Like Your Neighbor?: Doing Everyday Evangelism on Common Ground [Paperback]

Stephen W. Sorenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2005

Voted "Best Personal Evangelism Resource Winner" in the Third Annual Year's Best Outreach Resources for 2005The Bible tells us that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves--but do we like our neighbors? Do we take the time to build relationships with people who are not Christians? This book is about sharing your faith--and much more. You'll discover the importance of breaking down stereotypes between Christians and non-Christians. And you'll find ways to connect with non-Christians through sharing meals, exercising together, helping each other with projects and dozens of other ideas. Your relationships can have eternal impact and enrich your life too!With this book Stephen W. Sorenson puts forth a radical idea: seekers have something to offer us. As we receive and as we offer God's love, we may discover that non-Christians are more like us than we realize.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830832645
• ISBN-13: 978-0830832644
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,165,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convicting, inspiring, & practical., March 24, 2006

By 

Jeffrey Gray (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Like Your Neighbor?: Doing Everyday Evangelism on Common Ground (Paperback)

Basic, one-to-one ministry to one's neighbors is something I've always been interested in and wanted to know better how to do. This book didn't disappoint.

Sorensen goes through the common mental hurdles Christians need to get over in ministering to the lost (What if I don't know what to say? What if they try to mug me? What if they laugh at me? I'll bet they couldn't be bothered. I'd probably just alienate them because they seem happy enough. And on and on...) He debunks a lot of Christian myths about non-Christians and talks at length about our need to be human in front of them, rather than trying to keep up a facade (a facade which needs to disappear at church, too).

Several chapters of, primarily, anecdotal evidence follow, dealing with initiating conversations with the unsaved, relating to them, where to find and meet them, discovering their concerns, etc. He spends the majority of his time reminding us (through anecdotes or outright commands) that Christians need to listen to unsaved people rather than just preach at them. The unsaved don't want to know why we think Christianity's right or what our theology is (certainly not our politics!). They want to know why we can have joy even in the middle of trials. Or why we can maintain a sweet spirit even when they or someone else attack us. We are then free to tell them of the Person we draw strength from. Probably a lot of the reason we'd rather just preach is that it only takes mental assent to the Gospel to preach it. We "traffic in unlived truth" as Howard Hendricks has said. But actually drawing on Christ's power and peace during a time of pain cannot be faked. The unsaved know this (Christians seem to have forgotten). If we have no spiritual power in front of the lost, even without speaking about our faith, it's because we're unspiritual, carnal Christians.

A lot of Sorensen's advice about reaching the unsaved surprises me simply because I feel like what he's talking about should be as natural as breathing for the Christian. But it's usually very difficult, and Sorensen chalks that up to (at least) the fact that we have such insulated lives. We're in our Christian houses, driving in our Christian cars to a Christian workplace, listening to Christian talk radio and coming back home to that Christian house with Christian family members, playing on the Christian softball team, listening to Christian music, reading Christian books, going to a church of all Christians (not very many seekers attending most of our churches), etc. We're in a bubble unless we consciously decide to step outside of it. And we've been conditioned by the bubble to think of unsaved people as dangerous and... well, unclean. Sorensen really hits hard on this phenomenon, which was rebuking and encouraging to my own heart. We're all humans. Some of us are just forgiven. And all God's peace and power and our new life in Him are a result of His work, not ours.

Sorensen also goes through a basic primer of our culture's way of thinking-their love of relationships, their rejection of absolute truth, their embracing of diversity for diversity's sake, etc. He does a fairly good job of explaining the root factors and pointing out where Christians can be gracious and accommodating and where they can't. One of the most amazing anecdotes in the book (to me) came from this section. He talks about how, in Colorado Springs a few years back, homosexual activists were getting worried because the Christian influence in the community was increasing. Their response? Have Christians over for dinner and help increase dialog between the two groups on a personal level. Amazing, I thought. This is exactly what Christians need to do, rather than just standing up and condemning homosexuality and sending money to anti-homosexuality groups or whatever. These are people, not simply ideological enemies to beat in the polls. We need a major mental readjustment on this.

I would heartily recommend Sorensen's book to any Christian. I think it would be a great book for a Sunday School class to go through or a small group or a family. It has study questions at the end of each chapter which would be good for small group discussion. This really is the kind of book Fundamentalists need big time.

(To save space, this is the condensed version of my review. My full review is available at www.rootsrain.com/?p=23 )