The Compassionate Boldness Conference was this weekend. What is the Compassionate Boldness Conference you may be asking yourself ( or maybe not, but I will tell you anyways). The Compassionate Boldness Conference was a conference whose goal was to show how someone could share the gospel to their Mormon friends with compassionate boldness, hence the name. "With compassion" means sharing from the heart. If we are not sharing Christ because we love someone then we are motivated by the wrong reasons. This is especially hard when sharing your faith with a LDS person. If you are not careful it can very easily turn into an intellectual exercise. But, compassion was only one part of what this conference was about. Boldness is another key part. This boldness should stem fourth from your compassion. This is very applicable to sharing your faith with anyone.
It seems in toady's world, sharing your faith or conflict at all is viewed as insensitive and insulting. During the conference this view of just focusing on things you agree on was compared with a friendship. If you tell someone that they can only talk about things that you agree with and that won't offend you, you will have a very very shallow relationship. But, if someone was really your friend and you cared about them then you would be able to talk about anything with them. In other words to apply this concept we need to view the big picture. If I were lost, and you had something that could save me, why would it matter if I might be offended if you told me about it. I am not saying we should just tell people whatever we feel like, what I am saying is that it is very important that we talk to people. Again both compassion and boldness are needed. With out boldness we will never open our mouths, and with out compassion we will most likely open our mouths too much. Our goal is to be able to approach and challenge people on their beliefs and still be able to shake hands and even be friends after the conversation.
The concept of compassion is illustrated by Paul who reveals his heart about his people, who are the Jews, in Romans 9 and 10, for example Romans 10:1-3. Unfortunately this verse is very accurate in describing the Mormon beliefs, which is ultimately based on works. They have a zeal for God, but have been lied to.
All in all this conference was very successful. It has been a long time coming. There seems to be a split in opinions on how to witness to Mormon and even if we should witness, I believe this conference will bring more unity to the Christian church in Utah.
Thanks
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