Taking opportunities to start a conversation
Taking opportunities to start a conversation
26 May 2017
Captain Darren Kingston (pictured right) says we need to be open to having faith conversations in any situation.
The latest McCrindle research on Australian attitudes towards religion and spirituality shows that while more and more Australians are identifying as having no religion, more than 50 per cent are comfortable speaking about faith with friends, family and colleagues. So how do we have those conversations?
Captain Darren Kingston thinks he may have the answer.
Recently, Captain Kingston, who is a team leader of Sydney Inner West Hub, took his son to a medical centre to check if he had whooping cough. “I saw a guy limping out of the surgery,” he later posted on Facebook, “so I prayed for him, and God healed his leg, God also healed a neck, and a back.”
Encounters like this aren’t uncommon to Captain Kingston, who takes every opportunity to speak with people and be led by the Spirit as to where those conversations will lead. He says the latest McCrindle research showing that more than half of Australians talk about spirituality or religion at least occasionally mirrors his experiences.
“People are willing to talk about Jesus and spirituality. Not always about church, but about spirituality; they’re happy to talk about what they believe,” he says.
Just last week he was out Red Shield Appeal collecting and had the opportunity to talk with a woman. “I was collecting and the woman said, ‘Actually, I don’t even have enough money to buy myself a coffee today,’ and so I thought, ‘This is an opportunity.’ I went and bought her a coffee and brought it back and she was really open, saying ‘Thanks very much, people don’t do that for me, why are you doing things like that?’ And it was an opportunity to say what we believe and why we believe what we believe, and why we do what we do.
“It’s just taking the opportunities as they come,” he says. “Not to try to force anything, not ... having these prescriptive scripts about, ‘this is what it means to become a Christian’, but actually talking to people about themselves and finding out about what their beliefs are and engaging on that level. Asking the question, ‘Have they ever considered Jesus or God in their life?’”
The latest McCrindle research shows many Australians are open to talking about faith.
And despite Australians telling McCrindle researchers loud and clear that they don’t think shopping centres are appropriate places to speak about religion or spirituality, Darren’s experience has been the opposite.
“We’ve been collecting in the shopping centre in Leichhardt [Sydney Inner-West] for a number of years and when I go in there now to speak to people I feel like that spiritual ground has been broken over years of actually being at that centre, you know? So it’s actually breaking down barriers where we can actually go in and do ministry.”
Aussies may not like a stranger trying to evangelise them at shopping centres, but it appears they’re happy to see a familiar face and stop and have a chat if they feel inclined. Darren’s experience resonates with the research which found that friends and networks is one of the greatest influences on people’s opinions about Christians and Christianity.
So, if it’s all about relationship, should we be trying to have conversations about faith in places like shopping-centre collection points, or pubs, or while Red Shield Appeal doorknocking? Darren believes the answer is a resounding, “yes”, as long as we’re led by the Spirit.
“Certainly people are open to talking about Christian things, especially in the pubs and stuff like that,” he says. “So take the opportunities that are there. Don’t rush too much into this. God will provide what we need, but take the opportunities that come our way to be Jesus in situations this Red Shield Appeal weekend.”
Oh, and by the way, Darren’s son didn’t have whooping cough after all – praise God!
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