The concept is simple: meet people, make friends, and use your life experiences to witness.
The concept is simple: meet people, make friends, and use your life experiences to witness. LIFEdevelopment is not an evangelistic campaign or a program. It’s about a lifestyle that lasts a lifetime.
Miroslav Pujic, director of communication and public affairs and religious liberty for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European region, says in a world of post-modernists, people are open to try new things. But, for post-modernists, they must first be able to trust. This is where LIFEdevelopment comes in.
“You have to be there where people are—meet them, talk to them, share your personal story, your beliefs, your values with others and then get people excited about that,” Pujic says. “When Jesus was here doing His mission as we are doing, He mingled with people. In other words, he went to places where people were, not inviting them to come to a common place, but going to a community place where people are.”
He explains that the LIFEdevelopment vision is based on three biblical concepts or biblical principles: friendship, or “getting connected;” process-“evangelism is a journey [that] takes time. Don’t worry about ‘when,’” Pujic says; and providing hope, which is “based in the story of you. LIFEstory, where personal stories merge with the story of God.”
“We have been used to seeing evangelism as public evangelism where an expert evangelist comes with a large audience,” says Bertil Wiklander, president of the church in the Trans-European region. “And that’s fine—we do that too. But I think evangelism is also when you share your life with people. Your interest, your values. That’s why we call this ‘LIFEdevelopment.’”
The language needs to be relational, rather than propositional, Pujic explains. “If I would approach them saying, ‘Jesus is the answer,’ they would say, ‘Maybe yes for you but not for me.’ These secular, skeptical minds with no experience with God, no information, no understanding, they wouldn’t understand my language. So that’s the reason there’s resistance.
“The problem that we face as an established church is that we are approaching them with an intellectual propositional structure, which is dealing with intellectual faith rather than relationships, which is much deeper.”
Cecil Perry, president of the church in Britain, says LIFEdevelopment is aimed at those difficult to reach with the gospel. “Religion and theology are not the ‘in’ thing for them ... they are concerned about belonging before believing.”
Pujic points to the example of Jesus. He says Jesus was not judgmental—He was very sympathetic to people and the struggles they went through, but He was clear on what was good and what was bad. “He would say, ‘This is not good but I understand you. I would like to advise you and help you and be with you in your journey.’”
“I think that we are looking at a new way of defining evangelism and including everyone in the church—young people, old people, doesn’t matter,” Wiklander adds. “But sharing our life in Christ with others in a friendly situation—talking, doing things together, getting acquainted—that gives a very nice platform for doing evangelism, sharing your faith.”
LIFEdevelopment is gift-based, Pujic says. “You do it in your way, your time, and your speed.” There are three models to implement LIFEdevelopment. One is a LIFEdevelopment small group: It can just be about inviting a new friend to your home, Pujic explains. “Then at one point I’m going to introduce some material that LIFEdevelopment is supplying—magazines, video tapes, printed materials to help people understand some life issues. It’s a matter of approaching them in the right way.
Then there are LIFEdevelopment centers, which hosts larger groups and the leader of that center prepares a program. “It’s not very formal,” Pujic says.
The third LIFEdevelopment method is in cyberspace with a forum. “We invite people to come to the chat room and talk about certain topics,” Pujic says. “We have segments where we provide support, where we call ‘lifelines,’ where we provide life stories, responding to questions and so forth.”
Pujic is currently creating the next stage of the LIFEdevelopment venture, which will take it into the realm of media, including satellite television. Churches are encouraged to study and distribute materials that bring this new venture to the forefront of mission in the local community. They do this in response to the theme best expressed in “The Missionary, 3rd Millennium A.D.,” a LIFEdevelopment resource manual: It is crucial that Seventh-day Adventists shift from caretakers of the status quo to missionaries in the “foreign land” right in our local community.
The life development Web site is www.lifedevelopment.info.
