Conversational Evangelism

What is conversational evangelism? I asked myself this as I eyeballed the 2 hour block on our schedules marked "Conversational Evangelism Practicum". That Monday morning, I got a sneek peek into our afternoon as York Moore, Intervarsity's director of regional evangelism talked to us about sharing the gospel. Basically, conversational evangelism is the post-modern version of the dreaded 'contact evangelism'. Unlike in contact evangelism where the focus is on your ability to clearly communicate the message to as many people as possible - conversational evangelism focuses on the fact that God is already at work in non-believers around the world and it is our privilidge to go and participate in the harvest. It's "like a treasure hunt" as you talk to people and discover where God is already at work in their lives and help them to see that they are on a spiritual journey. Staff paired up and went out seeking conversations with people around the downtown area and in those 2 hours we saw 4 people come to know Christ (and yes, they were directed to Churches in the area who can continue to disciple and welcome them into the kingdom) as well as nearly 100 presentations of the complete gospel. Please pray for me as next year I hope to include conversational evangelism as one part of stretching the worship team at st. louis university towards a more wholistic view of what worship is.