Thursday, May 30, 2013

Can evangelism be taught?

Here is a line from a previous post found here that I thought warranted further comment.

Witness has changed from relationship to salesmanship.

What are we drawing people to, Jesus or something else?

Should people even need to take evangelism classes? If we need to be taught to share what we already have, do we really have it? Sure, we need to be solid in the foundations of our faith. But that is what the church should be preaching about every week.

What is evangelism? Sharing Jesus. Why do we do it? Because we love Him. How do we do it? It should be the overflow of a heart that loves Him. It is not about just getting people to come to church, nor is it about numbers or our success. It is not about winning an argument or having the most logical thought process. It should be a natural, a result of the faith that dwells in our heart.

But what do we see? We see smiling, soft-spoken people with huge churches, mega-book deals, and fat wallets. Kinda blows that narrow road thing out of the water, doesn't it? Many times we see such leaders fall, because it never really was about Jesus now, was it?

If we really want to solve some of the issues that plague the church, perhaps a return to relationship is in order. Perhaps a commitment is what is needed, and not a commercial.

If we look at Jesus, He was not the best salesman. He allowed the Rich Young Ruler to walk away. And isn't that the kind of person that most preachers or parishioners would not want to lose. Many times Jesus let people walk away. That is because he was not trying to sell them something. He offered to give them something that some wanted nothing to do with. And when that happened, he did not try to box them in with logic, or beat them over the head with morality. He simply let them walk away and continued to look for those who were broken or open to his message.

I don't think I've ever seen an evangelism class like that, have you?

2 comments:

kc bob said...

You might like:

Speaking of Jesus
The Art of Not Evangelism
by Carl Medearis

I just finished reading it and found it to be a refreshing look at how we share Jesus.

Don G said...

Thanks. I will check it out.