You have to love New York City in the springtime. My wife and I were invited to go up to NYC for the day with my preacher and a few others from church yesterday. The day was beautiful. The company was beautiful. My new Chaco sandals were beautiful and didn?t give me a single hot spot. I was also able to see the one exhibit I wanted most to see: The Petra Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. It was wonderful, but at $19 a pop it was a little pricey. The website an excellent and free substitute.
But best of all, I came to the solid realization that I, Aaron O., am fully capable of joining God in his mission to reconcile all people to himself. ?Well… yeah, Aaron.? I?ll elaborate. Since high school have done little to no evangelism. Why? Because I went to college and people like Justin B. and John H. challenged my traditional thinking so much that I didn?t know what I really believed anymore. Not a bad thing, but it?s a confusing time. But yesterday, while talking with my preacher, a significant portion of dust cleared and I could start to see the road ahead.
Until now, my significant barrier to evangelism was the fact that our denomination doctrinally believes that one must be immersed (baptized) in water for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal. If you follow this logic to the end, then you?re pretty much forced to condemn (directly or indirectly) any person or group who doesn?t believe the same way. Now when I was younger this wasn?t a problem since the grayhairs in my church had sufficiently indoctrinated me to the point where I was willing to condemn anyone different than us at the drop of a hat. But when I got to college and saw people of different ?liberal? denominations whose lives were producing a higher quantity and quality of spiritual fruit than my own, I was shaken and began to reprocess.
5 years later.
I came to the following two-fold conclusion yesterday:
1. It?s never my place to judge someone else?s salvation. Ever.
2. To evangelize, I don?t have to tell someone what they HAVE TO DO to be saved. What I do HAVE TO DO is share that which is of first importance: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ ? the gospel. THEN, if that person wants to become a part of the kingdom (or saved), I can share my interpretation of the scripture and the story of how I became a part of the kingdom. At that point they can take it, leave it, or we can discuss it. What more can I do than that?
I feel very at peace with this conclusion. Does anyone see any glaring flaws that I may be overlooking? Has anyone else had similar experiences?
To conclude- AARON O. IS BACK IN THE EVANGELISM BUSINESS! WOOHOO!
Great post. I think we expect most people to wonder “What must I do to be saved?” like the Ethiopian eunuch did. Phillip stepped in and provided the necessary information, and the eunuch became a Christian, in the way that the Church of Christ views as normative.
That’s fine, but we can’t expect people to ask this question on their own. People are generally closer to the question “Why would I want to be ’saved,’ and why are you using such harsh language to talk about God and religion?”
If people aren’t asking what to do to be saved, it’s not going to do any good to tell them what to do. They need to have a reason to ask, and I think the approach you presented may give some people reasons to ask. Not all, but then, no one ever said there was a technique that “works” for everyone. People must be free to make their own decisions, and everyone is at a different place.
Thanks for sharing this story. Cool.
I’ve been thinking along similar lines for some time too.
I think that rather than trying to hand out a formula we should be ‘introducing people to Jesus’.
When I introduce a couple of friends I will look for common points of interest between them. I will also ‘talk up’ the people I’m introducing. ie: “I think you’ll really like Sam, he’s a really nice guy and he’s ….”
I do whatever I can to sow the seeds that will help a friendship develop. After that, it’s up to the two of them to continue the friendship.
I want to do the same with introducing Jesus to people. (I hope that makes some kind of sense.)
It’s easy to see this approach as a tweaking of confrontational evangelism, though. If you’re knocking on doors or accosting people at the mall, it’s not going to make a difference whether you tell them “your story” or that they’re going to hell. There has to be something compelling there in the first place - a reason to care.
It was not always this way. Once people knew why they should care - everyone had a culturally ingrained fear of hell (for better or worse). Now people don’t always have that assumption, and trying to force one on them doesn’t work. Hence the need for “walking alongside” evangelism.
I hope your last comment wasn’t directed at my previous comment. If so, I apologise as I obviously didn’t explain myself very well.
I see ‘introducing people to Jesus’ in a similar way as to how I see introducing friends. When introducing friends you need to have a relationship with both people. That means that before trying to introduce people to Jesus we need to get to know them. Not in a superficial way so that we can push our own agenda but really get to know them and value them as people.
We need to get out of our churches to spend time with non-believers. We need to be prepared to put a lot of time into developing our friendships so that we earn the right to be heard.
I’ve been part of a secular group of guys for a few years now and I’m now getting oportunity to share more and more of who I am. I’m not there to notch a few more ticks on the scorecard, I’m there because I genuinely like these guys and I want them to know Jesus.
The last thing I would want to do is go knock on doors or accost people at the mall.
I agree with you, Aaron, that our role is simply to present the truth of Jesus’ (continuing) life and the extension of grace to us. Our role as God’s workers in this field is not to argue about the methodology of salvation but to incite those around us to desire the salvation that we have received. In 1 Peter 3, Peter tells us to “always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that you have.” As John Eldredge pointed out in one of his books, no one ever asks me why I have hope and I don’t know many people who have been asked a question like that. And that failing is truly ours. We need to live daily in full assurance of the grace and hope that we continually receive from God, so that the world sees a difference in us and desires to be similarly marked and remade. And when they ask, we should be ready to tell them.
Rodney-
Sorry, I jumped right into my last comment without giving any context. I wasn’t intending to criticize your comment, though that is certainly how it looks in retrospect. My apologies.
I was intending to say that people often present the “my story / your story / God’s story” technique as a confrontational evangelism strategy. It can be good if it’s not used that way, though.
I’ve found that people do say things like “I can tell you’re a Christian” every once in a while. I never know how to respond to that. “Why thank you. Allow me to use my newfound credibility to modify your worldview…”
What they don’t say is “How can I become happy and at peace like you are?” or “Gee, something’s missing in my life. Any idea what it could be?” If we expect them to, we may be disappointed.