house. These kids are going to show up, learn that they were rejects and then on top of that learn my mom doesn't want them at our house.

So, we break into patrols and sure enough this kid (whose older brother was in that meeting) looks around and says "it looks like they gave you all the losers". Everyone is silent and looking at me. I tell him "Who told you that you were a loser?" (Obviously his brother, who had won premier scout the year before. Also, the way I said it was saying "I am not a loser"). That was it, then they started arguing over "can we have a patrol meeting at my house". That was an answer to my prayers, I told them we would share equally, whoever wants the patrol meetings at their house, and to make it even better, I would wave meetings at my house.

We never spoke another word about any of this. However, the last week of the year I had a kid who was in second place on the point total. He was on the last hike with the kid who was in first place. I cut a deal with the scribe that if this kid built a shelter and slept in it then he would get enough extra points to move into first place.

So, once again, at the end of the year, our patrol had won and we also had the kid who won the top individual honors. For the first time, I saw the parents of some of my kids show up to the picnic.

Sure, you have elders like those in the c in Florida, etc. But it is an ineffective approach. If you like what you are doing and enjoy it, so will others.

[ZNPaaneah]

Originally Posted by countmeworthy

I've never liked or used the word 'contact' when referring to someone I shared the gospel with.

I'm not a sales person but I know the the word 'contact' is often used to refer to someone who is a potential client in SALES. The LC used that word 'contact' to refer to people who they thought were good enough to bring into the LR. They wanted to 'capture' people for the 'church'. The church seems to be more important to Christ. (not only in the LC but through out the Christian institution. Everyone wants to build 'mega churches'.)

That's why I don't like using the word- contact-. I always refer to the person I shared the gospel with as "someone". "I talked to -someone- today about the Lord." "I met a person who was very hungry for the Truth and I got to share with him/her how Jesus IS the Way, the TRUTH and the Life."

I also don't like inviting people to go to 'church'. If I'm having or going to a fellowship / prayer meeting/gathering, I may invite the person I met to attend the gathering.

I agree with all of this. I don't think I ever invited someone to a church meeting while in the FTTT. We had a bible study on campus and we invited people to that, and once it got started it was by word of mouth. This was a Bible study I started and was composed exclusively of people I and my team had preached the gospel to. It was not a LRC meeting. I coordinated with a sister, she would show up at the end of the Bible study and those who were hanging around and wanted more fellowship she would take to a home meeting, I had to go to work. From that home meeting some would then go to the meetings.

But at night I would sleep in a room with about 12 foreigners who were all involved in the gospel work during the day. If someone talked about "a gospel contact" I understood that they were referring to someone that I had never met, and someone that they had preached the gospel to and was interested in fellowship. That conveyed more information than saying "a student at school" or something else. Saying the persons name would just be confusing because I would assume I should know the person by name.

So if your gospel involves people at work, perhaps people you have already fellowshipped about and prayed corporately about, then sure, the term "gospel contact" is a turn off. But if your labor involves about 10 new gospel contacts a day, it is a useful term.