What is evangelism?
I think this is an interesting question for which I have no clear answer when I think about it. I guess probably like a lot of things I will try and put things into a box but I am learning that this is not so.
In my younger Christian life this might have been seen as going out and preaching on the streets, or performing a church service on the street corner, or even some kind of drama (oh I certainly have done that several times believe me).
But I was prompted by watching something on the God Channel today. On here there was a middle aged, very smart looking well pronounced man talking to a muslim via a phone in. I struggled to understand the conversation for various reasons, but every now and again, the presenter would ask "Can you see my point of view though?"
Its this that made me wonder why we as Christians feel the right to have people "see our point of view". I think everyone both in and out of Christian circles have the right to there own point of view, which is what gives color and vigour. However I wondered if "getting our view across" should ever be needed. I am sure Jesus at time was quite direct, but my high level view of His ministry was of servitude and action. He did things simply and clearly and never tried to persuade people - he just asked them to come and see.
So for me, evangelism is more than just getting out on the street and trying to persuade a message onto people, but about living and breathing Holy lives from which the Holy Spirit can bring and draw people to us. I wonder how many of us if we tried to simply be the person God wants us to be, instead of trying to portray an image to others, the more the Lord will work in our lives.
In my younger Christian life this might have been seen as going out and preaching on the streets, or performing a church service on the street corner, or even some kind of drama (oh I certainly have done that several times believe me).
But I was prompted by watching something on the God Channel today. On here there was a middle aged, very smart looking well pronounced man talking to a muslim via a phone in. I struggled to understand the conversation for various reasons, but every now and again, the presenter would ask "Can you see my point of view though?"
Its this that made me wonder why we as Christians feel the right to have people "see our point of view". I think everyone both in and out of Christian circles have the right to there own point of view, which is what gives color and vigour. However I wondered if "getting our view across" should ever be needed. I am sure Jesus at time was quite direct, but my high level view of His ministry was of servitude and action. He did things simply and clearly and never tried to persuade people - he just asked them to come and see.
So for me, evangelism is more than just getting out on the street and trying to persuade a message onto people, but about living and breathing Holy lives from which the Holy Spirit can bring and draw people to us. I wonder how many of us if we tried to simply be the person God wants us to be, instead of trying to portray an image to others, the more the Lord will work in our lives.
posted by monty at
8:08 PM
4 Comments:
Good points!
I find it interesting how we "evangelise"
It’s become something I've thought more about as I'm church planting.
There are 2 thoughts that keeping coming back to my mind.
1st, if I believe that Jesus is so great, alive and can change lives I should not keep quiet about it, it wouldn't be fair too. I've emailed loads of people to tell them I have a blog, why because I want to share it. I think its fun so want others to hear about it. If I find a useful site I might want to share it because it’s useful to others. I want others to know about what I think is important, useful, helpful and in Jesus case, life changing.
2nd action will always speak louder than words, Jesus lead a life style which people wanted to follow, he was very counter cultural but it attracted people. The other thing that really impacts me about Jesus is the way he spoke and the timing of his words and the questions he asked. Incredible wisdom, something that when we talk about Jesus we don’t always use.
I guess as a 3rd thing he did what he spoke about so people saw he was truth, sometimes we talk too much!
So I think that we should talk about Jesus, but with wisdom and ask God to lead us. We should be sensitive as I believe Jesus was and we should be becoming more like him meaning that our lifestyle is what should reflect Jesus.
It’s finding the balance hey!
Sounds like a posting all of your own in that one dude!
In essence are you saying evangelism is a passive by product of something else - namely living a Godly life?
I think in part yes - I don't believe that will encompass all parts of evangelism, but if you can live a Godly life and a life full of truth, this is a big part of it I think....
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