Fishing with finesse

Recently, I saw a local "Christian" picketer carry a sign with these words: "Life without Jesus is Hell." Now, this statement does have a degree of truth, but what message does this really send to the unbeliever? Is it possible for Christians to share about the exclusivity of Christ and the offense of the cross without preaching "hellfire and damnation" and provoking our neighbors to wrath?

The Sola Panel is doing an interesting series right now on the challenges of personal evangelism. Here's an excerpt which captures the dilemma Christians face:

We want to tell people of the gracious loving Father who has given up his Son to make them his children, but evangelists are perceived as narrow-minded, bigoted, moralistic ratbags who infringe upon other’s civil rights.

Later, they observe,

Fishing requires a certain subtlety and finesse. We could blast the river with a few kilos of nitro, but that’s not exactly fishing.

Read the whole thing here.