Without An Edge

I wish that church evangelizers would have a attitude more like lacrosse players.  What?  Well, lacrosse players never assume that you once played lacrosse and quit on it.  They don't spend time trying to convince you to come back, that your reasons for leaving were silly, and that you will never be happy unless you return to lacrosse playing.  No, they assume that you know nothing about lacrosse, have never been exposed to it or given it any thought.  So they simply tell you how and why they enjoy the game, and then if you still seem interested, they might explain it to you and then invite you to give it a try.  Optional.  Their lives will go on without you playing lacrosse.  The evangelizer on the other hand, assumes that if you have no church connection or practice, that you are a drop-out, a "leaver" or one who has rejected the church.  So the evangelizer speaks with a certain edge to get you to come back.  "You will be miserable, unfulfilled, damned, without our religion,"  in so many words, and often very many words.  The reality is that more and more young people are like the lacrosse situation.  They have had no exposure to religion of any kind.  They have thought about religion the same way newspaper sports pages think about lacrosse: hardly at all.  They never left or rejected any church or god.  I try to think about talking religion the same way a lacrosse player talks to someone about lacrosse: assume they are unfamiliar, and give them the option and space to be uninterested.