Concerning Evangelism..

Last year, I despised Christians who tried to impress their beliefs upon the hearts of unbelievers. I even said, among people who were not Christians, "I love Christ, but not other Christians."

I've come a long way regarding Evangelism. I think up until a year ago, I didn't even recognize WHY Christians were trying to convert people. At the end of Matthew, Jesus says;

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I'm not even sure I knew Jesus said that. I thought that my 'evangelism' was to live a righteous life, and expect other people to see my lifestyle, and wonder what was 'different' about me, causing them to approach me, and I would lead them off to church and everything would end peachy.

Well it's true that as Christians, our lifestyles should reflect that of Jesus and we should be a light unto the world. But I was expecting unbelievers to come to me, which is the opposite of what Jesus commanded of me. So I was having some focus issues.

After I figured out that my beliefs were nothing that needed to be hidden, sometimes I got a bit militant about my faith. I would try to argue people into the kingdom, so to speak. I would try to prove them wrong, and when they would see the flaws in their theories, of course I could convert them. Well that's all well and good, but it doesn't happen like that. Scaring people with hellfire and damnation isn't a technique that Jesus ever endorsed, as far as I am aware. Jesus spoke a lot in parables, and to this day I find it the most successful way to talk to unbelievers about Christianity. He made people think. He got right down to their hurts, and their hearts. That means he cared about them. He wasn't trying to convert them to his list of beliefs, he was caring for them, and that led people to him.

Tonight a co-worker who is a Christian tried to tell another co-worker that God created the whole world. Now I believe that, and firmly agree. But co-worker #2 believes in reincarnation. The argument didn't exactly go anywhere productive. The Christian said that she was right, and the girl who believed in reincarnation disagreed firmly and got upset that her beliefs were being questioned.

Evangelism can't be something that we try to force down peoples throats. If I've learned one thing from reading the Bible, God is a personal being. He didn't tell Jesus to hand out gospel tracts. Jesus drank with the sinners, touched the unclean, and walked side by side with disciples who were more or less the leftover bunch.

As Christians, it's easy to get fed up with people who don't want to listen to us. But maybe the problem is we are doing way too much talking. And maybe in addition to that, we're giving people way too much information.

Instead, I think we need to listen more. If we truly care about the souls of the people that we are talking with about faith, then we need to make them feel God's presence and our love. The girl who believed in reincarnation couldn't even wrap her head around the idea that God always was, always is, and always will be. She asked "Well then who created this God? Is he an alien or something?" It's not her fault that she doesn't know anything about God, it's a completely foreign concept to her. That means we need to not only accurately tell people about God, but we need to accurately portray God. We need to give people an image of what we believe in.

So instead of trying to tell her she's going to hell, and instead of asking her "Then how did we get here in this world?", and questions like that, I presented this to her;

"Let's start all over. Now you don't believe in God. Let's just say that there IS a God, who DID indeed create the world and everything in it, and always existed in such a way that we humans could not comprehend..would that make Him an awesome God?"

Instead of saying that He definitely did, and thus making her feel defensive about her own beliefs, I asked her that if, theoretically, God DOES exist, and went onto create the entire universe, and always was, is, and will be, would that make Him an amazing, awesome God that we humans couldn't even begin to wrap our minds around?

Her answer? "Yes."

Let's not try to overfeed unbelievers. Now maybe I'm wrong at some points here, and maybe some points need further developed, but I think it was a good way of getting the foot in the door, without being too invasive. Jesus had this crazy way of knowing our inner most desires and insecurities and needs. I don't have that gift, and so I tried a different approach. And she responded that if those things about a being were true, then yes, that being would be amazing and awesome.

Maybe the next step is asking her why she believes in reincarnation, and then maybe after that, trying to parallel reincarnation with how Christians believe in a form of reincarnation, but instead of going into another earthly being, we become new creations in Christ, and when we die we spend eternity with our creator. I don't need to get there all at once. I just need to plant a seed, water it, and pray sincerely for these people, and more opportunities to arise.

We need to be careful with how we approach some unbelievers. Some of them might base all of Christianity off of the pastors who have stolen money, molested kids, and engaged in fraudulent behavior. Some of these people may only hear from one sincere Christlike person in their whole lives, before they make their judgment about our faith.