Evangelism is a word that many people run from. It is what we do as Christians, we evangelize the lost. We share what God has done in our lives in hope that the lost will hear and also receive the gift of Eternal Life. There are a lot of problems with evangelism in the church. For many years when people talked about evangelism, it meant that you would be going door to door making cold calls on people you don’t know. Once you had the introductions out of the way, then you would start to probe to find out if they were Christian. You would usually do that with one of several questions and ultimately you would share the plan of salvation. It goes something like this: Heaven is a free gift, man is a sinner, God loves us, Christ died for us, and only by faith can we receive eternal life. At that point we would ask for a commitment and many times people would do just that.
I have been on hundreds of door to door cold call visits and I have personally prayed with many people who have said they wanted to ask Christ into their lives. I can name people who have done that and years later they are still in church and they have become disciples. Awesome!
I will never say that kind of evangelism will no longer work because the fact is, if The Holy Spirit is dealing in a person’s life and I come along and witness to Christ, that may just be the witness that person needs. It still works in some situations and with some folks.
However, we live in a very different culture in 2008.
We now live in a time when families are very busy. With today’s technology advances people tend to work even when they are home. We have cell phones, wireless Internet, blackberry’s and on and on it goes. people are seldom away from their jobs these days. Our children are just as busy as we are, they have ball games, homework and myspace……….for the first time in history, our children are having to keep calendars.
It is hard in this culture to find a time to visit in people’s homes or at least to visit unannounced.
You may be familiar with the following illustration that is used in many witnessing situations:
In this illustration we see that man is a sinner and that God is a Holy God and we are separated from God by our sin. The way to get to God is through Jesus Christ, He is the bridge that closes that gap. This is a great illustration but in today’s culture I believe there is another step that needs to be added to this illustration. Before you get to the Cross as the bridge there has to be another step and that step is “friendship”. It is spending quality time with people we don’t know to let them know that we truly care about them and therefore gaining the opportunity to share the Gospel with them. It is being intentional about becoming friends with people who do not know Jesus Christ so that we can earn the right to share our faith with them. However, it is not just to earn that right but it is to fulfill what God said to do, care for the homeless, visit the sick and those in prison, give food to the hungry and clothes to the naked or those in need. We are supposed to be getting to know people because God said to be there for them.
How many people do you know who do not share your faith?
How many times in the past year have you gone to a movie with a person who is not a Christian?
How many times have you invited lost people to dinner in your home or to a restaurant?
In separating ourselves from the world we have separated ourselves from the very people we need to know and be in fellowship with. When the Bible teaches us to be separate from the world it means to be different. Not to stick out like a sore thumb but to be different in the way you live your life. People should be able to tell the difference in how we conduct our lives. Be that in business deals, grocery store lines, traffic jams, ……
We are to be different in the way we forgive, the way we help others and the way we treat our current brothers and sisters in Christ.
Go out and find some new friends today. Get to know them and what they like and dislike. Get to know who their friends are and what they like to eat and what they like to do in their spare time. Build a relationship with them not just because you want to share the gospel with them but because God created them just as He created you and I. People need the Lord and He has chosen to use us in the Great Commission of bringing His people back to Himself.
Think about that,
Ronnie