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Archives: August 2009
But I'm
not an evangelist!
By Mike Pilavachi
Says who? When Jesus gave the Great Commission to make disciples of every people group, He didn't give anyone an exemption note. We are all God's representatives and we preach something with our lives whether we intend to or not. If you choose to stay away from non-Christians they are likely to believe that God has no interest in them. If you choose to judge they will think that God only judges them. But if you choose to love them they may just start to believe that God loves them too.
We can't leave it up to the main-stage evangelists. Sure there are some people who have an amazing anointing to preach and lead people to the Lord, but if you think about the people who come to evangelistic events, where did they come from? Few wander in from the streets by chance; most are brought by friends or family members who have been loving and praying for them for years. They may make a commitment at a big event, but they would never have got there if it weren't for the other evangelists in their lives...
A few practical tips
Let's look at a few basic principles and practicalities of evangelism that might make it seem a bit less daunting. First, coming back to Jesus as our example, sometimes we forget that while being the Son of God, He also lived many elements of His life in a very normal fashion.
Jesus built relationships with people, He was sociable, choosing to have dinner with those He called to follow Him, to go to parties and meet people, not staying in a holy huddle with a few 'safe' friends.
The best thing we can do is follow Jesus' example; to see people as people and not as potential converts; to care for individuals and not worry about getting our numbers up.
Don't leave your personality at home
Because we are all made differently we all have different ways of communicating. In evangelism, as in any other area of our life, I believe Jesus uses who we are and the things that are natural to our personality type to communicate. If you love people and have a passion for them to know Jesus but can't bear the thought of talking to a crowd then it's unlikely God will call you to a ministry of preaching to hundreds of non-Christians.
Of course that doesn't mean you're not called to be an evangelist. Some people love wading in and talking to a shop assistant about how their day is going in the hope of getting a good conversation going. If that thought makes you want to curl up into yourself and never set foot in a shop again, perhaps that's not for you, but if that excites you then make it a regular practice and pray God would give you great opportunities to speak His words in those situations.
Some of the most effective evangelists are those whose main qualification is that they are great at just being friends with people. They love people for who they are, they keep in touch and call or email regularly, they remember details about the other person's life and ask how things are going. OK, it's not rocket science, but that doesn't mean it isn't effective. Jesus wants you as you are.
We've often thought that evangelism means doing things that make us cringe, but if it's making you feel like that then imagine how it's making the other person feel! Sometimes we are pushed out of our comfort zone, and that is no bad thing, but we shouldn't be making people feel awkward and forcing them into conversations that they clearly do not want to have.
Remember what your job is and what your job isn't
One of the reasons people get frustrated in life is because they set themselves goals they cannot achieve. You can't set out to 'save' somebody, as you have no power to do that. Your job is to love, and God's is to save. You can't do His job, but you do need Him to be able to do yours. What you can influence and achieve is being the best friend you can possibly be and to love and treat people how Jesus would, so make that your goal and bring it prayerfully before God.
Be open about your faith, but don't push people
Being someone's friend means you respect their wishes just as you want them to respect yours. If you try and force-feed someone the gospel you're unlikely to win them to salvation but highly likely to make them sick and damage your friendship in the process.
There's no formula of when or how to talk about Jesus. Of course it's vital that we're open about our faith, but this can come up in natural ways. For example, 'What did you do over the weekend?' is a fairly common question on a Monday morning. Mentioning that you went to church on Sunday is a non-threatening way of letting people know about your faith. If they ask more, go with it, and if they don't then leave it at that for now. Don't feel as though you have to make big announcements in a holy voice to get people's attention.
Listen
Everyone's journey is different. It's all very well you meeting a mate armed with all the answers on evolution versus creation, but if your friend wants to know about what proof we have that Jesus exists it's not much good, is it?
There are many reasons why the Alpha courses have worked so well and been so effective, and one of them is that people are given the opportunity to have their say. The idea is that they can discuss what they think rather than just sitting and being told what we in the church think. People want to be heard, and unless we listen carefully we won't fully understand where our friends and family are coming from.
Don't think people expect you to have all the answers just because you're a Christian. Why bluff your way through it rather than be honest and say, 'Do you know, I'm not sure I know enough about that to give you a good answer, but I'm really happy to find out some more for you if you'd like'? Buy them a book or a tape on tricky subjects if they're genuinely interested and don't feel as though you have to have all the answers (because let's face it, we never will).
People usually respect you more for saying you're not sure than pretending to know and understand things that you don't.
Pray
This is another obvious one; but don't forget to involve God! Pray for their salvation as well as for God's hand of blessing on their lives. Sometimes it's appropriate to let someone know if you're praying for them over a particular situation and more people than you'd expect are touched by that in a positive way. Again the key thing is to handle it sensitively and be respectful of their wishes.
So maybe evangelism is not so scary after all! When we know that our basic qualification for evangelism is loving God and those who don't know Him, the idea is a lot less daunting. If we've felt disheartened that people aren't interested in God any more, then we need to remember it's not that He is outdated in today's culture but that maybe the methods we've used to communicate His message are.
We don't need to set ourselves challenges that only set us up for a fall, like trying to convert whole cities in one weekend using the latest evangelism strategy. We just need to follow Jesus' example to see people as individuals, not judging them but building genuine and lasting relationships and being committed to them simply because we love them.
About the article...
Andy is an Associate Director at Soul Survivor and is a very nice bloke.
This is an edited version of a chapter from Andy and Mike Pilavachi's book, Storylines. You can buy a copy of the whole book at our shop...
Soul Survivor is a Christian charity that puts on events for young people. Our registered charity no. is 1080720. We are also a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales. Our company registered number is 03991111, which is nice. Thanks for caring.
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