Evangelism is Actually a Good Thing.

THIS WEEK I think I've heard God telling me something very specific. I need to get better at evangelizing.

I made a list not too long ago of some of the things I want to make sure I do in my lifetime. The first thing on that list was to make at least one convert. Of course, I hope to make many more. But I want to start doing this because I understand that it is very important.

Evangelizing is a part of Christianity that I fear too many of us disregard. Maybe we think it would be rude to tell someone that his beliefs are wrong. Maybe we think it's not important. If you look in the Bible, Jesus tends to disagree. The last thing He did before leaving the earth after His resurrection was give us the very clear and emphatic Great Commission.

Matthew 28:19-20 "'Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the nme of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen."

We cannot disregard Christ's words as conditional or irrelevant. He did not give us a command to do something wrong. In giving us this task He hasn't told us to go forth and be judgemental and mean - that's not what evangelism means. He wants us to do this because He wants to save people's lives like He has saved ours. He wants us to be a part of this plan, so He put His shining light insight of us to show the world. It's not a crime against our friends' rights to their beliefs if we show love to them.

God spoke to me through my youth pastor at church on Wednesday night. The sermon was about the importance of evangelism and of our willingness to obey God's will. I find that this subject is on my mind sometimes at school already, but I never really know what to do about it. Pastor Ryan showed us a video that I've seen a few times before. This really impacted me because I was already thinking about part of it earlier this week, and I hadn't seen it in a couple years.

This is a link to a video of the magician Penn Jillette discussing the concept of evangelism.



This man is a very determined atheist, but he can see that evangelism is a good thing. I was thinking about his metaphor about the truck earlier this week. Many people are offended by evangelism or would feel rude doing it, but think about it like Mr. Jillette does: if your friend was about to get hit by a truck, and you knew it, you would have to hate him not to make him get out of the way. So evangelism is only rude if it is also rude to push your friend bodily out of the way of a racing truck.

Now, we aren't called to make evangelism into an aggressive or hateful business, as I've seen some people do. It's not our job to judge and scare people, but it is our job to love them. And sometimes loving them involves being willing to tell them they're wrong if it's going to save their lives.

Like my grandma was telling me earlier this week, we shouldn't feel like failures if we meet somebody who is not saved and then don't share the gospel with him. It is our responsiblity, however, to listen to God. If He is opening the door and pushing on our hearts to say something, we should not keep it to ourselves. After all, God loves everybody, and He hates sin. He wants us all to come back to Him. And evangelism is one of many important ways to show Jesus' love: we should also be charitable, considerate, kind, and understanding like He is.

On the morning after that video was played at church, my friend Sarah Davis brought something wonderfully relevant to share at FISH club. It was a passage from 2 Corinthians 5. Two verses in particular stand out to me.

v. 17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

That's a Christian's life! It's freedom from fear. It's the promise that in God's eyes our yesterdays are dead and He will look no more on the sin that used to separate us from Him. He has taken in away by bearing the punishment for it in our place. And we cannot give a better gift to the people in our lives than the good news that we can all be made new.

v. 20 "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God."

Think about the people in your life. We have been blessed with having people in our lives. They are fearfully and wonderfully made children of God, just like everyone. Many of them are intelligent or talented or loyal or brave. People need to be loved.

In response to the way God has brought this subject to my attention this week, I have resolved to keep my eyes open for every chance I have to share the gospel, or to share love in any way. The result of evangelism isn't always conversion, but doing God's will is never in vain. Mr. Jillette was not saved when he rescieved that Bible, but as you saw, he was very deeply marked by the experience. God's love is a foreign concept to the world that really captures people's attention.

What will you resolve to do? Pray about it, and look around to see if anybody is about to get hit by a truck. This is improtant to Jesus, because people are important to Him. Let's make them important to us too.