If you want to be more confident in sharing Jesus with your friends and whānau, Julie-anne Laird is worth knowing. She’s become a big presence in our diocese after lending her expertise on evangelism at Leadership Camp last year, running workshops across the motu, and leading both the monthly diocesan clergy hui and a “Gifted Evangelists Group” this year. She has a knack for cutting through the noise around evangelism, speaking plainly about how to share faith with the people we love.
Julie-anne also happens to be my colleague now, since I started working part time for City to City Australia.
With Christmas coming up, many are starting to prepare for family gatherings: the food, the presents – but what about the conversation?
I spoke with Julie-anne after learning she is running a webinar called “How to Make the Most of Christmas with Non-Christian Family”, to see what insights we could glean from a seasoned evangelist like herself.
Julie-anne: As we all know, Christmas is one of the few times people are more open to the story of Jesus. However, sometimes the dynamics of families can actually make it harder as there's pushback about either their upbringing or their own issues.
The risk of being misunderstood or mocked around Christmas is definitely a reality for some people. I get it – and wonder if there are some things that we can do differently. I wonder if it's worth thinking about how we can change the culture around Christmas.
There's something in the culture of a family Christmas that means when faith is brought up, it just doesn't “land” sometimes. I want to help people work out how to shift the culture of a family Christmas to be more receptive.
Julie-anne: “Relational credit” is what I work towards, and how that credit can be used for a small step towards Jesus. If the family knows how much you love them, there's a bit more grace when Jesus is brought up. But if the family thinks you're a critical or judgemental Christian, it'll take a bit of work to build up enough relational credit.
Julie-anne: I'm hoping they can see the situation slightly differently, see how God might be working in their unbelieving family, and take some small steps to shift the culture. But also there seems to be a bit more warmness towards Christianity at the moment. Not a massive shift, but still a shift – and maybe that's something we can think about.
Julie-anne: Pray, and see what God might do.
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We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
If you want to be more confident in sharing Jesus with your friends and whānau, Julie-anne Laird is worth knowing. She’s become a big presence in our diocese after lending her expertise on evangelism at Leadership Camp last year, running workshops across the motu, and leading both the monthly diocesan clergy hui and a “Gifted Evangelists Group” this year. She has a knack for cutting through the noise around evangelism, speaking plainly about how to share faith with the people we love.
Julie-anne also happens to be my colleague now, since I started working part time for City to City Australia.
With Christmas coming up, many are starting to prepare for family gatherings: the food, the presents – but what about the conversation?
I spoke with Julie-anne after learning she is running a webinar called “How to Make the Most of Christmas with Non-Christian Family”, to see what insights we could glean from a seasoned evangelist like herself.
Julie-anne: As we all know, Christmas is one of the few times people are more open to the story of Jesus. However, sometimes the dynamics of families can actually make it harder as there's pushback about either their upbringing or their own issues.
The risk of being misunderstood or mocked around Christmas is definitely a reality for some people. I get it – and wonder if there are some things that we can do differently. I wonder if it's worth thinking about how we can change the culture around Christmas.
There's something in the culture of a family Christmas that means when faith is brought up, it just doesn't “land” sometimes. I want to help people work out how to shift the culture of a family Christmas to be more receptive.
Julie-anne: “Relational credit” is what I work towards, and how that credit can be used for a small step towards Jesus. If the family knows how much you love them, there's a bit more grace when Jesus is brought up. But if the family thinks you're a critical or judgemental Christian, it'll take a bit of work to build up enough relational credit.
Julie-anne: I'm hoping they can see the situation slightly differently, see how God might be working in their unbelieving family, and take some small steps to shift the culture. But also there seems to be a bit more warmness towards Christianity at the moment. Not a massive shift, but still a shift – and maybe that's something we can think about.
Julie-anne: Pray, and see what God might do.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
