Say It, Even if You Have to Spray It

Let’s be honest…

evangelism weirds most Christians out.

We fear doing “bad evangelism” to the point that we do the worst kind of evangelism… we say nothing.

We’re afraid of becoming a stereotype.

Perhaps that’s why I was so inspired by a street preacher I recently encountered while driving by his spot on a local corner.

He started yelling at my car.

I knew I had to talk with this guy… not to put him in his place, but to let him put me into mine. Over the past few years I’ve become aware of how I’m weak in this area of my spiritual journey and can’t keep making excuses about it.

After parking my car, I casually strolled up to this passionate young man on the corner. “Hi there,” I began, “what’s your message?”

“I’m here trying to tell people about the hope of Jesus Christ,” he offered. “Are you saved?”

“I am.” I wondered what his follow-up would be.

“When did you get saved?” he asked.

“That’s a good question,” I pondered, considering a whole myriad of thoughts I once had on the subject. “Probably when I was around 16-years old.”

“I became a Christian when I was real young,” he explained. “Now I’m here because I believe God wants to use me to save other people who are far from Him and are destined to spend an eternity without him. I see all these cars passing by, and I hope today they’ll pray to receive Jesus. That won’t happen unless someone tells them about Him.”

Now… let’s pause for a moment.

I’m going to guess you have an opinion about this young man and his method of evangelism.

Lots of Christians do. In fact, I once came across a “Street Preacher Survival Guide” that theStory Church in Canada came up with and handed out in its neighborhood.

It’s clever, because “we all know” this isn’t how you’re supposed to share your faith. According to my own observations, the most preferred method of evangelism for Christians involves certain components:

• Slow-motion: We’re really not in a rush to see anything happen today.
• Relationships: We’re big on proving how relatable we are.
• Critical: We’re apt to comment on any other Christians who are more aggressive with evangelism than we are.
• Validation: We’re masters at finding other Christians who will agree with and affirm our style.

My new street-preaching friend Tim explained that a woman came up to him two weeks ago and criticized him for his method. She told him, “I love your heart, but you’re going about this the wrong way.”

I asked him how many people he’d felt he had a spiritual breakthrough with.

Tim explained that he’d led eight people to Jesus over the past few months. One was a teenager.

Eight.

How many people has the average Christian led to the Lord over the past few months?

How many people have you led to the Lord over the past few months?

Before I left, I asked Tim if he had a message for the Church.

He did.

There are some tremendous resources out there that will help you share your faith. By all means, use them. Share them with your students. Go change the world.

We do, after all, have an opportunity right now to join God in a revolutionary movement. You and I are called to “do the work of an evangelist,” whether or not it’s our spiritual gift.

What does and doesn’t that mean for you?

“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:27-28)