This is a follow up to another post that I made here about church.
Evangelism is everybody's responsibility. Sometimes I hear from people that our responsibility is to promote the gospel, not necessarily to tell it. Basically what I think they are saying is that we should live overtly and explicitly as Christians, but that we shouldn't try to force conversations about Jesus. Our main responsibility to tell people about Jesus, then, is just to have an answer to the hope that we have. This idea comes from 1 Peter 3:15.
I think that this idea is wrong. We are called to be people who unashamedly and without hesitation seek to tell as many people as will listen about Jesus. It's all of our responsibility all of the time.
Just because we're not all evangelists doesn't mean that we don't all have to evangelise. We wouldn't say that if our gift isn't hospitality that we don't have to be hospitable, so why do we think that this excuse is any good when it comes to evangelism.
My problem is that I'm terrible at doing this. I work at a Christian school and every day I get to tell kids who don't believe in Jesus about him. I don't only get to, I'm really required to. What a great job. I'm also starting up my robotics club again this term and I'll get to tell kids there who don't know Jesus about him as well, which is also great.
My problem is, though, that I'm not telling anybody else at the moment. I need to be telling men and women in my community about Jesus. We need to tell kids, but we need to tell adults as well. In lots of ways it's much easier to tell kids, and we're often pretty well practised at it. The same isn't true of adults. Who are you meeting with, praying for, and opening up the gospel to? For me it's only kids. I need to find some adults. I used to have soccer, but I'm taking a year off. It seems to me that men talk best when they're working together. So maybe I should join some other commuity organisation to get to know some guys. Maybe we should just run more bbq's at church. But I need to be telling guys in my community about the love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, anger, righteousness and justice of God and the sinfulness and depravity of man. I'm pretty sure that whilstever I'm not doing this I'm not showing any love to my neighbour.
This thinking has come through a host of other experiences that I'll post about later, but I am interested to read comments of people who are telling adults about Jesus. How do you do it? How do you bring up Jesus? How do they respond? How do we reach men for Jesus? I fear that the answer really is just as simple as opening our mouths and speaking up and that this simple fact is a terrible indictment on us.
Jesus held nothing back and did not grasp his throne, but humbled himself to humanity, and then to torture and death just so that he could have us as his own. Yet we fear slight embarrassment and awkwardness so much that we don't share the precious, life saving gospel that God has graciously entrusted to us so that we might be a part of building his church. Let's suck it up, man up and go out and tell people.
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Hey Graham,
ReplyDeleteGood post. I don't immediately disagree but think I would like to see a citation to back up "Evangelism is everybody's responsibility." and "Just because we're not all evangelists doesn't mean that we don't all have to evangelise."
How does this work with the idea that everyone in the church has different gifts? No all are prophets, or teachers, miracle workers or healers (although we should desire the higher gifts) (1 Cor 12:28-31), and Jesus has provided prophets, apostles, evangelists and teachers to help the wider church to do good work (Eph 4:11-12), of which I assume the rest of the church is not made up of apostles, prophets, evangelists or teachers. Is this "good work" in Eph 4 not physical actions but verbal ones?
Or are we all to be evangelists because of the great commission which tells us to go make disciples, baptise them and to teach them to obey Jesus (Matt 28:19-20)? If this was the case then why are we so slack on not baptising people? I know I have never baptised someone. Is everyone also to be a converts teacher? I thought it was quite serious to presume to be a teacher (James 3:1)...
Hey Andrew, thanks for your comment. Sorry about my tardy reply, it's coming. I've been thinking about it, but mostly I've been pretty busy.
ReplyDeleteMate, no worries. I won't feel rejected if you don't get back to me. I'm sure you have more important things to do than reply to me, when really I am just stirring the pot a little bit. I just am not sure how much everyone is to be considered an evangelist (as this reasoning seems to then be at the expense of other gifts in the church), but I do think everyone should be prepared to give an answer for what they believe (1 Peter 3:15)
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's any great call to evangelism in the Bible. I think it's assumed, because it's pretty obvious. I think the passage you alluded to Graham, can be unhelpful because it seems to imply that there are distinct evangelists, and it looks like it gives us an out, which we love. I think you made reference to this problem!
ReplyDeleteWhen Jesus says 'if anyone is ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of him', it's a pretty serious promise. If we're unwilling to evangelise, or we just tend not to, we've gotta be asking why. And if it's shame, then that could go bad for us. If it's that we don't think it's so imperative, that's nonsense, and I think could go bad for us too.
I just can't get my head around people not evangelising, and using the Bible to claim this is biblical. I think we're using the Bible wrongly when we try to do this. If Christianity matters to you more than anything... No, that's not even the right way to say it. If Christianity is everything to you, and all your thoughts about everything else flow out of your understanding of the gospel and your relationship with God, then how on earth can 'evangelism', or simply spewing out your worldview on a daily basis - speaking the truth with grace every time you speak - not be a natural consequence of this fact. I suspect we are ashamed of the gospel, and I am terrified that will be pointed out to us on the last day, and that we will have used our Bible knowledge to justify a way of living which is contrary to God's wishes.
You said you were interested in other people's experiences of evangelising - here's mine:
I'm terrible at evangelising strangers. I hated walk-up at uni, I'm terrified of door-knocking or handing out leaflets on the beach or something like this. When it's a little more natural, like a bbq, it's not so bad. But yeah.
However at uni I got into the habit of evangelising people I work with. My fellow students that I actually got to know all heard the gospel over time, and most rejected though a couple didn't. And my colleagues in Germany all heard the gospel at various times and in various ways. Religion comes up a lot once you get to know people a little. Because Christianity is a world-view, it informs all our opinions, and so lunch-time discussions will often have many touching points with your beliefs.
This kind of evangelism is very respect driven. I want them to listen to me because they've gotten to know me as a thoughtful, intelligent person. This may appear to go against 1 Cor 1-3 a little, but I don't think so in the end. I also think this is pretty important for relational evangelism.
Another kind of evangelism which is so easy is giving talks. You're so disconnected from the people, and they're there to hear it. It makes it so much easier.
But what I can't get over is my hesitation with strangers. It's some sort of pride, and it's wrong.
I agree with Tony.
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