I was perusing the Web, and I found this helpful video on Tim Chester’s website. What do you think about it? Is it helpful? Is it too simple? Does it rightly portray the church’s mission?
What do you think of when you hear the word “evangelism?” Many of us probably think about meeting with an individual, handing them a tract, and walking them through the ABCs of salvation. I have been there and handed out the tracts. I have met with individuals and walked them through how to accept Christ. And I have been frustrated. Frustrated with how artificial the meeting feels. Frustrated with with the lack of response from the individual. Frustrated that my presentation of the gospel didn’t work.
Is there more to evangelism? Is there more than just handing out a tract, asking a few pre-packaged questions, and walking away frustrated when someone doesn’t immediately accept Christ as their personal Savior? Is there more than knocking door-to-door and meeting people who hesitate to allow us into there homes without a prior invitation? Is there more?
I think there is. Think about this image for a moment. John, a Christian who just finished a class on evangelism and is pumped up to share the gospel, goes to a door and knocks. The door opens to a forty-year-old man who was not prepared for someone to knock at his door. He is wearing sweatpants and a grungy shirt and does not look happy to have uninvited company. John, Bible in hand and gospel tract ready, greets the individual and almost immediately jumps into a gospel presentation. Our forty-year-old stranger puts up with the presentation, accepts the gospel tract and a free Bible so that the Christian will leave him alone and let him get back to his TV show. After the door is shut, the stranger sighs in relief and tosses the Bible and tract into the trash. On the other side of the door, John sighs and walks away, feeling defeated.
Now consider a second situation. John has been working with Mark for three months. Mark knows that John is a Christian, but he has never felt pressured by him to attend church or felt like he was being preached at. One night after work, John invites Mark out for a steak dinner and while they’re eating John mentions that he and his friends are having a barbeque the following week. Mark hesitates. He knows John fairly well, but he doesn’t know any of his friends and doesn’t want to feel out of place. But as John continues to talk about his friends and the barbeque, Mark is intrigued and accepts the invitation. A week later at the barbeque, Mark arrives and is greeted warmly by Mark and his friends. There are several people who are first-timers, and Mark doesn’t feel as out of place as he thought he would. As the night wears on, he realizes that several of the people there are Christians. They are not at all like he imagined Christians should be, and they are having a great time. Throughout the night Mark is exposed to several Christians whom he has much in common with. A few weeks later Mark calls John and tells him that he is about to start a Bible study with Steve and Bill, two friends he made at the barbeque, but he wants to make sure it’s OK with Mark. Mark, of course, tells him it is fine.
If you are anything like me, you would be quick to call the first event evangelism, while the second event seems far less so. But why is this? Why is it more acceptable to view a lone Christian going door to door as doing the work of evangelism rather than a group of Christians inviting unbelievers to their home to have burgers and play games? Tim Chester and Steve Timmis in their book, Total Church, have this to say about a more community-centered evangelism:
By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a varitey of gifts among his people. Everyone has a part to play–the new Christian, the introvert, the extrovert, the eloquent, the stuttering, the intelligent, the awkward. I may be the one who has begun to build a relationship with my neighbor, but in introducing him to community, it is someone else who shares the gospel with him. That is not only legitimate–it is positively thrilling![1]
So if we adopt this vision of making evangelism a “community project,” what will it mean for how we do evangelism? What will we have to change in our own thinking? What must we change in how we treat one another? Is this model of evangelism viable? Can it be done? Should it be done?
Two weeks ago Daniel took us through the theme of work as found in the book of Proverbs. Work, whether in the context of a paid job or chores or housework or volunteer service, is something that we can become consumed by or that we can completely shun. Unfortunately, Christians often make a false distinction when it comes to work: we separate work and ministry. We often think that work is what we are paid for or what we do apart from the church, and ministry is everything done in the context of the church. This dichotomy is false and unbiblical. In his book, The Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness, Tim Chester (speaking specifically of work in the context of a paid job) dismantles this dichotomy and offers a helpful insight for Christians who struggle with reaching their co-workers with the Gospel:
The attitudes of Christians to their work, and their conduct at work, are to commend the gospel. In the good world that God made, taking delight in working and serving others would be its own justification. It would be enough to have done these things in a working day. But the world is no longer like that. Now it is populated with people who are alienated from God; people who need to hear the good news. And so the workplace has also become an important place to witness to Christ through word and deed. We worry about how we can build gospel relationships in our neighborhood, but at work those relationships already exist. Unbelievers can throw away a gospel tract, send away the person who knocks on the door, turn off Songs of Priase. But they can’t avoid the gospel witness of a Christian colleague. ‘Often the people who know us well don’t live next door, they work at the next desk,’ says Mark Greene. ‘We fish in pools and puddles when in our workplace we are sitting by an ocean’ (Greene, Slave New World).[1]
Chester continues:
Opportunities to follow up the witness of work often take place off-site and out of work hours. You may get a chance to say something in a tea break, but the opportunity to talk in depth is more likely to come in the pub after work. And that means as churches we need to recognize and value these opportunities even if it means Christians can’t always get to church activities as a result…We need to approach each day as ministry – serving others and looking for opportunities to share the gospel.
So what would this look like in our lives? What would it look like if every day was lived out for the glory of God? What if instead of complaining at work or laughing along with a dirty joke told by a colleague we pointed others to the cross? And, to get a bit closer to home, how has this looked in your life? Do your co-workers know you are a Christian? Is the gospel constantly flowing from your lips in conversation? When is the last time you shared the gospel with a co-worker? What are some of the struggles you face when you consider sharing the gospel at work? Do you see work and ministry as mutually exclusive?
The questions here are not rhetorical. Leave your answers in the “comments” section below. I would love to hear how you are struggling with this issue and striving to grow in your ability to love your neighbors.
