Written by Maggie Hendrick
How many times have you shared the complete gospel message with someone this past year? Not including your children or those inside your home, how many times have you shared the complete gospel message with an unbeliever?
If you’re feeling convicted, that’s okay. The Holy Spirit convicts. But I am not asking these questions to guilt you into evangelizing like it’s this big, daunting obligation we have. No! It is a blessing! I don’t want any of my brothers and sisters in Christ to miss out on the opportunity to share their faith and make disciples.
So, what is evangelism? Here is the hard truth: Pre-evangelism is not evangelism. Here is a list of some things that fall under pre-evangelism:
- Inviting people to church
- Starting a Bible study
- Showing hospitality
- Discussing other biblical topics
- Being a good neighbor
- Praying for others
- Reading WIA articles about evangelism…
These are all fantastic things to do, and many are gifted and excel at these things! But these things are not evangelism. The scary reality is that Satan is the most motivated to prevent us from sharing the good news. He uses broken-down cars, delayed and canceled flights, sickness, injuries, and more to keep us from evangelizing. I am speaking from experience. He pulls out all the stops! The Bible tells us that there is a spiritual battle going on (Ephesians 6:12), but it is not just in our physical circumstances. Satan is deceitful and manipulative. He lies to you. Of course, he may use fear to try to prevent you from sharing the gospel, but he also uses contentment or complacency to trick you into being silent. Let’s consider some things he might tell you to keep you quiet:
- “You don’t need to share the gospel, you just need to be an example to them and pray for them.”
- “You invited them to church, someone there will share the gospel with them. That’s good enough!”
- “They said no to going to church, I guess they aren’t interested, so no need to share the gospel. You tried.”
- “You have such a good relationship with them, if you share the gospel, that might hurt your relationship and that would be bad.”
I could go on and on, as I have fallen for these lies before as well. Do any of those resonate with you?
Here’s the thing, though: God doesn’t say any of those things! In Romans 10:14-15, Paul writes, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
This beautifully poetic Scripture tells us the obvious: we can’t be saved if we never hear the gospel. No one is saved by simply going to church or because of the great relationship you have with them. God’s Word says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” If the gospel hasn’t been shared, evangelism hasn’t taken place.
Prayer
I wanted to reflect on the importance of prayer because even though it isn’t evangelism, it is the glue that binds pre-evangelism, evangelism, and post-evangelism together.
Before we evangelize, let’s ask ourselves: Am I praying for our hearts to be broken for the lost? Am I praying for boldness? Am I praying for opportunities? Don’t be surprised when that prayer gets answered quickly! While we are sharing the gospel, are we praying for the Lord to speak through us? Are we praying for their hearts to be softened and eyes to be opened? How about for protection against distractions? And then after sharing the gospel, are you praying for the Holy Spirit to convict them? Are you asking God to save them?
We need to remember our reliance on the Lord in all of this. This is not an article series where I teach you the magic words that you say to make everyone you talk to become a Christian. That’s not how it works. There are no magic words. We do not save. The Lord does that. The more you pray, the more you communicate your reliance and heart posture to the Lord. We acknowledge that he is the only one who saves. We are simply his ambassadors as 2 Corinthians 5:20 says. And we want to be good ambassadors! Being in prayer continually reminds us what our role is and what it is not. God supplies us with the gracious words and the fiery boldness we need.
Fear
The most common responses I get as to why Christians don’t evangelize all boil down to fear. Christians sometimes fear that they won’t know what to say (stay tuned for the upcoming articles). The fear I hear most often is: “What if they ask a question I don’t know the answer to?” If that resonates with you, you’re going to love this tip because I am going to show you how what seems to be something negative is actually a positive. The first step is: Don’t pretend you know the answer when you don’t. Do you need to know the gospel to evangelize? Yes! Do you need to know everything in order to evangelize? No! You can’t know everything. At some point, you will be asked a question you don’t know the answer to. I have been asked questions that I didn’t know the answer to. This is hard, yet I’ve come to realize that it’s a tremendous opportunity. Follow these three simple steps to gracefully navigate these intimidating situations:
“That’s a good question!”
“I don’t know.”
Plan another time to discuss further.
It is that simple. “Wow, that’s a good question, I don’t know, but I’d love to spend some time studying this topic and looking into it more. Can we get together again or exchange emails to discuss it further?” Show humility. When you get asked a question you don’t know the answer to, you didn’t lose. You actually won another opportunity to share the gospel.
Don’t let fear keep you from sharing the good news and obeying God. Read what a 14-year-old girl wrote at the end of a mission trip I helped lead:
“Having to knock on doors made me so anxious. I have always known that God wants me to talk to others about him but I had never done it out of fear…Being out of my comfort zone, walking up to people, and talking to them has shown me that it’s not as scary as I thought it would be to talk about beliefs…Really though, most people are happy to talk about their beliefs.”
I have story after story of students being shy, timid, scared, and anxious to talk to others, yet have seen them boldly share the gospel, get fired up, and then volunteer to be the one who knocks on the next door and talk first.
If you step out of your comfort zone, it has a domino effect. This is why I want to encourage you to put this into practice! I admit that I have been fearful about the response I might get when sharing the gospel. I have thought that sharing the gospel could ruin a friendship or that the person I was talking with was smarter than I am. As I shared earlier, I’ve fallen for Satan’s deceptions before. But I can tell you this…I’ve never regretted sharing the gospel. I may look back and wish I had worded it better or emphasized a different point, but I have never regretted sharing the gospel. On the flip side, I can think of specific moments where I regret that I didn’t share the gospel. When in doubt, just do it. Whenever the Holy Spirit prompts you, say yes.
The next two articles will address contextualizing the gospel and how to get into gospel conversations. Before jumping to the next two articles, I wanted to share some resources on the front end that will guide you toward this type of discussion. I highly recommend Tactics by Greg Koukl, Bridge-Building Apologetics by Lindsey Medenwaldt, and The Lazy Approach to Evangelism by Eric Hernandez. All three of these books touch on a similar methodology that stems from Jesus’s directive in Matthew 10:16 when he says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” First, we want to have the necessary knowledge, but with that knowledge, we want to be wise and discerning. Most importantly, through all of it, we want to be innocent, meaning we want to conduct ourselves well with godly character. Knowledge, wisdom, and character will produce more effective evangelism.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
- Do you feel prepared?
- Have you been actively sharing the gospel with unbelievers?
- What components of evangelism do you desire to see more growth in?
PRAY: Ask God to help you grow in the areas of evangelism where you need more development.
Read Evangelism Article Series Part II: Contextualizing the Gospel here.