'Evangelism' - my view

By Tim J

Key gospel verses here are John 5: 19, 10:4. Also Colossians 4: 5, 6; 1 Corinthians 2; 1-5

I, personally, don't find the word 'evangelism' helpful. Evangelism in today's climate spells preaching and being talked at, and I don't find it a helpful word to use in expressing something that we're called to. Its sister word 'evangelical(ism)' spells 'fundamentalist religion', today's big 'no-no' to non-churchgoers.

That said, I'm not sure what word to put in its place, though I do find the concept of 'faith sharing' more helpful.

The things I place highest value in are the following -

It all starts with knowing who you are before God. Jesus did this. He spent a lot of time alone with his Father - everything centred around his deeply personal relationship with Him. His personal value was fulfilled in God, which meant he didn't need to be unhealthily dependent on the affirmation of others. I think this is really important, otherwise we naturally try to find fulfillment in relationships with other people and things, even as Christians as we share our faith. I think this is so often where the sense of 'failure' comes from, when other people haven't validated/affirmed our beliefs and values.

Secondly, we need to be people who listen acutely to others. It is really easy to assume that sharing faith centres around us telling other people about ourselves and our life's journey. In my experience this isn't generally helpful (at least first-off). What does help is if you listen to them, give them space to talk about themselves without butting in all the time with your experiences, beliefs and 'correct answers'. Western people are generally - often falsely - polite, and will feign an interest in your value systems, but I think often they're not really interested at all. To quote J John: "don't make the mistake of assuming 'that's interesting' means 'I'm interested'". What matters to them is what they think, full stop. This leads to point three.

Thirdly, we need to ask questions, to facilitate discussions with people that lead them to discover the truth themselves. People learn things much more deeply when they've worked things through on a personal level and discovered the answer for themselves.

I believe lots of people operate in a place of personal 'noise'. I do as well to an extent! They think they know what's important, and talk about a whole bunch of 'stuff' that's within the realm of what they enjoy, are comfortable with, and believe they understand. But many are actually out of touch with who they really are. We as Christians (and I think some people have a particular gifting for this) are called to listen, to get to know a person, and to 'hear' through this personal noise. We are called to draw things to the surface that may never have been uncovered - the 'real' person. Jesus was brilliant at this. BUT we need to be very careful. We as Christians are used to being intimate with one another, and talking about personal things. A lot of people are not used to talking openly about personal stuff. We need God's guidance in building relationships of trust and love, not steam-rollering in with the big questions of life, and being too quick in our revealing of intimate details about ourselves. This can freak some people out, going from strangers to best friends in one quick leap.

Jesus didn't stand up in front of people and give long accounts of himself and his weaknesses. He didn't need to do this, not least because of his security in his Father. Jesus asked questions, told parables and listened to people. The response he left up to them.

To sum up the points I've made -

1. Know who you are in the Father's estimation, in God, personally and deeply. Make time for this, find your complete security in Him.
2. Listen to people, don't talk at them.
3. Ask people questions, but go easy at first. Wait - and it may take weeks or months - until you've built a relationship of mutual trust and understanding before going for the bigger questions.
4. Lead people to God and then leave them to be with Him. Don't get in the way.
5. Never assume that people want to know all about you.
6. Always be listening-out for, and sensitive to, the Holy Spirit's prompting. Learn to discern his authentic voice (this finds its roots through 'knowing' Jesus – see point 1). Ask for his daily prompting, for 'windows of opportunity'. I believe it will ALWAYS be right to listen to people, and SOMETIMES right to assert your case, SOMETIMES to speak an incisive 'word in season', and, dare I say it, SOMETIMES to be categorically confrontational. But this must ALWAYS stem from 'knowing God' and his direction. The responsibility for this lies with us.