Evangelism

Why Christians do it, and what we can all learn from it.

Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash

Evangelism:

The spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.

• zealous advocacy of a cause.

  "I arrived in a state of high evangelism."

You have probably tried to evangelize to someone or have been evangelized to.

In the Christian faith of which I am a part and have been my whole life, individuals are often pressured into sharing their faith. There is a common analogy used that describes the world as living in darkness, and we are holding flashlights to guide others, but because of our fear of man and timidity, we hide our light. How much suffering could be avoided or souls saved from hell if we just showed our light?

If you have ever been on the receiving end of an incredibly awkward conversation with a Christian, just know that it is coming from a place of love; they are genuinely trying to help you in the best possible way that they know of by sharing the thing that has changed they’re life.

Yes, I believe evangelizing is part of being a Christian, yet I think we often miss something. Something that I am not proud of is that, as Christians, we actually have a “number of conversations” or “believers” on spreadsheets. This is often used by non-profits to give to financial supporters to indicate the success of their mission or organization.

So why do we do that? What are most Christians missing, and what should be done differently?

Primarily, we discuss the number of new believers because most Christians are hardcore conservatives and want data points to evaluate, justify, and determine an organization, church, or camp’s success.

What is the thing we get wrong? I believe it’s this. Agenda. Picture this: you are part of a Bible study or small group, The group feels convicted from a passage they read and decides to create an actionable plan, They say that by the time we meet next week or next month, let’s agree to have discussed our faith with X number of strangers, coworkers, etc. I even heard this myself again this week.

It's well-intentioned but often has little impact. The main issue I find with this is that you are approaching someone you would never have initially approached for the primary reason of discussing God with them. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and is easily justified because ”if I don't, this person might go to hell.” Rarely does the thought, “I wonder what their story is?” ever enter the conversation.

The goal of the agenda is to tell someone about Christ, not make someone’s day, make them smile, learn their name, make a connection, etc.

“But if I don’t tell them about Christ, they could die and go to hell.”

Let’s face it, whether or not someone goes to heaven or hell is not up to us; it never has been and never will be. We are meant to be God’s hands and feet. God is in the business of loving and caring for others. That should be our focus too.

A prime example of this is my old youth pastor. He, some other young men, and I were at a restaurant when the waiter came by to take our order. Our pastor, out of nowhere, simply said, “We were just about to pray for our food. Is there anything in your life that we could pray about for you?” No agenda, no gospel, just a loving guy asking someone about someone’s life. She was taken aback and mentioned that there were, in fact, multiple things that were making her life quite difficult. Our pastor listened to her and prayed for her. She was grateful to talk about it, and that he asked. And we went on with our day.

If you are approaching someone and thinking, How can I fit Christ into this conversation? you’re doing it wrong; instead, you should be asking, How can I be Christ to this person?

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

Non-believers are not just numbers on a spreadsheet to be turned into new believers; they are people who have the right to believe whatever they want, and if you really want to convert someone, the best strategy to me is to be the nicest, strongest, healthiest, most humble and most sane person they know. Let who you are and your actions evangelize for you.

But that’s a lot of work, which means instead of telling others what they could do to improve their lives, I should work on myself. Yep.

Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

So remember, it's not about your agenda, your whole group, or whether or not they go to heaven or hell; that’s simply not our call. Just try to be of service and offer value to those around you. God Speed.

Read more here.