Pastor Rick Warren kicked off the 2011 Radicalis Conference by asking church leaders, pastors, and pastors’ wives to start representing Jesus better by saying “yes” to God in every aspect of their lives first, before asking others to do the same.
There are two reasons that nonbelievers don’t know Jesus Christ. One is, they’ve never met a Christian. The other is, they have,” said Warren to a crowd of more than 2,000 people at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Ca..
“What we’re going to be doing this week is … [looking] at different areas in your life where you need to say ‘yes’ to God and where your church needs to say ‘yes’ to God in a radical way,” Warren emphasized.
But in order for believers to be able to say “yes,” they first need to experience God’s radical love; they need to know that they are his beloved.
To elaborate on this idea, Kay Warren, the wife of Rick Warren, was invited to speak about the lavish love of God and how it moves individuals into radical action.
“I don’t know about you, but I rarely do anything out of fear, guilt, duty or obligation,” she stated. “I may do it, but I don’t like it.”
Kay explained how unbelievers sense fear, guilt, and a sense of duty from those who try to evangelize them, immediately feeling the need to say “no” to them because they do not want to adopt that type of religion.
Realizing this weakness, Kay began asking herself a question.
“What would it look like if we approached the life changing task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace not out of fear or duty or obligation, but out of that profound moment in which we experience for ourselves the extravagant love of God?”
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article courtesy StreamingFaith.com
