Evangelism Doesn't Work Anymore
About a year ago I was asked to do a seminar for students dealing with evangelism. The tile of the seminar was "How to Share Jesus Without Freaking Out!" There has been a natural and understandable desire to make sharing the gospel easy; unfortunately it is the desire to make it easy that has lead to a lack of proclamation of the gospel by "Christians."
This may sound weird and unnatural, but so often when we try to make things easy and safe we simply make it so those things don't happen. Bike helmets for example. If we tell our kids they need to wear body armor in order to ride their bikes one block down the road to hang out with their friend we are telling them, in effect, they are going to crash or get hurt. Sure, they might, but they probably won't. Don't get me wrong I am all for safety but not at the expense of living in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7; 1 John 4:18; Heb. 13:5-6).
The truth is, no matter how hard we try to make evangelism easy, it isn't. It does get easier after a while, but you might just have to freak out a little bit. The gospel message is offensive to those who are not open to it or don't understand it fully. That is just the way it is. You might offend someone but so what. Get a backbone and go for it. Borrow a friend's backbone (I am sure Jesus will let you use his John 15:20) if you have to!
When I lived in Colorado I was pulled over for speeding (More than once. Actually one more ticket and I would have lost my license.). I decided to share the gospel with the police officer. I decided to use a diagnostic question that would help me determine the spiritual condition of the police officer. As he was examining my license I said, "Officer, if you were to die tonight do you know for sure that you would go to heaven?"(surely this question would be relevant for someone who was sworn to protect and serve. The guy had to cary a gun for his job. Of course that was something I failed to consider) Of course the answer to this question would help me know how to move forward in my effort to evangelize one of Colorado's finest. To my amazement this brought about a somewhat unexpected reaction by the officer. Let's just say I quickly realized that he might be interested in the location of my hands so I quickly positioned them at ten and two on the steering wheel so there would be no confusion as to my intent.
Perhaps I didn't make all the right decisions in regards to this particular evangelistic encounter. It may not have been effective because I was young and stupid, but I over came any fear I had because I understood the importance of evangelism. In all my evangelistic conversations I have become a little smoother in my approach and hopefully a little more effective, but the point is I have the conversation. Are you willing to have the conversation? That is the question. Jesus was persecuted for what he said, are you willing to be persecuted as well?
Evangelism doesn't work because we don't do it. Maybe there are times it doesn't work because we are arrogant jerks, but even then we can at least say we are trying. What's your excuse?
(This blog entry was motivated and inspired by an article written by Greg Stier. You can click the title of this blog to read Greg's article.)
posted by John Byrne @ 11:20 AM
4 Comments
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4 Comments:
I agree with you regarding that our goal shouldn’t be to make evangelism easier. I would simply bring this train of thought. I remember when I first met my wife and I started to tell my friends about her. I talked about how she was beautiful, funny, and nice to be around. I also told people how she made me feel and why I like being around her. I didn’t then follow that up by asking my friends if they would be willing to be friends with my wife (not that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with doing that) but that wasn’t my goal. My goal wasn’t to get all my friends and family to like my future wife, my goal was for my friends and family to understand who my future wife is and how she impacted me.
I think we need to take the pressure off of ourselves when we talk about Jesus. Just tell people about him. Talk about how amazing he is to be around him. Talk about how his relationship has impacted your life and what your life now means after meeting him. (After all he is a real person, along with being God) If people want more they will ask. If the Holy Spirit is working God will take them and you to the next level of the conversation and then tell them how they can have a true relationship with your friend and savior Jesus Christ. So, I say relax and just talk about the person of Jesus.
I don't think I disagree with the sentiment of what you are saying. Actually I very much agree. When I think about what Christ has done for me I can't help but want to talk about him. The thing I want to talk about most is the gospel because it is the greatest expression of our relationship. Unfortunately it is that very topic that many Christians are scared of talking about.
PJ,
Since you posted on my blog, I thought I should post on yours, but hey, you are having a conversation on one of the very things I am talking with one of my bud's about . . . are our traditional methods of evangelism less effective than they were in the past? Of course talking to a cop about where he will spend eternity when he has you pulled over, may not be a good strategy in any event. From your pics I assume you are in your twenties, maybe at the oldest, early thirties. I have two questions for you from an old guy. . . 1. Have you been able to keep your driving privileges? (goes to a personal situation I am having with my 20 something son) 2. Do you think that there are times and places where the fields are less white and ready to harvest than at other times and places? My sense is that in the providence of God we are in a season where people's hearts are harder and ears are less likely to hear than when I first started in the ministry 20 years ago.
My 20's sounds good, let's go with that. I guess I would ask what you mean by traditional methods? If you mean EE or symilar methods, I would say you may want to change your strategy and methods a little.
I have found the gospel story itself to be very powerful. In some ways I guess you might say I am somewhat of a throwback. My wife led someone we have been praying for, for 9 months to Christ the other night. She simply told her the story using some material Alliance Youth has put out in their Connexion material (good stuff).
The problem isn't the story itself, many people (at least many of the Lutherans and Catholics) don't understand the story itself. When we explain the story the light goes on.
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