[citicroego]

but to ask my self is my Religion (who holds the Truth) doing everything possible to convert as many people as possible? This is an attitude that I have seen among many Orthodox, and yet I have to ask myself is this really within the Patristic mind of what the job of the Church is? I simply do not see this attitude in Scripture of the Church Fathers - it is purely a modern misreading. St Paul talks about being the aroma of Christ to those who are coming alive, and the aroma of death to those who are perishing. It seems to me that if we read the NT carefully and look at the history of the Church and also at the Patristic understanding of salvation and the Church's role in salvation it is not our job to 'convert' people, but rather to struggle toward Christ-likeness so that we too can be the aroma of Christ to those around us.

Zeal is good, but zeal without knowlege is not. It is one thing to answers people's questions and be willing to be a support and a resource to those who are drawn to Christ and His Church. It is another thing entirely to push people toward something that WE think is good for them. The latter, even undertaken with the seeming best of intentions ends up being dehumanizing. It is us trying to push our will and our ideas of what is right and good on others. This is why Orthodoxy stresses that our ascetical struggle to purify ourselves from sin, receive the Holy Spirit and become like Christ is our first priority.