Brainstorm: questions and quotes to engage passers-by

July 5, 2011 in Outreach

Nearly two years ago now, we started displaying a series of apologetics posters in the noticeboard outside the church. A lot of people stop and read these posters – clearly this is an opportunity for engagement with the local community.

A1_questions_2

You can read more about these posters here.

These posters haven’t been updated in the last couple of years, and we’ve just rotated through them each week. It’s time to create some new posters to connect with passers-by, encourage them to think, challenge assertions, and welcome them to church.

I want these posters to speak to the issues and concerns and mis-understandings that people might have. I want some of them at least, to speak to people who have no knowledge at all of Christianity or church.

I’ve been brainstorming topics for future posters. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

  1. Do I have to be a Christian to come to church?
  2. I’d like to check out Christianity. Can I come and watch?
  3. What’s the deal with singing?!
  4. Who was Jesus?
  5. What happens in a church service?
  6. Why should I bother with Christianity?
  7. Is church free (do I have to pay to come)?
  8. What is a Christian?
  9. I’ve got some tricky questions. Can I come and ask them?
  10. Isn’t Christianity just a crutch for weak people?
  11. Isn’t Christianity just an insurance policy for when you die?
  12. I’ve done things God wouldn’t be happy with. Am I welcome at church?
  13. Jesus interests me. Christians annoy me. Why is that?
  14. I’m really hurting right now. What have you got to offer me?
  15. I’m new to this neighbourhood. What have you got to offer me?

What other topics do you think would be good to address?

I’m also considering including some quotes.

Here’s an example:

“Some writers may toy with the fancy of a ‘Christ-myth,’ but they do not do so on the ground of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.”

Here’s another example:

“Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever.”

And another example:

“If we don’t know that there is such a person as God, we don’t know the first thing (the most important thing) about ourselves, each other and our world. This is because… the most important truths about us and them, is that we have been created by the Lord, and utterly depend upon him for our continued existence.”

Can you think of other quotes that might work well in this context?

  • http://www.communicatejesus.com Steven Kryger

    Here’s a couple more to add to the list:

    - I believe in a higher power, isn’t that enough?
    - I hate organised religion. Can’t I have faith without the church?

  • Andrew Vella

    I’m not sure if these are exactly what you want, but I’ve been tweeting these, as I am reading some of G.K Chesterton (check out his chapter “paradoxes of Christianity” in Orthodoxy).

    If an organisation is deemed to be anti-woman then you would think that the majority who choose to attend would be males

    Why is religion mocked for having weak people in it who have no backbone and then again because it is the cause of all wars?

    How can religion be considered both a waking nightmare and a fool’s paradise?

    If the world is beautiful/good enough without a Creator then why is religion deemed a crutch for people to deal with it?

    Do we trust the ethics of Aristotle and not of Abbott? Has ethics changed in two hundred years, but not in two thousand?

    And maybe one on the big bang: If a very loud bang happened outside my house my first thought would be that something had cause it….

  • Simon

    I like your questions Steve…I hope you post your answers some time as well.

  • http://www.communicatejesus.com Steven Kryger

    Here’s an example I’m working on for cotent for a poster (still in draft format) for the noticeboard outside the church. 

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial}
    p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px}

    Fly under the radar

    We love visitors, and we don’t want visitors to our church to feel uncomfortable. As a visitor, you won’t be singled out, asked to stand up, or asked to do anything you don’t want to do. You can feel free to walk at the last minute, take a seat and listen in. You can leave whenever you like. We want you to remain as anonymous as you want to be, but we encourage you to introduce yourself to us – we’d love to meet you. 

  • http://www.communicatejesus.com Steven Kryger

    Here’s an example I’m working on for cotent for a poster (still in draft format) for the noticeboard outside the church. 

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial}
    p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px}

    Fly under the radar

    We love visitors, and we don’t want visitors to our church to feel uncomfortable. As a visitor, you won’t be singled out, asked to stand up, or asked to do anything you don’t want to do. You can feel free to walk at the last minute, take a seat and listen in. You can leave whenever you like. We want you to remain as anonymous as you want to be, but we encourage you to introduce yourself to us – we’d love to meet you.