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ADDITIONAL RESOURCE 1
ART OF CONNECTING - CASE STUDIES
Pushy Peter
Peter heads up the CU at school. He even asks to do assemblies and writes dramas about sin and damnation for the CU to perform in front of the wholeC school. He uses every conversation to talk about God. He is very keen that his friends know the four spiritual laws, and regularly invites them to the evangelistic activities at his church. Lately people have begun to avoid him and he doesn't know why. Peter is looking for a new technique to try out on his friends.
Judgmental Jimmy
Jimmy sees all non-Christians as foolish, misled and sinful. He has little time for their interests, their bands, their activities and their social events. At school he has a few non-Christian friends, but he keeps from getting too close to them, for fear of being led astray. He prefers his local church youth group; they have their own music, clubs and social events. Even there, after one of his Christian friends tried smoking, Jimmy refused to speak to him again. His school-mates quite like him; they don't understand why he does not spend more time with them.
Keen Kerry
Kerry is the delight of the youth group; she always prays aloud, leads worship and is thinking about becoming a missionary in Africa when she's old enough. At school she is popular and doing really well. Her school friends know a little bit about her faith, and some of them have even been with her to church. After every attempt to bring God and her faith into conversation, Kerry worries about what she should have said, and how she could have explained it better. She knows that if she were better at evangelism her friends would have become Christians by now.
Cool Cathy
Cathy struggles with her faith; as she gets older she feels she has more questions than answers. She chats about this with her friends both at church and school. Her school friends see her as a close ally. At church people think she is a bit odd, because she always asks controversial questions. Cathy has been having discussions about God with her school friends for ages now, and is taking them along to the town church youth event next week.
Double-sided Dennis
Dennis goes to a great church; he is involved in the band and has lots of friends. Sometimes he even helps the younger kids in Sunday School; his mum is really proud of him. At college he goes quiet whenever people talk about God. His face heats up and he
stumbles for words because he doesn't know how to explain his faith to non-Christians. Dennis finds it easier to keep his mouth shut, and go with the flow. He feels really bad about this; it makes him feel like a complete fraud when he's at church.