Alex Cunningham’s recent motorcycle accident changed his life – now he sees every day as a mission to share the Good News of the Gospel. But his long-time girlfriend, Annie Russo, just doesn’t understand. And if that isn’t enough, every time Alex opens his mouth to say something about God at work, everything backfires: his co-manager Drew rarely even looks at him now.
But help comes in the form of Sara Lock, an ex-missionary widow with wisdom to spare. Together, Alex, Annie, and Sara discover how to see peoples’ unspoken emotional barriers to faith in God. Along the way, Alex and Annie explore how to engage those barriers in natural and nonjudgmental ways as they begin to talk about their Christian faith with their friends. But one of them has more success than the other, and the stress on their relationship might just be too much.
Through the book, Sara walks with Alex and Annie through 11 important principles of evangelism with post-modern people. Alex and Annie will test and experience these principles in their own lives, with differing results and responses.
The 11 principles are
1. God's heart for the lost
2. An all-consuming calling to love God and others
3. Hostility as an initial barrier to faith
4. Being in the world but not of the world
5. Postmodernism and the contextualization of the Gospel
6. Identifying spiritual, rational, and emotional barriers to faith
7. How the story and stories of God can respond to and challenge peoples' emotional barriers to faith
8. The Gospel Story, one step at a time
9. Inviting nonbelievers to do the works of God as an opportunity for spiritual discussions
10. Christian community and loving unconditionally for the long haul
11. Mapping a life journey - special events create times of special spiritual sensitivity
A new blend of fiction and evangelism training, author Anna Rapa uses narrative storytelling to communicate key truths about evangelism in today’s postmodern world. Dive in to the story of Alex and Annie, and let this story show you how to reach people in today’s culture with God’s transforming story of rescue.
Alex - his life changed forever when he survived a terrible motorcycle accident
Annie - she wonders why Alex cares so much about spiritual things and is frustrated that the way he talks about God is all judgment and wrath
Sara - a wise and soft spoken woman who sees more than what you tell her
Patti - a painfully quiet neighbor of Annie's
Josie - an angry teenager and Pattie's daughter
Oliver - a competitive but social co-worker of Annie's
Drew - a very ill and deeply hurting co-worker of Alex's
Omar - a semi-religious international student from Qatar and co-worker of Alex's
Dr. Laura Parody (p 103)
Jesus Loves You (clip referenced on p 105)