The following is adapted from the
second half of a talk I gave at WYnet Summer Camp 2011. The theme for
the week was Discipleship, and I spoke towards the end of the event
about mission-ship, or evangelism.
In the first half of the talk, I spoke about What evangelism is, the Context of
bad news that makes the Good News worth listening to, and the
Distractions of issues secondary to Jesus' death and resurrection.
I introduced
the talk by saying that I knew they (the teens) had, or could get,
advice on how to be "nice people" very easily, and
therefore I wanted to cut straight to stuff about evangelism that
could be applied in their school and college lives.
Who
A possbile next question for the simple
act of evanglism is "Who do we evangelise to- friends or
strangers?" Well, considering the example of Jesus, the answer
appears to be "both." He gave lots of time and attention to
explaining God to his closest friends, the disciples, but He also
healed and preached to thousands of other people in first century
Israel.
Some Christians are given a passion or
skill to tell the Gospel to strangers. This does not include every
Christian, however all of us should be ready as instructed in the
Bible in 1 Peter 3:15. Talking with a stranger about Jesus could be a
very quick conversation, so of course it is as important as ever to
stick to the Gospel. Even if it is just a prayer for the stranger,
you can declare the Gospel while praying aloud. You know the Gospel,
so tell it. It doesn't matter if you only get two minutes to tell it
before being interrupted, because God will take care of the rest.
Christians are called to be a witness
with their lives as well as their words, and daily friendships are a
big opportunity for this. If you have time with someone each day, you
can describe your relationship with God as well as the Gospel that
made it possible.
People can sometimes make it clear that
they think they can overlook your faith because they can summarise it
in a few words. It's not possible to summarise any of the
thousand-year-old major world religions in a few words, so it may be
tempting to make a point that shatters an assumed summary. Once
again, it is more helpful to describe something about God, such as
one of His known characterisitics, than to desrcibe something about
Christianity or religion.
Reason, Reality, and Ridicule
If people want to directly challenge
your faith, I have found that they often go through Reason, Reality,
and Ridicule. Someone who uses all three of these methods is probably
not interested in finding the truth, but in making it clear that they
are right and you are wrong.
They may first attack you with reason,
as the belief of many a man on the street is that religion consists
of murky or wishful thinking. Go ahead and surprise someone with the
depth that thousands of years of theology can offer. Remember again
that Christianity is only a secondary issue; God is the primary one.
An attack may be formed against your
faith based on reality, a statement that claims that your error is
self explanatory due to real life experience. This is simply
combatted with the truth, that in fact it is real life experiene that
assures you of, and perhaps even founded your faith! Not many people
will be brave enough to try this attack in the first place however,
since most are aware of how limited and different their experience is
compared to the collective experience of the rest of the world.
Finally, if you have successfully
combatted the other forms of attack, and the person is determined in
their heart not to find the truth but instead to win the debate, they
will use the easy escape route of ridicule. Humour used to change the
conversation or halt it is a sign that you have gotten too close for
comfort, and I think it is wise at such a point to allow the
retreating party some space. It is their choice, not yours, when they
choose to truly listen to the Gospel.
Know the Gospel, and tell it. God will
take care of the rest.
Before and After
If possible, a single piece of
preperation can be done before sharing the Gospel with either friends
or neighbours. "Talk to God about your neighbour before you talk
to your neighbour about God." Pray that God will take care of
your words, and then say that God has taken care of our sin. Then
feel free to let them leave and dwell on this if they want to,
because God will take care of the rest.
During the practice of evangelising,
you can expect to get bashed. The world is not fond of a God with
standards, so you will be emotionally and verbally beaten down. Jesus
warned us we would follow in His footsteps here, so this shouldn't
come as a surprise. So after you have talked about God, recharge with
God. Pray. Read the Bible. Spend time in Christian community. Then go
out again, and repeat.
Go out into the world as a beggar,
needing nothing more than a knowledge of the Gospel. Tell other
beggars where they can get free food. God will take care of the rest.
Image source: http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/trade-comm.cfm
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