In a meeting the other day some pastors were talking about the place of evangelism programs in the church today. Usually, evangelism programs have consisted of classes that teach people to share the gospel. They entail memorizing scriptures that have to do with the God's love and his plan for people to be saved from hell by the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus. An outline of the steps to salvation is also committed to memory. There are many programs available for this. Among them are, "The Four Spiritual Laws", "The Roman Road", and "Evangelism Explosion." As the people are being trained, they are given the opportunity to practice what they are learning among themselves. When they have some degree of proficiency, they go out to try to bring people to Jesus, often going in groups of two or three to visit people who have visited their church. Sometimes they go door to door in the neighborhood of the church, or strike up a conversation at a coffee house or similar place. The idea is to learn how to share the Gospel with people who need it - definitely a grand and necessary idea.
Early in my ministry I was involved in several of these efforts. In fact, I was a trainer in an Evangelism Explosion program. Christians ought to learn those scriptures and know how to lead someone to the Lord. More than that they ought to actually be involved in helping people understand the Gospel and come to a saving faith in Jesus. Praise God that people are sometimes reached in this way.
However, I have a few problems with this kind of evangelism program. The training is very helpful, but most of these programs also encourage the learners to target complete strangers. In some ways, it is very hard to share the Gospel with a stranger, mostly because a majority of people find it difficult to talk to strangers about anything, much less the most important thing in life. On the other hand, if the stranger reacts badly, or simply rejects the Gospel, while it hurts, he is a stranger, and there is not much invested in the relationship. When I worked in E.E. I shared the Gospel with a lot of people that I didn't know. I was not even aware that I had anything in common with most of them. Some prayed with me to accept Christ, I am happy to say, but following up with them was tough. I can't remember any of them who became disciples. It felt like I was getting people to make decisions, but I was unsuccessful in doing what Jesus commissioned us to do "make disciples" (Matt. 28:19-20).
I began to wonder if wouldn't be better, though perhaps riskier, to share with people that are friends. Of course, that is not easy for many long-time Christians, because they have no non-Christian friends. How can a church program friendships? I don't think it can be done. As a young pastor, I didn't have time to make friends with non-Christians, because I was always at a church meeting or a training session. I decided to make time to make some friends that didn't know Jesus. So, I found a way out of some of those meetings, and began playing on a softball team that was sponsored by a local furniture store, joined a service club, and became a volunteer police chaplain. Pretty soon I made some new friends, and I was able to earn the right to talk about Jesus. I found that the Gospel just came out naturally as the relationship grew. It didn't feel forced, as it had when I shared with strangers. My friends liked me, and wanted to know what made me tick. I also found that the Gospel outline, while helpful, was not the main instrument that Jesus used. Instead, God used my life, and my sharing what Jesus had done, and was continuing to do in my life that seemed to move my friends closer to the him. Didn't Jesus tell the disciples to "be witnesses" (Acts 1:8)? Seems to me that is simply telling what He is doing in ones personal life. Some of my new friends started showing up in church. Some received Jesus, and I had the privilege of baptizing some. Following up with them came naturally because it was part of our friendship.
Now, this is important: I didn't set out to make a friend to add a notch to my Gospel gun. I simply went out to make friends and the Lord used that friendship to speak to the hearts of some of them. I had some friends who hadn't chosen to follow Jesus by the time I relocated to another part of the country, but I know that the Lord planted seed by means of the friendship. I trust that someone else may have been used by God to later pick the ripened fruit.
I once read a great article in "Campus Life", the magazine of the Youth for Christ ministry, on sharing faith. The first suggestion it gave was "Don't be weird." Sounds easy, but often Christians seem weird to non-Christians. As we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, he changes us. We are not the same as we used to be. Our values and priorities are changed and they are not the same as those of the "world." However, we don't have to be strange just because we are different. Jesus was very different from everyone he met, but he must have had a winsomeness about him that made people flock to him and want to know him. Too often we Christians have succeeded in becoming different, but somehow we have lost out on being winsome. If we ask the Lord to make us winsome, perhaps we will win some. Paul was very explicit about this in I Cor. 9:22b: "I have become all things to all men so that I might by all possible means save some." What makes this kind of evangelism possible is a real and desperate desire to do whatever it takes to see people find the love, hope and salvation that we have found in Jesus.
Next week's I will share what I think a church can do to help this kind of evangelism happen.
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