Being an Evangelist
The first time someone called me an evangelist, I was horrified by the term. I had had evangelism inflicted on me many times in my life and it hadn’t been a very good experience. My experience had ranged from well-meaning folks who let you know that you were not saved to the occasional sad look you might receive from close friends or family. You knew that they were thinking that you just didn’t get it and that they felt sad for you. In the end, it wasn’t the threat of hell that brought me to God, it was the beckoning of His pure love. In fact, I spent the whole first half of my life convinced, like a lot of people, that I was already saved. Imagine my worry after finally really finding the real Jesus when someone told me that I had the gift of evangelism. How awful is that?
What I found out was that I did have the gift of evangelism but that it looks a lot more like servanthood. It took me some time to parse through things, but I finally came to realize that real evangelism isn’t all that much about heaven or even the threat of hell. Heaven is the reward at the end of the game, and we’re still barely approaching the second half. I think Heaven’s a great place, but it is one of those things that a lot of people have a hard time visualizing and I can’t blame them. I have a hard time visualizing it, too. Heaven is something we look forward to in the future, but are we offering anything special if our faith doesn’t offer a little something in the present?
As a wordsmith, I have come to love the word evangelist. It comes from the word evangel, which means “good news.” So, it seems so backwards to me to deliver evangelism as if it were bad news by warning folks about the perils of hell. It’s great news to discover that God loves me and wants me to live a better life and I believe that other people want to see it in action in my life. That’s the best kind of evangelism there is. People want a great life, but often don’t know how to achieve it. If I am living a life filled with joy and love, people want to know how they can get a little piece of that kind of heaven. That’s where you find my evangelism moment. In the aftermath of my actions and after I have loved you into my family, I can tell you my story and how I came to find my God and how finding Him changed me.
I think part of the reason that I finally started to embrace the term “evangelist” is because I wanted to be part of inspiring others to see what it really is. Not everyone is ready to hear the fullness of the message from someone standing on a street corner, but many are willing to experience it through love and compassion. That doesn’t mean that they can’t learn anything from the guy on the street corner, but it makes it a lot harder. The funny thing about it is that servanthood evangelizes me, too. It changes me into the kind of Christian that Jesus taught us to be, and it changes the hearts of those who have doubts about Him because there is nothing more authentic and real than love.
I am an evangelist, but I believe that God has already written His love into our DNA. In doing that, God has an advantage because there is something inside all of us that wants to be loved by Him. Whatever I do is only secondary to what God has already done. God’s the real evangelist and my job is to be the best example of what God’s love is that I can possibly be. Sometimes, I really fail at that. I get ornery and I get caught up in how I am feeling, but I keep trying to re-evangelize myself by continuing to seek God’s presence. I like the way Rob Bell put it in a video that I recently saw. He said that it’s like being out of tune with God’s music. The musician in me loves that analogy. Maybe it strikes a chord in you, too.
I don’t apologize for being an evangelist anymore. I embrace it, but I embrace it knowing that God made us all to be one each in our own way. I will never be like Billy Graham. God created Billy for his own style of evangelism, but God created me to be a messenger of a different kind. The trick is learning what God’s method is for me and that’s going to be the tricky part for you, too. You aren’t Billy Graham, either. God made only one, and this generation doesn’t hear God’s music the same way the prior generations did.
June 23rd, 2008 · 16 Comments
Categories: DE Thoughts
Jeff said
am June 24 2008 @ 3:25 pm
I liked what you had to say here, though I have a hard time with the term evangelist as well. Not from God’s perspective and the true meaning of good news. I agree with you - live out Phil 2, where the model Jesus gave us is service, and that through service proper rulership happens. I think it is a mystery, but I am now involved with fringe friends in Santa Barbara (all the wrong types of people according to some folks), but have been able to talk about Jesus more than ever because my friends know I love them, because I am with them incarnationally. If we work to create heaven here, we have no problem “selling” it, because it is tangible.
Pastor Chris said
am June 24 2008 @ 7:19 pm
Well said.
You have found a form of evangelism that suits your personality as well.
Likewise, i think it great that you go beyond the good work service and offer an explanation for that when you share your story.
You write:
A lot of people that I work with don’t even tell their story. This is part of what sets your practice apart.
Do you invite people to consider following God as well?
Pastor Chris
EvangelismCoach.org
April Terry said
am June 25 2008 @ 12:04 pm
No, I really don’t because it seems contrived to me to make an effort to add it into a conversation that already inherently calls someone to know the God that I know. I don’t want my story to become like selling time shares. It should permeate every part of my life so that it cannot be separated from who I am. If you haven’t learned something about my faith through knowing me, then you don’t know me at all.
Randy said
am June 25 2008 @ 1:00 pm
Chris,
As a fellow evangelist, I am quite passionate about telling my story (that is, the story of how Jesus invited me to follow Him, which is really OUR story). As April has explained, however, I am learning to count on my life actually telling the story (rather then just my mouth), which is far more compelling and requires much, much more of me (an authentic life, faith in Christ, and a trust in His ability to persuade those I connect with to join us).
As my “almost Atheist” friend often says, we should hope to live in such a way that others want to hear our story and INVITE us to tell it. She also said this, as a comment on the article, “Busting the Myth of Pre-evangelism“:
I’m loving that…
Helen said
am June 26 2008 @ 11:52 am
Thanks Randy
April I love this:
People who aren’t Christians would think so differently about Christians if the gift of evangelism always looked like this!
Jim Henderson said
am June 26 2008 @ 12:46 pm
you guys are good
Pastor Chris said
am June 26 2008 @ 2:11 pm
I’m all for passive witnessing through serving and lifestyle. It’s cool when people invite me to tell my story.
I guess where I disagree is the stopping point. After I’ve been invited to tell my story, I invite the other person to tell theirs.
Is it wrong in the Doable evangelism model to invite the other person to futher converstaion, to invite them to discuss your faith, and even to invite them to follow Jesus if they want to?
Is Doable evangelism simply a one sided conversation and hope that the other person figures out what they are supposed to do in response to what has been shared?
Perhaps I’m missing something in understanding the model and I’d like some help.
Chris
Randy said
am June 26 2008 @ 3:07 pm
Chris,
DE is a new paradigm for evangelism. It is partly about letting go of the outcome, which is horribly difficult for guys like you and me. It doesn’t require that you not speak, not invite, not challenge people to think. It does require that you do these things with the gentleness and respect that Peter called for in 1 Peter 3:15.
It is evangelizing with your ears, more than your mouth, believing that God is already up to something in each person’s life and if we just listen well enough to them we can find out some of what He’s been up to and perhaps participate in that. This is far more respectful of others and of God than the methods which impose a particular agenda or presentation or call for decision on people without regard for what God has already been doing (which is what I understood my job was as an evangelist…minus the disrespect part, which I have only recently begun to understand).
These simple spiritual practices we call “ordinary attempts” are really just a way to get the non-evangelist into the game. Most ordinary, ungifted Christians don’t know how to engage with people who are all around them every day. It does no good to tell them to “just walk across the room” because even though that seems like the easiest thing in the world to guys like you and me (and Bill Hybels), it literally scares the crap out of the ordinary Christian (who makes up about 90 percent of church attenders). It does no good to bully them into inviting their “friends” to church or some event because they really don’t have any (or many) friends who don’t believe what they believe (they don’t know how to be a friend to someone like that without feeling like their “friend” is a project, so they don’t even try).
We’re just giving them stuff to do that they can actually DO, enjoy, and are good at already…which they will keep doing because it is fun and gets them into the game with other people. We think this “counts” as evangelism, but it doesn’t matter if anyone agrees with that assertion as long as they do these simple, doable spiritual practices. If they do them they will be transformed themselves and find themselves inexplicably interested in the people Jesus misses most, the people who they see every week in their ordinary course of life.
This spiritual practice of evangelism (funny how it got hijacked into a program, isn’t it?) leads ordinarily to conversation, which leads to a mutual caring and trust and friendship, which often leads to the sharing of stories with each other. Where that leads is totally up to God, but some of us will find ourselves with a lot of new friends who we care about regardless of whether they end up getting ’saved’ or not. All of us will be able to nudge our friends a little closer to Jesus Christ. And some of us will be able to help our friends begin to follow Jesus with us.
Bottom line: If what you’re doing as evangelism is working well, keep doing it. If it’s not, do something else. Most people are not doing any evangelism at all, because the version we have taught them requires way more than they can do, and requires them to be what they are NOT…authentically (how ironic). We want everyone to get in the game, not just the gifted few. We think that was the idea from the beginning, but we have made it nearly impossible for the majority of ordinary folks to participate. We’re promoting Doable Evangelism to that huge mass of non-participating Christians who want to play but feel disqualified and fearful. If we can get half of them off the bench and into the game, even in these small, doable ways, we think we’ve got a much better chance at getting the Good News to the world.
Wow…that was a lot. Sorry. I’m pretty excited about this stuff.
Helen said
am June 26 2008 @ 3:36 pm
Chris wrote:
I don’t understand why it’s not ok to wait for someone to ask. If they don’t take the initiative to ask after you shared your story with them, doesn’t that mean they’re not interested (at present)? Inviting someone to something they’ve shown no interest in is not a positive relational move. It implies “I haven’t noticed your choice not to pursue this - I am not sensitive enough to pick up on that”.
Either that or it implies you’re an irrepressible salesperson - which also doesn’t build relationships.
If I want something I’m going to bring it up. I’m going to ask “Where did you get that? Where did you see that? Where did you buy that? How much was it?” I’m not going to keep quiet and really really hope you decide to tell me about it anyway.
That’s what I think is wrong with unsolicited invitations. It bothers me that Christians who probably don’t love to be called during dinner and ‘invited’ to participate in special offers encourage each other to ‘invite’ other people to follow Jesus.
The passage Randy mentioned (gentleness and respect) says be ready to give an answer. That implies a question was asked. What’s wrong with waiting for the question?
Mike O said
am June 26 2008 @ 5:03 pm
There are so many soundbite gems here!
This was one of my first - and most difficult - ‘aha’s’ when writing for ebay atheist. I have to let go of the ‘end game strategy.’ Do what you do with all your might, but leave the outcome in God’s hands! NO MOTIVES!! I have hopes and desires that people will follow Christ as a result of my ministry, but that’s no longer a success factor for me. Did I do what I thought God wanted me to do? I think so, so OK. The methods I use are my concern. The results are God’s concern.
And that was ‘aha’ #2!
Pastor Chris said
am June 26 2008 @ 5:11 pm
Randy:
I agree with you 100%. As a fellow trainer, I’m all for getting the scared folk into the game, or rather to see evangelism as a spiritual practice as common as Bible reading and praying.
Believing that God works both sides of the equation, it’s fun to parpticpate in the work that God is doing.
When talking with those that God has prepared, evangelism conversations are natural, casual, and non-offensive and can be done by the rest of us.
I guess what I’m reacting to is the hestiancy to invite conversation (assuming respect and permission are in place), to just let the actions “speak for themselves” and hope there is some conversation.
Some people are like Helen’s example and will seek out information. Other’s will wait until the question is asked of them.
If we initiate a conversation, and are turned down, it’s appropriate to respect that boundary. If we find a positive response and the conversation continues we keep moving forward as long as permission is there. I do not believe evangelism is effective if we are violating boundaries.
Phillip engaged the eunuch with a question appropriate for the context, and found questions in response. A conversation followed. But at some point in the conversation, Phillip started with the passage that the eunuch was reading and explained the good news.
By the way, Scott Ginsberg (of hellomynameisscott) mentions you very highly in some emails that he and I have been trading
Helen: good to “see” you again
Chris
EvangelismCoach.org
Mike O said
am June 26 2008 @ 5:31 pm
My last comment is awaiting moderation. Can someone “please release me, let me go?”
Randy said
am June 26 2008 @ 6:09 pm
Done. I had to put you on a “watch” list, Mike. You’re way too friendly.
Just kidding. I have no idea why some comments go to moderation. What’s weird is sometimes MY comments go there…
Randy said
am June 26 2008 @ 6:19 pm
Chris,
First…thanks so much for joining this conversation. I really appreciate your comments and your heart on these issues.
You said:
I think we’re all very interested in inviting conversation (with respect and permission, as you noted). In fact, we’re so into conversations that we tell people to count conversations instead of conversions (that usually requires some explaining, but I think you get the idea)! Connection with others doesn’t happen without conversation happening, at least eventually (we teach people how to connect with others covertly, through noticing and praying for them behind their backs).
What we’ve discovered is that the usual evangelism techniques we have held as sacred have actually done just the opposite (ie, discouraged conversations) because our intent was not to dialogue, but rather to present our case and if our listener was sharp enough, debate with them. This is not a conversation, really. It’s an argument or debate, at best, and a pitch at worst.
The problem with a debate is that it requires that someone wins and someone loses, and the loser rarely ever goes home saying, “Gee, I think they were right. I guess I had better change my mind about that.” No, they usually go home thinking, “I had better bone up more on my position. I’ll get him next time for sure.”
We have a lot of little pithy sayings around DE land (most of which came from Henderson, and some of those he probably got from someone else). One of them is, “Dialogue, not debate.” A conversation is a dialogue. Both people win. Both learn. And both feel safe to actually consider new ideas and paradigms. This is what we long for with our friends who are far from Jesus. This is the kind of conversation they are having without us. We think it’s time we joined in. God has been and currently is quite busy amongst them…without us. We’re missing the party.
Helen said
am June 26 2008 @ 6:32 pm
Hi Chris
Thanks for saying that. I think that’s what I was trying to get at too.
Interesting point - I suppose that even though I know I’d ask, I can’t know that everyone else would.
Ken said
am June 27 2008 @ 4:23 pm
I can’t help myself in throwing a bit of a twist into this conversation. I guess I can get pretty zoned in on words - especially when they relate to scripture. The term ‘evangelist(s)’ is found only three times in the scriptures. One refers to Phillip (Acts 21:8), one where Paul instructs Timothy to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5), and the other identifying the evangelist as one of the ‘five-fold ministry gifts’ to the church (Eph. 4:11). Regarding this last passage, the evangelist is to ‘prepare God’s people for works of service’ (v. 12). Where did we get the idea that the task of the evangelist was to present a systematic doctrine of salvation? Everyone who ever experienced personal salvation knows how it happened to them. It’s part of their story.
If I am reading it right, followers of Christ are to be involved in evangelism by being equipped (inspired and taught by example) to perform works of service. We are to demonstrate ‘good news’ to the people God loves in order to earn their trust. What is a relationship without a foundation of trust? If people trust you, they are willing to share stories, and our story is intimately connected to God’s story. I know people who ‘got saved’ and didn’t even know the formula. The Holy Spirit knows how to do the same thing in a million different ways.
From what I know of you (April) through your heartfelt writings and your exemplary lifestyle - you are indeed an evangelist.