Quote:
Originally Posted by countmeworthy
I've never liked or used the word 'contact' when referring to someone I shared the gospel with.
I'm not a sales person but I know the the word 'contact' is often used to refer to someone who is a potential client in SALES. The LC used that word 'contact' to refer to people who they thought were good enough to bring into the LR. They wanted to 'capture' people for the 'church'. The church seems to be more important to Christ. (not only in the LC but through out the Christian institution. Everyone wants to build 'mega churches'.)
That's why I don't like using the word- contact-. I always refer to the person I shared the gospel with as "someone". "I talked to -someone- today about the Lord." "I met a person who was very hungry for the Truth and I got to share with him/her how Jesus IS the Way, the TRUTH and the Life."
I also don't like inviting people to go to 'church'. If I'm having or going to a fellowship / prayer meeting/gathering, I may invite the person I met to attend the gathering.
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I agree with all of this. I don't think I ever invited someone to a church meeting while in the FTTT. We had a bible study on campus and we invited people to that, and once it got started it was by word of mouth. This was a Bible study I started and was composed exclusively of people I and my team had preached the gospel to. It was not a LRC meeting. I coordinated with a sister, she would show up at the end of the Bible study and those who were hanging around and wanted more fellowship she would take to a home meeting, I had to go to work. From that home meeting some would then go to the meetings.
But at night I would sleep in a room with about 12 foreigners who were all involved in the gospel work during the day. If someone talked about "a gospel contact" I understood that they were referring to someone that I had never met, and someone that they had preached the gospel to and was interested in fellowship. That conveyed more information than saying "a student at school" or something else. Saying the persons name would just be confusing because I would assume I should know the person by name.
So if your gospel involves people at work, perhaps people you have already fellowshipped about and prayed corporately about, then sure, the term "gospel contact" is a turn off. But if your labor involves about 10 new gospel contacts a day, it is a useful term.