Golfing With Jesus

I’m taking a college class on the postmodern mindset at my local Christian University through the Christmas holiday.  One of the topics we discussed last night was the method of sharing the gospel with people we come into contact with, specifically postmodern thinkers.  I could write an entire series of articles on this topic but that’s not my purpose today.  One of the ideas I brought up was a thought first shared by church planter Steve Sjogren in the book “Irresistible Evangelism”.  It’s called “Golfing for Jesus” and it looks something like this:

The thought process here is fairly straightforward.  We start at the tee box where our friends are and of course, head to the hole where we want them to be.  Different styles and methods of evangelism are used depending on what point you’re at in the process.  I brought this up because one man questioned the legitimacy of the time honored “Romans Road” style of evangelism which some might say is more confrontational than relational.

I differed on this point since I still feel the method has merit just as much as I do servant evangelism. (For the uninitiated, servant evangelism is simply doing acts of kindness for free to show people God’s love.  Washing a car, raking leaves, handing out bottled water, and (in cold weather) hot coffee are all valid means of reaching out to someone with God’s love).  I don’t believe we need to get away from various ways of sharing the gospel.  The “golfing” model believes this to and allows you to learn these valuable tools and keep them in your “golf bag” for when they are needed.  You wouldn’t use a driver to putt with so why try it when someone’s life is at stake?  Different methods are outlined on the card as “active *******” with each one being something a little different.  These are outlined in the book, which you should get and read.

Has anyone else read this book and tried its methods?  Anyone willing to share?  This isn’t really a book review as such (although I’m filing it as such), but more of an “active sharing” time for all of us.  Let me know your thoughts.