help - what is now meant by 'winsomely'?

[agricola]

Recently, I've dipped into a few nonfiction books, and two of them were covering recent events within the evangelical world -
Russell Moore's rather preacherly but fine book Losing Our Religion

h**ps://www.amazon.com/Losing-Our-Religion-Evangelical-America-ebook/dp/B0BPWRF4C5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=INLTROXBQVUU&keywords=russell+moore+losing+our+religion&qid=1706391528&s=digital-text&sprefix=Russell+Moore%2Cdigital-text%2C105&sr=1-1

Davis and Graham the Great DeChurching

h**ps://www.amazon.com/Great-Dechurching-Leaving-Going-Bring-ebook/dp/B0BN19KT5M/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_reads_ptjfy_d_sccl_1_7/143-9006318-8415639?pd_rd_w=i4tUX&content-id=amzn1.sym.df6d11cf-3f1c-4bcb-a370-257cd0afa689&pf_rd_p=df6d11cf-3f1c-4bcb-a370-257cd0afa689&pf_rd_r=KYSNB4V2GB94K655C0NR&pd_rd_wg=otkDw&pd_rd_r=04ed3605-4fbb-48d8-8c87-ec346d8d66e0&pd_rd_i=B0BN19KT5M&psc=1

Alberta's reporter style coverage of the evangelical movement overall (Russell Moore makes an appearance): The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY ME)

h**ps://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Power-Glory-Evangelicals-Extremism-ebook/dp/B0BTYWH2YP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=M9SIHKJA7US7&keywords=tim+alberta+the+kingdom+the+power+and+the+glory&qid=1706391590&s=digital-text&sprefix=Tim+Alberta%2Cdigital-text%2C98&sr=1-1

And ALL THREE OF THESE are speaking of 'winsome' and 'winsomely' as some kind of positive Christian feature or quality -

AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS.

I mean, I know 'winsome'. It's what the Victorian Age thought small children and women should be like - sort of sweetly innocent and ignorant and saintly - with dimples and curls and lots of lace.

But as a quality for an evangelical person? What? What did I miss? Is this just a Southern Baptist thing and I can be forgiven for not knowing? Or is it some new terminology I should know to avoid being recognized as a Stranger withing the Gates?

What?

[Ivy]

Google is your friend...haven't you looked it up?

[zeek]

Mirriam-Webster defines winsome as
1
: generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence.
a winsome smile

I must aver that modern, American Christianity is devoid of anything similar to these qualities. Modern American "Christians" are a mean spirited, ruthless lot and have long since dropped all pretense of innocence. It has become genuinely ugly and unappealing. Any who are still involved in it and believe otherwise are delusional and out of touch with reality.

[teresa]

I just googled it. Apparently it is/was a strategy to convert non-Christians, although this is changing in some groups as they feel under attack. In my limited experience the traditional CoC did not try to be winsome -- more in your face.

From what I heard, the Boston movement COC did use this approach -- "love-bombing" -- until they got you converted.

[agricola]

Google is your friend...haven't you looked it up?

Yes, but all I got was the textbook definition, which is what I already knew. THESE books are using this word OFTEN as some kind of positive Christian descriptor - and I don't remember a specifically 'Christian' use of it -

For example, Mormons use 'sweet'. It has the normal definition of 'sweet, nice' BUT they use it in a specific LDS RELIGIOUS way, aimed at keeping women quiet and subordinate ' stay sweet'!

It seemed to me that Moore and Alberta were using 'winsome' that way - as some kind of SPECIFIC religious descriptor. Not a difference in dictionary meaning, perhaps, but certainly a different connotation which was definitely religious.

[agricola]

I just googled it. Apparently it is/was a strategy to convert non-Christians, although this is changing in some groups as they feel under attack. In my limited experience the traditional CoC did not try to be winsome -- more in your face.

From what I heard, the Boston movement COC did use this approach -- "love-bombing" -- until they got you converted.

Thank you, teresa. That would fit the contexts - not specifically about 'witnessing' but some kind of context for proper behavior to the world at large -
by the way, I could recommend all three of these. The Dechurching one is full of charts and data - it is aimed at 'how to witness to the dechurched', but was quite interesting nevertheless. Like, the flipover from 'majority of Christians attend church' to 'majority don't' was 2020. Another interesting factoid - the usual Christian notion of people who stop attending church is 'lured away by the world' or 'itching ears' or attributing their leaving to 'bad experiences', but that didn't hold up very well - a WHOLE lot of the 'haven't gone in over a year' people were actually MORE 'religious' on some other measures, than the ones still in the pews!

Of course, I didn't fit ANY of the categories, quite, but that's not their fault!