I was telling this to a friend of mine at a birthday party this afternoon and he reminded me of a wedding of a mutual friend he attended a few years ago where he experienced the same kind of thing. How did he react? He wanted to punch the minister in the nose. And, trust me, this is a man who has never punched anybody.
I suspect that, in the ministers' mind, since these are folks at an event which isn't strictly "church" and they've come to either mourn or celebrate or both, but not especially to get saved, that it's perfectly alright to ambush them. But that's not what we signed up for.
I can't imagine Jesus doing this. The Jesus I know loves and celebrates at weddings. In fact, when he was on this earth he made quite a stir at a wedding by turning the water into wine.
Likewise, he loves and comforts us at funerals. When he went to see his friend, Lazarus, who had died a few days before , Jesus cried. He didn't use these opportunities to tell folks to shape up or go to hell.
Christianity is defined by relationship. One of my favorite definitions of evangelism is....to love somebody enough to earn the right to talk with them about faith.
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