“How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” Rom 10:14
Evangelism is a word that causes some Christians to break out in hives. Me…evangelize? It’s not that they don’t want to share Christ, but they have a natural human fear of rejection. No one likes to be rejected, and there is always the possibility that someone you share Jesus with may not like you because they don’t like Him. Jesus said,
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before you.” John 15:18
We have His word for it. But while evangelism does involve some risk of rejection, the rewards for doing it are immeasurably great. There is no greater joy than seeing someone come to Christ, with the possible exception of seeing them grow in Christ. I can say with confidence that the best gift you can give someone is the Gospel — the door to eternal life. And evangelism pleases God, because when you share Christ you are choosing to participate in the greatest extension of His love. The Lord delights when we share His concern for the lost.
Naturally, we will not all evangelize the same way. And that’s fine. We don’t have to transform ourselves into someone else to share the Gospel. That dread of talking to a total stranger shouldn’t prevent you from sharing Christ. Most effective evangelism actually occurs through people we know: friends and neighbors, family and co-workers. If we pray for people we know, and ask God to open doors for the Gospel, He will do it. You don’t have to be an aggressive Gospel pitch man, a Bible in one hand and a bullhorn in the other. Evangelism can begin with an offer to pray for someone, a kind act, a warm invitation to church, or a simple conversation about spiritual truth. That’s a beginning.
From that beginning, which usually does not meet with harsh rejection, you want to prayerfully work toward the Gospel itself. An invitation to church is not the Gospel, but those invited may hear it there! The latter portions of Luke’s Gospel will provide many opportunities for people to hear the Gospel on coming Sunday mornings. But for proper evangelism, you need to make sure you know what the Gospel is, and that will be the subject of our next newsletter article.
Yours in Christ,
